Ohira, Shinya

Birthplace: Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Shinya Ohira is one of the most talented and recognized animators in the world of anime. His animation style includes using exaggerating motion, manipulating gravity and balance with the use of different perspective shots, lots of rapid camera movement, and unconventional angles. With his boldly distorted and vigorous drawing style, his cuts are unique and instantly recognizable.

He has worked as an animator for over thirty years. His early work in the 1980s mainly consisted of action and effects cuts. He bounced around several studios (including Sunrise, Madhouse, and Pierrot).

His early cuts include Gal Force 2: Destruction (1987), for which he animated a laser beam with a distinctly loose and vivid sense of movement. With its smooth animation and wavy motion pattern, the cut has a lively fluidity to it that can be seen as the first step toward Ohira's current distinctive visuality.

He used the same approach on his smoke effects for Akira (1988) and a flood for Angel Cop (1989). His style truly came to fruition when he started applying this to solid objects, especially people. The earliest such case is his cut in episode 10 of The Hakkenden (1994).

Other titles that display his animation skills to the fullest are titles like Junkers Come Here (1994), FLCL (2000), "Kid's Story" in The Animatrix (2003), Fuujin Monogatari (2003), Mind Game (2004), "Wanwa" in Genius Party Beyond (2008), Redline (2009), Momo e no Tegami (2011), Ping Pong: The Animation's OP sequence (2014), Space Dandy (2014), and Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017).

– The Ohira "wobble," perhaps his most distinct trademark: the animated objects expand and compress in a wobbling manner.