Yukihiro Miyamoto

Yukihiro Miyamoto (Japanese: 宮本 幸裕, Hepburn: Miyamoto Yukihiro, born November 21, 1977), occasionally nicknamed Otokomatsuri,^[1] is a Japanese anime director. He started at animation studio Vega Entertainment, and later joined Shaft. He is best known for directing Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its subsequent film trilogy alongside Akiyuki Shinbo, the latter trilogy which subsequently garnered ¥2 billion, making it a box-office success.^[2]

Miyamoto was interested in animation from a young age and was particularly interested in timing processes regarding characteristics like lip-sync timing or footstep sounds and whether they aligned with the screen images.^[3] After highs school, he went to a science-based university as per his parents' wishes but found that he still loved animation, so he went to a vocational school, Yoyogi Animation Academy [ja].^[3]

After graduating from vocational school, he joined the anime industry in 2002 as a production manager and assistant director for Vega Entertainment on their adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's Gun Frontier manga series.^[4][5] In 2003 and 2004, he debuted as an episode director and storyboard artist (respectively) with F-Zero: GP Legend,^[6] and started directing Vega's outsourced episodes for Madhouse at the time too.

Around 2006, he happened to find himself at studio Shaft by chance.^[3] He studied under director Shin Oonuma for about a year and quickly became a prominent director alongside Akiyuki Shinbo, Oonuma, and Tatsuya Oishi.^[3] In 2008, he debuted with a series as the chief unit director with (Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei alongside Shinbo.^[7] In the following years, Miyamoto directed several more series with Shinbo, and in 2011 they directed Puella Magi Madoka Magica,^[8] which became a critical hit and, alongside Bakemonogatari, is considered to be one of the series that pushed the studio into the spotlight.^[9] Subsequently, Miyamoto was tasked with directing the series' film trilogy, with Shinbo acting as chief director over the films.^[10]

The Madoka Magica film trilogy was announced with Shinbo acting as chief director and Miyamoto acting as director. Although their credits differed from the TV counterparts, their jobs were essentially the same as before, according to Miyamoto.^[11] The first two films were compilations with updated visuals, and the third film was created as a sequel. Miyamoto intended to direct the work as its overall film director without doing unit direction; however, the directors that the staff tried to recruit were busy, and Miyamoto was made to act as a unit director on the film anyway.^[11] The only other directors involved to help were unit director Takashi Kawabata and assistant director Hiroyuki Terao, who were rercruited due to the fact that it would've been impossible for Miyamoto to finish the film on his own.^[12]

In 2018, it was announced that the spin-off Magia Record mobile game would receive an adaptation by the studio; the following year, it was announced that Miyamoto would serve as an assistant director and director alongside Shaft directors Kenjirou Okada, Midori Yoshizawa, Doroinu of Gekidan Inu Curry, with Shinbo serving as an animation supervisor on the project.^[13]

In 2023, it was announced that Shinbo and Miyamoto would both return in their respective roles of chief director and director for the fourth Madoka Magica film.^[14]

Yoyogi Animation Academy invited him to give a special lecture to students in collaboration with The Quintessential Quintuplets~ in August of 2024.^[15]

Miyamoto described himself as being a "heretic" at Shaft—someone who, in a company of many differing directors, is only good at doing "plain work", and isn't particularly original or creative.^[16] Shinbo described Miyamoto in a similar way, but said that he was more like a professional craftsman who leaves their mark in places that cannot be seen.^[16] Due to this, Shinbo has said that Miyamoto is a director whose work often exceeds his expectations.^[17] Shinbo himself likes to cut the space between dialogue when characters talk, though he mentioned that Miyamoto seems to cut dialogue pauses more than Shinbo to a point that the silence between characters talking is close to zero.^[17] Miyamoto said that it's like characters who have already started thinking of a response to the person who is actively talking, and thus begin speaking either directly after the person talking has stopped or interrupting their speech entirely.^[17]

Shaft producer Yasuhiro Okada, who was the animation producer for the Madoka Magica film trilogy, described Miyamoto as being the best director capable of absorbing and expressing Shinbo's flavor.^[12]

Miyamoto is married and has a child who was born near the end of production of the Kizumonogatari trilogy.^[18] When his wife was in labor, Miyamoto was at the hospital and continued to text with Shaft's producers and staff regarding the film; and the director, Tatsuya Oishi, joked that Miyamoto should name them "Nekketsu" (after the second film in the trilogy, which Miyamoto was in charge of as unit director).^[18]

  In "Director(s)" column highlights Miyamoto's directorial works.

• Watanabe, Yumiko (2010). 新房監督のアニメ論 「制約は理由にならない」 【前編】 [Director Shinbo's Anime Theory "Restrictions Are Not a Reason" (Part 1)] (in Japanese). ASCII. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
• Kizawa, Yukito; Takayama, Atsushi; Saitou, Fusano, eds. (2014). 劇場版魔法やまどかマギカ[新編]叛逆の物語公式ガイドブック only you. [Movie Version Puella Magi Madoka Magica [New Edition] Story of Rebellion Official Guidebook only you.]. Houbunsha. ISBN 978-4832244290.
• Aniplex (2017). Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu Deluxe Booklet. Aniplex of America.
• Takahashi, Yumi, ed. (2019). Akiyuki Shimbo x Shaft Chronicle (in Japanese). Dotcom. ISBN 978-4835457017.

• Yukihiro Miyamoto at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Yukihiro Miyamoto at IMDb