Sunao Katabuchi
Sunao Katabuchi is a Japanese animation director, screenwriter, and storyboard artist. He is director of Contrail Co. He has been a part-time lecturer at Nihon University College of Art since 2006, and a Project Professor at the college of Art of at the same university since 2018.
Sunao Katabuchi

Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan · Katabuchi Sunao from "In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World" at Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2019 · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Sunao Katabuchi
- Born
- 1960
- Birthplace
- Hirakata, Japan
- Education
- Nihon University
- Occupation
- * Director
- Known for
- Black Lagoon Mai Mai Miracle In This Corner of the World
- Spouse
- Chie Uratani
- Nationality
- Japan
- Honours
- Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director
- Languages
- Japanese
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Sunao Katabuchi is a Japanese animation director, screenwriter, and storyboard artist. He is director of Contrail Co. He has been a part-time lecturer at Nihon University College of Art since 2006, and a Project Professor at the college of Art of at the same university since 2018.
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Note VALÉORINE
Sunao Katabuchi (born 1960) is an animator, film director and screenwriter, among other activities, of Japanese nationality. The animator was born in Hirakata. Sunao Katabuchi was educated at Nihon University.
Languages used include Japanese. Honours include Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q3503793 · wikipedia · Sunao Katabuchi
In this article
Biography
Biography
He has also served as a part-time lecturer at the Graduate School of Tokyo University of the Arts since 2013. He is married to a fellow director of anime Chie Uratani.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Sunao Katabuchi • Native Name — 片渕 須直 • Born — 1960 • Birthplace — Hirakata, Japan • Education — Nihon University • Occupation — * Director • film director • animation director • screenwriter • storyboard artist • Years Active — 1982–present • Employer — * Telecom Animation Film (1982–1985) • Mushi Production (1986–1992) • Studio 4°C (1992~2000) • Contrail (2019–present) • Known for — Black Lagoon Mai Mai Miracle In This Corner of the World • Spouse — Chie Uratani
Early life and education
Early life and education
• Illustration — Sunao Katabuchi's signature, 2016 Katabuchi was born in Hirakata, Osaka in 1960. While studying at Nihon University College of Art's Department of Cinema, he participated in the writing team of Sherlock Hound directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Career
Career
After graduating, he joined Telecom Animation Film. In the same year, Hayao Miyazaki asked him to participate in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as a scriptwriter, but he had to decline for various reasons. He traveled to the U.S. several times to work on Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a Japan-U.S. co-production of an animated film produced by Telecom, but decided to leave the company after becoming fed up with the project going astray as it was being pushed around by the American side. Then he started working at Mushi Production. He was seconded to Studio Ghibli from Mushi Productions to work as an assistant director for Hayao Miyazaki on Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989. Katabuchi was originally going to direct the film, but when the sponsoring company made it clear that they had no intention of investing in anything other than a film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Katabuchi stepped aside. Katabuchi joined Studio 4°C in 1992. Around this time, he was asked to train new directors and animators for Studio Ghibli, which had changed from a system of recruiting freelance staff for each production to a proper company structure and began hiring new employees. When he finished his work at Ghibli, they wanted him to stay on, but he refused. He made his directorial debut with the Nippon Animation TV series Famous Dog Lassie in 1996. He made his feature film directorial debut with Princess Arete. After working on various outside projects, he returned to Studio 4 °C and began work on Princess Arete in 1998. The film was released in 2001 and won Excellent Works of the Year in the Domestic Feature Film Category at Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2002. After Princess Arete, Katabuchi moved his main activities to Madhouse. He directed, composed and wrote the screenplay for Black Lagoon series since 2006. In 2016, Katabuchi directed In This Corner of the World produced by MAPPA, which was released on November 12, 2016 in Japan, and planned to be released in fifteen countries including UK, France, Germany, Mexico and US.
Television productions
Television productions
• Sherlock Hound - Writer, 1984-1985 • The Blinkins: The Bear And The Blizzard - Director, 1986 • Famous Dog Lassie - Director, 1996 • Black Lagoon - Director, Writer, 2006 • Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage - Director, Writer, 2006
OVA
OVA
• Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail - Director, Writer, 2010
Video games
Video games
• Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (2001) - Director/writer for side-story movie • Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (2004) - Story writer • Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (2019) - Story writer • Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve (2026) - Story writer
Commercials
Commercials
• Panasonic 3CCD lovery size - Animation Director, 2004 • Toyota ITS Ha:mo Concept movie Road to promise - Director, 2012 • NHK Flowers blossom PV of animation version - Director, 2013
Identity
Identity
Sunao Katabuchi is recorded as screenwriter, film director, animator and university teacher.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1960
Sunao Katabuchi born at Hirakata.
