Yoshiji Kigami

Wiki jphttps://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/E69CA8E4B88AE79B8AE6B2BB Wiki enhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YoshijiKigami Yoshiji Kigami was a Japanese director and animator as well as a board member of Kyoto Animationhttps://anilist.co/studio/2/. Kigami was a big fan of Disney movies and Osamu Tezukahttps://anilist.co/staff/96938/s works from a young age and this aspired him to become and animator. After working for two years to save money for school he entered Tokyo Designer Gakuin a vocational school in Tokyo. He worked parttime in a gas station while attending the school. In 1979 he saw a ShinEi Animationhttps://anilist.co/studio/247/ recruitment advert in a magazine. He then applied to the studio got hired and subsequently dropped out of the vocational school. In 1982 together with six colleagues he established his own animation subcontracting studio by the name Animaru Ya. By the mid 80s Kigami had made a name for himself in the industry and was getting job offers straight to his name which led him to working on film such as Akirahttps://anilist.co/anime/47/ and Grave of the Fireflieshttps://anilist.co/anime/578/. In 1990 Kigami left Animaru Ya to take care of his mother in his hometown for a year. After his return to work he joined Kyoto Animation and became a key factor in the tobe acclaimed animation studios rapid growth throughout the years. Kigami mainly served as an animator during his career but also directed storyboarded and screenwrote numerous episodes and works for the studio. He was also involved in training young animators at the studios training school. On July 18 2019 Kigami was tragically killed alongside 34 of his colleagues in the Kyoto Animation arson attack.