Iso, Mitsuo

Mitsuo Iso (磯 光雄 Iso Mitsuo, born 1966 in Aichi, Japan) is a Japanese animation animator, director, and screenwriter.

His work mainly includes key animation starting in the late 1980s. Iso is known for his offbeat key animation in the prologue of Gundam 0080, large portions of Asuka's battle in The End of Evangelion and the first half of Ghost in the Shell's tank battle. He also did some design work and worked on visual effects for Blood: The Last Vampire and RahXephon. Iso has co-written an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion ("Liliputian Hitcher") and wrote, directed, and largely animated the RahXephon episode "The Children's Night". He also worked as an key animator on FLCL, Memories and Only Yesterday. He wrote and directed the 2007 TV series Dennou Coil.

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."

Twitter: Mitsuo Iso