Sunao Katabuchi

Career

After graduating, Katabuchi took a job at Telecom Animation Film. That same year, Hayao Miyazaki asked him to contribute as a scriptwriter for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, but he turned it down for several reasons. He made multiple trips to the U.S. for Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a joint Japan-U.S. project from Telecom, but grew tired of the production being steered off course by the American side and decided to quit. From there, he moved to Mushi Production. In 1989, Mushi Production loaned him to Studio Ghibli, where he served as an assistant director under Hayao Miyazaki on Kiki's Delivery Service. Katabuchi had been in line to direct that film, but when the sponsor made it clear they would only fund a movie directed by Miyazaki, he stepped down. He joined Studio 4°C in 1992. Around this time, Ghibli was shifting from hiring freelancers for each project to building a permanent staff and bringing in new employees, so Katabuchi was asked to train their new directors and animators. Once his work there was done, Ghibli wanted him to stay, but he said no. His first directing job came in 1996 with the Nippon Animation TV series Famous Dog Lassie. He made his feature film directorial debut with Princess Arete, which he started in 1998 after returning to Studio 4°C. Released in 2001, it won Excellent Works of the Year in the Domestic Feature Film Category at the 2002 Tokyo International Anime Fair. Following Princess Arete, Katabuchi shifted his main work to Madhouse. Starting in 2006, he directed, composed, and wrote the screenplay for the Black Lagoon series. In 2016, he directed In This Corner of the World, produced by MAPPA. It came out in Japan on November 12, 2016, with plans for release in fifteen countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, and the US.