Shinji Higuchi

The tokusatsu filmmaker who directed the 2015 two-part live-action Attack on Titan films.

Shinji Higuchi is a Japanese filmmaker known for his tokusatsu blockbusters and considered one of Japan's leading filmmakers of the 21st century. His 2015 two-part live-action film adaptation of Hajime Isayama's manga Attack on Titan won the Excellence in Theatrical Live Action Film award at the 2016 VFX-JAPAN Awards.

Quick Facts

Born

22 September 1965

Birthplace

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Film director
special effects director
screenwriter
storyboard artist

Years active

1984–present

Facts from the source article.

Background

Higuchi first became known for his work on Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, which won him the Special Technology Award at the 19th Japan Academy Film Prize. He made his feature directorial debut in 2005 with Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean, and his second feature, Sinking of Japan (2006), placed second at the Bunshun Kiichigo Awards. In 2017 he and Hideaki Anno won Director of the Year at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize for the 2016 kaiju film Shin Godzilla, and his 2022 film Shin Ultraman was a major success in Japan with generally positive reviews abroad.

Born on September 22, 1965, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Higuchi was inspired as a junior high school student when his aunt, who worked on commercials at Toho Studios, took him on a tour and he watched the special effects crew at work. He entered the film industry in 1984 as an assistant modeler on The Return of Godzilla and two years later directed the special effects for Daicon's tokusatsu fan film Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushū.

As a key Daicon/Gainax member he was a writer and art director/storyboarder on Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) and the namesake of its protagonist Shinji Ikari. His directing debut came in 1992 with the disaster film The Day the Sun Fissured: The Great Tokyo Earthquake, produced for the Tokyo Fire Department.