Keiichirou Kimura

木村圭一郎

Legendary sakuga animator critical to the development of Japanese TV animation. No less than Yoshinori Kanada and Masaaki Yuasa have cited him as an influence. Didn’t fit the nerdy animator stereotype in his youth. Growing up Kimura was known as a tough guy, bulky and confrontational. However, he loved painting as a hobby and when he couldn’t get into his art college of choice he joined Toei as an animator. Mentored by Yasuo Otsuka. Even in his earliest drawings, Kimura was extremely idiosyncratic: his lineart was rough and sketchy, but at the same time he paid more attention to human…