Shin'ichirō Watanabe

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Shin'ichirō Watanabe, 2009

Shin'ichirō Watanabe ( Japanese 渡 辺 信 一郎 , Watanabe Shin'ichirō ; born May 24, 1965 in Kyoto ) is a Japanese director of animes and screenwriter . He gained greater fame through his work on the anime television series Cowboy Bebop .

Professional career

At the anime studio Sunrise , he first worked as an assistant director, and in 1998 he was involved as a co-director for the anime Macross Plus for the first time. His first work as a director and screenwriter was the series Cowboy Bebop .

In 2003 Watanabe was first involved in the production of American films. These were two parts of Animatrix , a series of short films that tell background stories to the Matrix films.

In 2007 he contributed a short film called Baby Blue to the first part of the anime anthology Genius Party .

Special features and style

music

For Watanabe, music is one of the most important means of expression in film, as music is a kind of universal language for him. In Cowboy Bebop , the music was very much influenced by American culture, especially jazz . This as well as the blues were mixed with modern music like funk . Similarly, the anime series Samurai Champloo , which takes place in the Edo period, plays with musical elements from hip-hop .

genre

Watanabe often mixes elements from different genres, cultures and times in his works. So contains Cowboy Bebop elements from Wild West films, the New York film noir of the 1940s and 1950s and from Asian action films. Still, it's a science fiction series.

In Samurai Champloo , the Edo period of 18th century Japan meets modern hip-hop. The culture of the Ryūkyū Islands is also included.

Works

As a director (selection)

As a music producer

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Watanabe, Shin'ichirō
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 渡 辺 信 一郎 (Japanese); Watanabe Shin'ichirō
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese director
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Kyoto