Atsuko Ishizuka

is a Japanese animator and director at Madhouse, one of the leading animation production companies in the world. She was born on September 30, 1981 and has been with Madhouse since 2004. Her blood type is AB.

Personal history

Ishizuka's journey to becoming an animator was rather unusual by industry standards in Japan. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she did not grow up watching anime on television, but rather developed an interest in music and graphic arts. Upon graduating high school, she decided to focus on graphic design and entered the Aichi Prefecture University of the Arts. While there, she was prompted to do an arts project and chose to do an animated video because it would allow her to combine her two areas of interest. In this way, she entered the animation world not attempting to secure a career, but to make art for art's sake.

During her education at the 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 2005, Atsuko rose through the ranks for her first professional film, "Tsuki no Warutsu (The Moon Waltz)".

Since then, Ishizuka has continued to work on Madhouse projects as a staff animator (including the television series "MONSTER" and "NANA"), and has directed an additional short film for "Minna no Uta" entitled "Sen no Hana Sen no Sora (A Thousand Flowers of a Thousand Skies)". Recently, her art was featured at the 2007 Tokyo International Anime Fair, and Madhouse has started to promote her talents publicly, leading some within the industry to speculate she will become the first female series staff director at the sudio. Shortly thereafter, it was announced she would be the assistant director of the upcoming anime adaptaion of the popular Korean online game MapleStory. She lists Masayuki Kojima and Morio Asaka as the two people at Madhouse she respects most.

Works

*"CREMONA" short (2003) – Director, Story, Animator
*"Gravitation" short (2003) – Director, Story, Animator
*"Sakurami Aka" short (2004) – Director, Story, Animator
*"Minna no Uta" "Tsuki no Warutsu" short (2004) – Director, Story
*"MONSTER" series (2004–2005) – Art settings, Storyboard artist (episode 50)
*"Minna no Uta" "Sen no Hana Sen no Sora" short (2005) – Director, Story
*"NANA" series (2006–2007) – Episode director, Key animator
*"MapleStory" series (2007–2008) – Assistant director

External links

* [http://aaoxx.lolipop.jp/web/index.php Atsuko Ishizuka's Homepage] ja icon
* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=57848 Atsuko Ishizuka at the Anime News Network Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.animenewsservice.com/archives/ishizuka.htm Anime News Service TAF2007 Exclusive Report: Atsuko Ishizuka - Madhouse's Next Top Director?]