Koji Morimoto

Koji Morimoto

Birth : 1959-12-26, Wakayama, Japan

History

Koji Morimoto is a Japanese anime director. Some of his works include being an animator in the Akira film; shorts in Robot Carnival, Short Peace, and The Animatrix; and key animation in anime such as Kiki's Delivery Service, City Hunter, and Fist of the North Star. He is the co-founder of Studio 4°C.

Profile

Koji Morimoto

Movies

CONNECTED...
Director
A collaboration of Mamoru Oshii, Koji Morimoto, and KENWOOD. This short animation is inspired by "Smart Headsets" (earphones with AI assistant) that depicts future life with a unique interpretation, set in a fictitious city where devices have become commonplace.
Sturgill Simpson Presents Sound & Fury
Director
In this anime visual album, a mysterious driver heads deep into a postapocalyptic hellscape toward a ferocious showdown with two monstrous opponents.
Attraction
Key Animation
Attraction is a revolutionary interactive anime film by Koji Morimoto of Tokyo-based production studio 4°C and was requested by INPES (Institut national de prévention et d'éducation) to discourage first-time smokers.
Attraction
Director
Attraction is a revolutionary interactive anime film by Koji Morimoto of Tokyo-based production studio 4°C and was requested by INPES (Institut national de prévention et d'éducation) to discourage first-time smokers.
Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind
Director
After the fall of Shadaloo, things went quiet and everyone continued with their daily routine. However a new evil is lurking on the horizon and the fighters that battled against Shadaloo must take up arms once again. Meanwhile a mysterious detective, whose motives are unknown, is going to any extent to find the lonesome wanderer Ryu, who appears to play a big part in the scheme of this new evil.
Genius Party Beyond
Animation Director
Five stories, five maestros, five styles and one common denominator: maximum creativity. Studio 4°C, the coolest label on the planet, invites us for the second time to an exclusive reunion of a talents with a group film, full of freedom and ingenuity, that goes from Mahiro Maeda's classic anime, to Kazuto Nakazawa's intricate urban sketches, Shinya Ohira's bedlam of color and Tatsuyuki Tanaka's animated cyberpunk. And as if that wasn't enough, Koji Morimoto, the studio big boss, is charge of putting the icing on the cake with fantafabulous piece of abstract poetry that would make a VJ die of ecstasy. The party of the year.
Genius Party Beyond
Character Designer
Five stories, five maestros, five styles and one common denominator: maximum creativity. Studio 4°C, the coolest label on the planet, invites us for the second time to an exclusive reunion of a talents with a group film, full of freedom and ingenuity, that goes from Mahiro Maeda's classic anime, to Kazuto Nakazawa's intricate urban sketches, Shinya Ohira's bedlam of color and Tatsuyuki Tanaka's animated cyberpunk. And as if that wasn't enough, Koji Morimoto, the studio big boss, is charge of putting the icing on the cake with fantafabulous piece of abstract poetry that would make a VJ die of ecstasy. The party of the year.
Genius Party Beyond
Director
Five stories, five maestros, five styles and one common denominator: maximum creativity. Studio 4°C, the coolest label on the planet, invites us for the second time to an exclusive reunion of a talents with a group film, full of freedom and ingenuity, that goes from Mahiro Maeda's classic anime, to Kazuto Nakazawa's intricate urban sketches, Shinya Ohira's bedlam of color and Tatsuyuki Tanaka's animated cyberpunk. And as if that wasn't enough, Koji Morimoto, the studio big boss, is charge of putting the icing on the cake with fantafabulous piece of abstract poetry that would make a VJ die of ecstasy. The party of the year.
Tekkonkinkreet
Storyboard Artist
Two penniless orphans, Black and White, struggle to survive on the mean streets of Treasure Town. When a megacorporation threatens to tear down the town to build an amusement park, Black and White engage in the fight of their life.
FLUXIMATION
Director
A compilation of 14 short videos made by Studio 4°C’s directors and artists.
Mind Game
Animation Director
The film follows Nishi, a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia, the film follows Nishi as he journeys to heaven and back, and ends up trapped in an even more unlikely place.
Memories of Memories
Self
Memories (1995) making-of featurette, includes introductions to the creative genius behind the shows and looks at Otomo’s previous works, such as Akira. It also includes snippets from interviews with Otomo, Koji Morimoto, and Tensai Okamura.
Beyond
Character Designer
While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.
Beyond
Writer
While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.
Beyond
Director
While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.
The Animatrix
Writer
Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.
The Animatrix
Director
Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.
Comedy
Animation
During Ireland's War of Independence, a five-year-old girl sets out to save her village from the English army by trying to enlist the help of the rumored Black Swordsman, who only takes books of a certain genre as payment.
Digital Juice
Director
A series of short animations that show different worlds and different characters. These episodes are designed to take the viewer into a psychological world of fantasy and mystery.
Dimensional Loop
Director
The story of an apparitious extraterrestrial and a vertically mobile prepubescent.
Tekkonkinkreet Pilot
Director
