Atsuko Ishizuka

Atsuko Ishizuka

Birth : 1981-09-03, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan

History

During her education at art school, Ishizuka made a number of short animated films for her own enjoyment, often set to music. One of these films, Gravitation, which was later featured at the 2005 Tehran International Short Film Festival, caught the attention of both the Japanese broadcasting giant NHK and Madhouse. NHK quickly contacted Atsuko with an offer to have her animate a music video segment for the popular and long running short film program Minna no Uta (Everyone's Songs), which was designed to highlight upcoming independent animators and musicians. However, by this time Ishizuka had already been hired by Madhouse as a production assistant, and feeling that it would not be right to accept freelance work outside of the studio, she turned them down. However, the Minna no Uta staff was unwilling to give up, and they requested that Madhouse take on the music video project with Ishizuka as director. The studio agreed, and in 2004, Atsuko rose through the ranks for her first professional film, The Moon Waltz.

Profile

Atsuko Ishizuka
Atsuko Ishizuka

Movies

Goodbye, Don Glees!
Second Unit Director
Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life.
Goodbye, Don Glees!
Storyboard Artist
Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life.
Goodbye, Don Glees!
Screenplay
Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life.
Goodbye, Don Glees!
Director
Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life.
No Game No Life: Zero
Director
In ancient Disboard, Riku is an angry, young warrior intent on saving humanity from the warring Exceed, the sixteen sentient species, fighting to establish the "One True God" amongst the Old Deus. In a lawless land, humanity's lack of magic and weak bodies have made them easy targets, leaving them on the brink of extinction. One day, hope returns to humanity when Riku finds a powerful female Ex-machina, whom he names Schwi. Exiled from her Cluster because of her research into human emotions, Schwi is convinced that humanity has only survived due to the power of these feelings. Forming an unlikely partnership in the midst of the overwhelming chaos, Riku and Schwi must now find the answers to their individual shortcomings in each other, and discover for themselves what it truly means to be human as they fight for their lives against all odds. Each with a powerful new ally in tow, it is now up to them to prevent the extinction of the human race and establish peace throughout Disboard!
The Piano Forest
Assistant Director
Amamiya Shu transfers to Moriwaki elementary filled with hope and ambition. But it doesn't take long before he gets picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the forest.
Gravitation
Animation
Gravitation
Director
The Moon Waltz
Director
In a dark alley with only one street lamp, a red-eyed young girl is admiring a music box. When the music starts, the imaginary (or not?) adventure of our protagonist begins, who will tour dark caves and starry skies, first running and later flying, to finally reach the Palace of the Moon (named Chandra Mahal in the song), where time flows in a different way...First "professional" animation work by Atsuko Ishizuka of MADHOUSE.