Films
• Kiki's Delivery Service - Assistant Director, 1989 • Upon The Planet - Director, 1998 • Princess Arete - Director, Writer, 2001 • Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Mahō - Director, Writer, 2009 • In This Corner of the World - Director, Writer, 2016 • In This Corner (and Other Corners) of the World - Director, Writer, 2019 • The Mourning Children: Nagiko and the Girls Wearing Tsurubami Black (TBA)
Awards
• Princess Arete – Tokyo International Anime Fair - Excellent works of the year in Domestic Feature Film Category (2002) • Mai Mai Miracle - Ottawa International Animation Festival - Prize Winning in Feature Film Competition (2009) • Mai Mai Miracle - the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival - The Excellence Award in the Animation Division (2010) • Mai Mai Miracle - 29th Brussels International Animation Film Festival - Anima 2010 BETV/Audience Awards for Feature Film Competition (2010) • Mai Mai Miracle - the 20th Cine Junior International Film Festival - the Audience Award • In This Corner of the World - Hiroshima International Film Festival - Hiroshima Peace Film Award Winner (2016) • In This Corner of the World - 90th Kinema Junpo Awards - Best Director / Best Japanese Film (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 71st Mainichi Film Awards - Ōfuji Noburō Award (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 59th Blue Ribbon Awards - Best Director (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 26th Tokyo Sports Film Award -Best Film (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 40th Japan Academy Prize - Best Animation of the Year (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 59th Culture of Child Welfare Award - Film/Media category (2017) • In This Corner of the World - 67th The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize - Film category (2017)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.株式会社コントレール. ABOUT コントレールとは.
- 2.日本大学芸術学部. 第12回 日藝賞.
- 3.教職員. Dept. of CINEMA, College of Art, Nihon Univ.
- 4.株式会社スタイル. 第30回 ようやく人前に出せるところに. WEBアニメスタイル. April 26, 2010.
- 5.株式会社スタイル. 第33回 突貫作業へのいざない. WEBアニメスタイル. December 14, 2009.
- 6.株式会社スタイル. 第39回 これでおしまい. WEBアニメスタイル. July 5, 2010.
- 7.株式会社スタイル. 第47回 宅急便の宅送便「次は自分たちで、ね」. WEBアニメスタイル. September 6, 2010.
- 8.株式会社スタイル. 第53回 原動機付自転車にまたがるようになった一件. WEBアニメスタイル. October 25, 2010.
- 9.株式会社スタイル. 第56回 色々と再出発. WEBアニメスタイル. November 15, 2010.
- 10.株式会社スタイル. 第55回 木々と花々の趣味、物騒な趣味. WEBアニメスタイル. November 8, 2010.
- 11.IID, Inc. 「この世界の片隅に」片渕監督の海外渡航をサポートするクラウドファンディングが始動. November 22, 2016.
- 12.ANIDO. この星の上に « ANIDO official website.
- 13.『この世界の片隅に』片渕須直監督の新作映画発表 『つるばみ色のなぎ子たち』枕草子が書かれた平安時代が舞台 映像公開. Oricon. 21 May 2023.
- 14.IMDb.com, Inc. The Blinkins: The Bear and the Blizzard (1986).
- 15.NHK. アニメ「花は咲く」 明日へ —支えあおう— NHK東日本大震災プロジェクト.
- 16.親と子の「花は咲く」 (SINGLE+DVD). Amazon.co.jp.
- 17.文化庁メディア芸術祭歴代受賞作品.
- 18.HIFF. The Hiroshima Peace Film Award Winners of the Hiroshima International Film Festival 2016. November 13, 2016.
- 19.Natasha, Inc. キネマ旬報ベスト・テン、読者選出賞でも「この世界の片隅に」「ハドソン川」が1位.
- 20.Mainichi Newspaper. December 16, 2016.
- 21.The Huffington Post Japan. Jan 26, 2017.
- 22.TOKYO-SPORTS.
- 23.「この世界の片隅に」製作委員会.
- 24.Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. 平成29年度「児童福祉文化賞表彰式」.
- 25.eplus inc.
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