Mitsuo Iso

Iso has worked on Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) and Gundam ZZ (1986) since 1985 as a key animator and in-betweener.[7] This led him to secretly work in the 1988 film Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack under the pseudonym Mikio Odagawa without telling Zaendo, where he was at the time.[7] He was then asked by Sunrise, an animation studio, to mediate a job request to the company, and worked under his real name as a job through the company.[7] Sunrise also hired him as an animation director, so he worked under that pseudonym.[7]

The battle scene at the beginning of the 1989 OVA Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket made a strong impression on the anime industry and anime fans about Iso.[8] In this work, an explosion effect called "Iso Explosion" is noticeable.[8]

He drew key animations for the TV series of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) such as the urban battle between Sachiel and the UN forces in episode 1 and the scene where EVA Unit 01 preys on Zeruel in episode 19, co-wrote episode 13 (Lilliput Hitcher), designed Lilith, and came up with ideas for the setting for the entire series.[lower-alpha 1] Other than that, also many dialogues and storylines created by Iso were used in the middle part of the TV series.[9][10][11]

In Ghost in the Shell (1995), he not only drew the key animations, but also designed all the firearms.[1]

In Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), he worked in various capacities, including key animations, some design work, and digital works.[1] He also did cinematography and special effects for his own key animations parts.[3] Production I.G's introduction of computers in their studios made it possible for the key animators to add special effects to their key animations, which had previously been assigned to the cinematographer.[8]

In Rahxephon (2002), he began working in the Digital Works and cinematographer positions throughout this television series, using special effects and CG to modify drawings and art. In episode 15 (The Children's Night), he wrote the script, storyboarded, and directed the entire episode.[lower-alpha 2] This was the first time he had worked on storyboarding and directing.[1][3]

In the animation part of the live-action film Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), he drew the key animation.[1]

In 2007, he directed his first animated television series, Dennō Coil. He also wrote the original and the script for all episodes. With this work, he won the Nihon SF Taisho Award and the Seiun Award as a science fiction writer.[3][4][12]

In 2016, it was announced he would be involved in the French-Japanese animated feature film Les Pirates de la Réunion (レユニオンの海賊とドードー鳥, Re-Yunion no Kaizoku to DōDō-dori).[13] However, there has been no further news about it since then.

He gave a presentation introducing his original animation project The Orbital Children on a magazine in late 2016 and announced its production in 2018. He began full-scale production of the film in 2020.[14]

His thoroughgoing drawing style is highly supported not only by anime fans but also by animators in the same industry.[15][16][17] He was one of the animators who played a central role in the movement from the late 1980s to the 1990s, when "realistic" oriented expressions matured in Japanese animation drawing, by creating animation drawings that were described as "realistic", such as depictions of characters and mechanics that made us feel weight and mass, and effects such as explosions and smoke flames.[8][18]

Every time he makes a new work, he takes on a new role other than animator, such as screenplay for Evangelion, cinematographer for Blood: The Last Vampire, and direction for Rahxephon, new techniques such as digital animation, computer graphics, and special effects, new drawing tools and software to create his own images and pioneer new forms of animation expression.[19] The reason why he went beyond the boundaries of his section to work on cinematography is because animators can only leave the rest to the post-process once they have finished drawing with black and white lines, but if they work on cinematography, they can complete the scene by themselves.[20]

Mitsuo Iso is known for his jerky yet detailed animation, full of dense sophisticated motion. He refers to his own style as "full limited". In traditional animation, animation with a drawing count below one drawing every two frames (or "on twos") is considered limited animation. Mixing twos, threes and fours in a balanced form of timing, Iso draws every keyframe without passing his work to an in-betweener, allowing him full control to create the most detailed motion possible with a balanced and efficient number of drawings, hence the term "full limited".[2][21] Iso's idea of "full limited" is a method for controlling the image from the animator's standpoint, and he has the calculation that if he draws everything in key animation, the timesheets will not be modified by the director.[20]

When he participates in anime works as an animator, he often uses aliases or does not give his name.

• The Excellence Award in the Animation Division of the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival
• The 29th Nihon SF Taisho Award (2008)
• The Best Dramatic Presentation of the 39th Seiun Award (2008)
• The Best TV Animation Award of the 7th Tokyo Anime Award (2008)
• Individual Award at the 13th Animation Kobe (2008)

• Iso Mitsuo at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Mitsuo Iso interview concerning RahXephon #15
• Anipages Mitsuo Iso overview
• http://www18.atwiki.jp/sakuga/pages/52.html
• http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~iso-000/index.html