Softimage's Michael Arias started the project as a short CG exercise, which then came to the attention of Morimoto, who then agreed to work on the project on the Softimage 3D software. A few months later, Visual Director Wilson Tang and Animation Supervisor Lee Fulton introduced a pilot to the Softimage staff, made entirely on computer with a staff of only 12. The pilot won the Excellence Award at the 3rd Japan Media Arts Festival in the Digital Art Division.
Spriggan
Key Animation
An elite superhuman agent must stop a foreign military unit from seizing control of an ancient artifact that holds the key to ultimate power.
Hustle!! Tokitama-kun
Character Designer
Director's description: "I want to show you a world that you have never seen." I think this is something that all computer graphics producers strive for. What to create?! How do you create it with computer graphics? The skill of drawing does not change that much when performed on a computer instead of paper. This work is a mixture of traditional cel-based animation, 3-D animation and 2-D computer graphics techniques, each with its own history and production standards. My theme for this production was "The Transformation of Time and Space." I used ToonShader and hand drawn animation to achieve the desired effect. I think that I have succeeded in creating a world that you have never seen.
Hustle!! Tokitama-kun
Director
Director's description: "I want to show you a world that you have never seen." I think this is something that all computer graphics producers strive for. What to create?! How do you create it with computer graphics? The skill of drawing does not change that much when performed on a computer instead of paper. This work is a mixture of traditional cel-based animation, 3-D animation and 2-D computer graphics techniques, each with its own history and production standards. My theme for this production was "The Transformation of Time and Space." I used ToonShader and hand drawn animation to achieve the desired effect. I think that I have succeeded in creating a world that you have never seen.
Noiseman Sound Insect
Animation Supervisor
The film is set in the distant future in a city called Cahmpon. A scientist creates a synthetic life-form called Noiseman, which erases music from the airwaves by turning it into crystals. A group of Biker street kids rebels against this tyranny.
Noiseman Sound Insect
Character Designer
The film is set in the distant future in a city called Cahmpon. A scientist creates a synthetic life-form called Noiseman, which erases music from the airwaves by turning it into crystals. A group of Biker street kids rebels against this tyranny.
Noiseman Sound Insect
Director
The film is set in the distant future in a city called Cahmpon. A scientist creates a synthetic life-form called Noiseman, which erases music from the airwaves by turning it into crystals. A group of Biker street kids rebels against this tyranny.
Eternal Family
Screenplay
Six men and women who are completely underground to one another have been given false memories and are living together as a family in a capsule hall. They know nothing about the outside world, and that they are broadcasted as a real-life soap opera in the imaginary community of Champon City.
Eternal Family
Character Designer
Six men and women who are completely underground to one another have been given false memories and are living together as a family in a capsule hall. They know nothing about the outside world, and that they are broadcasted as a real-life soap opera in the imaginary community of Champon City.
Eternal Family
Director
Six men and women who are completely underground to one another have been given false memories and are living together as a family in a capsule hall. They know nothing about the outside world, and that they are broadcasted as a real-life soap opera in the imaginary community of Champon City.
Extra
Character Designer
Originally a music video for the song Extra by Ken Ishii, but it was later adapted into a 20 minute OVA. Depicts an extremely violent future world where humans and robot-aliens brutally kill each other.
Extra
Director
Originally a music video for the song Extra by Ken Ishii, but it was later adapted into a 20 minute OVA. Depicts an extremely violent future world where humans and robot-aliens brutally kill each other.
Magnetic Rose
Director
"Magnetic Rose" is about what happens when a deep space corporate freighter is called upon to investigate a distress signal from what ought to be a derelict space station. The space station is run by the deranged AI imprint of a lovelorn, jaded opera diva, who controls the station's functions, including its life support systems and (to more dramatic effect) its VR holography and supporting nano-technical systems.
Memories
Director
In this anime anthology, a salvage ship crew happens upon a haunted vessel in "Magnetic Rose"; a cold tablet turns a lab worker into a biological weapon in "Stink Bomb"; and an urban populace carries on an endless war with an unseen foe in "Cannon Fodder."
Open the Door
Animation Director
It's bedtime and Nonoko is about to go to sleep. But the play of light and shadow on those objects on the wall, look almost like - a person.
Open the Door
Writer
It's bedtime and Nonoko is about to go to sleep. But the play of light and shadow on those objects on the wall, look almost like - a person.
Open the Door
Director
It's bedtime and Nonoko is about to go to sleep. But the play of light and shadow on those objects on the wall, look almost like - a person.
Kawaguchi Kaiji's 9 Love Stories
Director
An OVA based on the work of Kawaguchi Kaiji consisting of nine independent stories, each animated by a different director. With Beatles music involved, somewhere.
Roujin Z
Key Animation
