Kouji Etou

Wiki jphttps://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Affiliated with ufotablehttps://anilist.co/studio/43/. Born in Hyogo Prefecture he developed a passion for gaming leading him to join Studio Sparrow to pursue a career in game animation background art. With little prior experience in drawing he began honing his skills under the guidance of renowned art director Masanori Kikuchihttps://anilist.co/staff/156492/MasanoriKikuchi. He transitioned to Studio Easter in 2003 specializing in background art production and later served as art director for various anime series including Speed Grapherhttps://anilist.co/anime/198/SpeedGrapher/ SteinsGatehttps://anilist.co/anime/9253/SteinsGate/ and PsychoPasshttps://anilist.co/anime/13601/PSYCHOPASS/. His involvement with ufotables theatrical production The Garden of Sinners began when a superior at Studio Easter asked for his assistance. Initially planning to contribute only a few cuts he ended up handling nearly 50 cuts of art in the Chapter 5https://anilist.co/anime/4282/theGardenofsinnersChapter5ParadoxParadigm/. Recognizing his talent Studio Easters representative recommended him for the art director role in the Chapter 6https://anilist.co/anime/5204/theGardenofsinnersChapter6FairyTaleOblivionRecording/ and Chapter 7https://anilist.co/anime/5205/theGardenofsinnersChapter7notnothingheartMurderSpeculationPartB/. In 2013 he made a significant career move transitioning from Studio Easter to ufotables art department. This shift was prompted by individual requests from ufotable for his involvement in projects like the anime series Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Workshttps://anilist.co/anime/19603/FatestaynightUnlimitedBladeWorks/. At ufotable he served as the art director for numerous projects contributing to the development of the inhouse art team alongside ufotables art department chief Kazuo Ebisawahttps://anilist.co/staff/115408/KazuoEbisawa. On February 9 2023 he was honored with the Individual Award in the Art Color and Visual Effectshttps://animefestival.jp/en/award/aoy/archive/2023 category at the Tokyo Anime Awards 2023.