Director of Photography
Taro Kawazu
Kawazu was born in Tokyo in 1969. He has served as the cinematographer for many works, including films, commercials and music videos. He was honored with Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography and Best Cinematography at the 43rd Japan Academy Awards in 2020. His major works include the films Love Song (2001), The Neighbor No. Thirteen (’04), Sinking of Japan (’06), and Last Winter, We Parted (’18). He teamed up with director Shinsuke Sato for many titles, including the GANTZ series (’10, ’11), the Library Wars series (’13, ’15), All-Round Appraiser Q: The Eyes of Mona Lisa (’14), I Am A Hero (’15), Inuyashiki (’18), BLEACH (’18), and Kingdom (’19).
Production Designer
Iwao Saito
Born in 1958, Saito studied under Takeo Kimura, and work with him on the art design of the film Dogura Magura (1987). Beginning in 1996, he was dispatched by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs as an overseas research artist, and traveled around Europe and the U.S. for one year. His major works include Muno no Hito (’91), Shimanto River (’91), the Ring series (’98, ’99), Warabi No Ko (2003), Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish (’03), The Grudge (’04), and The Grudge 2 (’06). He collaborated with director Shinsuke Sato on films such as the Library Wars series (’13, ’15), I Am A Hero (’15), Inuyashiki (18), and Kingdom (’19).
Born in 1976, Watabe is the Representative Director and President of Made in Heaven Inc., which he established in 2017. In 1999, he joined Enix (currently Square Enix). As a game developer, he was involved in the Dragon Quest series and smartphone games. In 2011, he joined DeNA. After serving as President of DeNA Osaka, in 2013 he became an executive officer in charge of game business at that company. He also screenwrote Okuotoko (2018).
Born in 1983, Kuramitsu studied screenwriting at the Graduate School of Film and Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts. After graduating, she wrote scenarios for mobile games, while working at video production and distribution companies. In 2014, she won the Fuji TV Young Scenario Award and made her television debut writing for the serialized drama Love Song (2016). Since then, she has worked in a variety of genres, from love stories to medical dramas, including Detective Yugami (’17), Queen (’19), and Alive: Dr. Kokoro, the Medical Oncologist (’20).
Sound Recordist
Kazushiko Yokono
Yokono has supervised audio for many of director Shinsuke Sato's films, including the GANTZ series (2010, ’11), the Library Wars series (’13, ’15), All-Round Appraiser Q: The Eyes of Mona Lisa (’14), I Am A Hero (’15), Death Note: Light Up The New World (’16), Inuyashiki (’18), and Kingdom (’19). In addition, he worked on GO! (’01), the NANA series (’05, ’06), Ikigami (’08), and Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (’11).
Born in 1989, Yamada debuted as a music composer for the soundtrack of the drama Marumo's Story. He then expanded his scope to include films and anime series. His original soundtrack for the TV anime series Tokyo Ghoul was viewed over 70 million times on YouTube. He gained global attention when Eminem sampled one of those songs. He works on a wide range of projects, including both overseas productions and Japanese films such as Kingdom (2019) and the anime GREAT PRETENDER.
VFX Supervisor
Makoto Kamiya
Born in 1965, Kamiya debuted as a special effects director for the film Whiteout (2000). He did special effects for Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (’01), and directed the fully CG-animated Resident Evil: Degeneration (’06). Since beginning work with director Shinsuke Sato on GANTZ (’11), he has been special effects director and visual effects supervisor for most of Sato’s films. Kamiya’s many other works include Bokoku no Aegis (’05), L change the WorLd (’08), Resident Evil: Damnation (’12), and The Human Trust (’13).
VFX Supervisor
Atsushi Doi
Born in 1973, Doi is the Director of Digital Frontier Inc. He has been active as a visual effects supervisor and CG director. He received an award for Best Special Effects at the 51st SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, for his work in Inuyashiki (2018), a film directed by Shinsuke Sato. He collaborated with Sato on many other productions, including BLEACH (’18), Death Note: Light up the NEW world (’18), and I Am A Hero (’16). He also worked on Resident Evil: Damnation (’12), and The Sun (’16).
Line Producer
Tomoki Takase
Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1979. Being evolved in movie production since 2003, he is an experienced line producer with over 15 years of experience producing number of popular and sensational movies such as: - “20th Century Boys” series (2007-2008), directed by Yukihiko TSUTSUMI, made 11 billion yen at the box-office. - “LIBRARY WARS” series (2013, 2015), directed by Shinsuke SATO. Total box office revenues from the series were 3.5 billion yen. - “Museum” (2015), directed by Keishi ŌTOMO, became a smash hit with box-office profits of 1.5 billion yen. - “Stolen Identity” (2018), directed by Hideo NAKATA, made more than 1.9 billion yen at the box-office and became a smash hit.
Movie Producer
Akira Morii
Born in Nagano Prefecture, 1973. Ever since engaging in movie making in 1995, director Hirokazu KOREEDA’s movie “Maborosi”, he have built his solid career through producing multiple popular movies such as “Kids Return” (1996), directed by Takeshi KITANO. He joined ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS in 2009, and has been producing number of movies and TV dramas including: - “Umizaru4：Brave Hearts” (2012), directed by Eiichiro HASUMI, became the year’s highest-grossing movie with box-office profits of 7.3 billion yen. - “MOZU”, TV drama series jointly created by TBS and WOWOW, was nominated for the Drama Series Awards at the 43rd International Emmy Awards, and gained popularity worldwide. “Alice in Borderland” is the work he submitted a project proposal when Netflix opened a branch in Japan.