Mr. Takazawa, an elderly invalid who is cared for at his home by Haruko, a young nursing student, is chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare to test the Z-001, a computerized hospital bed with robotic features that allegedly displays more efficiency and skills than any human nurse, but Haruko mistrusts a machine unable to consider human feelings.
Fly! Peek the Whale
Writer
As a little boy Kei saw his fisherman father lost at sea only seconds after catching his parting gift of a pan flute carved from whalebone. A few years later young Kei and his kid brother Moito discover a baby whale trapped by a rock in a shallow inlet near the Spanish coast.
Fly! Peek the Whale
Director
As a little boy Kei saw his fisherman father lost at sea only seconds after catching his parting gift of a pan flute carved from whalebone. A few years later young Kei and his kid brother Moito discover a baby whale trapped by a rock in a shallow inlet near the Spanish coast.
Kiki's Delivery Service
Key Animation
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Director
A little-known adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," directed by Koji Morimoto and produced at Studio 4°C in 1989 for the collection "Anime Video Art Collection," a series of animated shorts based on stories for children. Released only on VHS.
Robot Carnival
Writer
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.
Robot Carnival
Character Designer
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.
Robot Carnival
Director
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.
Robot Carnival
Animation
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.
Dirty Pair: Project Eden
Opening Title Sequence
Sent to the planet Agerna to investigate a feud between two opposing factions, Kei and Yuri must find out why strange creatures are attacking vezorium test plants.
The Phoenix: Karma Chapter
Key Animation
The story of two men - sculptor genius Akanemaru, and former bandit Gao. Discover how the lives of the two men cross repeatedly throughout their lives, how they struggle with their own fate, and how they are forced to compete with each other for a great honour, when karma is the only prize.
Bobby's Girl
Key Animation
Bobby is an underachieving high school kid with a deep love for motorcycles. His most recent achievement seems to have been getting photos of himself on a road trip printed in a motorcyclist hobby magazine. When he gets a letter from a girl his age, he decides to write her back.
The Dagger of Kamui
Key Animation
A young boy named Jiro finds his mother and sister murdered in his home. Falsely accused of the crime, he flees from his village and meets a priest named Tenkai, who has him kill a rogue ninja named Tarouza. After fulfilling that task, Jiro undergoes training to become a master assassin. Many years later, Jiro finds out that he was an orphan and his real father was Tarouza, who had worked for Tenkai until he aborted his mission when he fell in love with an Ainu woman. The young ninja discovers that the Shogunate was to retrieve the lost treasure of Captain Kidd and use it to once again isolate Japan from the rest of the world. Using the clues that Tarouza had kept secret, Jiro - along with the female ninja Oyuki and a slave named Sam - travels to Russia and America to search for the treasure in hopes of using it to extract revenge from Tenkai.
Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Key Animation
It is A.D. 2009 and the human race is caught in a war between giant humanoids, male Zentrans and female Meltrans. Returning from the edge of our solar system after making a space fold, the SDF-1 Macross makes the long journey back to Earth with survivors of South Ataria Island. "Macross: Do You Remember Love?" is an alternate re-telling of the events that occurred in the original 1982 TV series.
Golgo 13: The Professional
Key Animation
Indestructible to his enemies and irresistible to women, the professional assassin codenamed Golgo 13 is shrouded in mystery and anonymity. If you're on his hit list, you're already dead. Always hired on his reputation alone, Golgo never breaks a contract. Can he survive the combined forces of the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon and the U.S. Army? Has the nameless agent finally met his match against the superhuman powers of the Snake and the twin evils of the psychopathic mercenaries, Gold and Silver?
Harmagedon
Key Animation
From the depths of space he is coming... Ancient beyond understanding, his power is immeasurable. He has destroyed half the universe and is on his way here. He is… Genma. Only two people are aware of the imminent catastrophe: Princess Luna, a modern day prophetess and Vega, a cybernetic crusader from a world long since ravaged by Genma. Determined to spare the Earth from a similar fate, Luna and Vega must try to mobilize the most potent psychics in the world. Together, this army of fledging psychic warriors must succeed where billions have tried... and failed. But will they be able to gather their champions in time? Genma’s agents are already on Earth to ensure that their master meets with no opposition!
Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie
Animation
Cobra, a notorious space pirate, is enlisted by bounty hunter Jane to rescue her sister from the strange being known as Crystal Bowie, but then finds himself drawn into a complex struggle over the fate of a mysterious wandering planet.
Makoto-chan
Animation
The series follows the odd life of kindergartener Makoto Sawada and his family. Makoto gets into all sorts of toilet and adult humor. He sometimes dresses in his mother's and sister's clothing, and often has a long strand of mucus dangling from his nose.