Yasuko Watanabe (color designer)

Japanese animator & character designer

Yasuko Watanabe
渡辺 康子

Born|

Akita Prefecture, Japan[1]

Nationality| Japanese
Occupation(s)| Color designer, colorist
Years active| 2000–present
Employer| Shaft (2000–present)
Known for| Monogatari series (2014–)
March Comes In like a Lion

Yasuko Watanabe (Japanese: 渡辺康子, Hepburn: Watanabe Yasuko) is a Japanese color designer and colorist.

## Career

[edit]

Watanabe started her career in the anime industry in 2000 as a digital colorist with Shaft.[1] Much of her early work consisted of doing the coloring for outsources given to Shaft, before gradually shifting into in-house production as Shaft itself shifted to in-house production. In 2004, Shaft split its digital coloring and compositing teams into their own department, Digital@Shaft, which Watanabe became a part of. Her first work as a color designer was also an outsource, however: Shattered Angels, which was produced by studio TNK, contacted Shaft for color design work, and both she and her senior (Hitoshi Hibino) did the color designs for the show. It wasn't until seven years later, in 2014, that she made her debut as a color designer in-house at Shaft with Hanamonogatari (with Hibino).[2] The following year, she made her debut as solo color designer on Gourmet Girl Graffiti.[3]

In 2022, Shaft opened a new studio in Shizuoka Prefecture with the hopes of expanding the company's production capacity outside of Tokyo.[4] In order to set up operations and train new staff, several members of the main Tokyo branch would need to transfer to Shizuoka to perform these duties.[1] Shaft's CEO, Mitsutoshi Kubota, offered Watanabe the opportunity and, despite having never lived in Shizuoka Prefecture, she agreed to the transfer and became a studio chief.[1]

## Works

[edit]

This is an incomplete list.

### Teleivison series

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Director(s)  | Studio  | Color designer  | Other role(s)  | Ref(s)

|
|
|
|
|
|

2007  | Shattered Angels | Tetsuya Yanagisawa  | TNK | Yes  | No  |
2014  | Hanamonogatari | Akiyuki Shinbo
Tomoyuki Itamura | Shaft | Yes  |  | [2]
2015  | Gourmet Girl Graffiti | Akiyuk Shinbo
Naoyuki Tatsuwa  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [3]
Nisekoi: | Akiyuki Shinbo
Yukihiro Miyamoto | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [5]
Owarimonogatari | Akiyuki Shinbo
Tomoyuki Itamura  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [6]
2016–2017  | March Comes In like a Lion | Akiyuki Shinbo
Kenjirou Okada | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [7]
2017  | Owarimonogatari II | Akiyuki Shinbo
Tomoyuki Itamura  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [8]
2017–2018  | March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season | Akiyuki Shinbo
Kenjirou Okada  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [9]
2019  | Zoku Owarimonogatari | Akiyuki Shinbo  | Shaft  | Yes  |  |
2021  | Pretty Boy Detective Club | Akiyuki Shinbo
Hajime Ootani | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [10]

### OVAs/ONAs

[edit]

Year  | Title  | Director(s)  | Studio  | Color designer  | Other role(s)  | Ref(s)

|
|
|
|
|
|

2016  | Koyomimonogatari | Akiyuki Shinbo
Tomoyuki Itamura  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [11]
Nisekoi: | Akiyuki Shinbo
Yukihiro Miyamoto  | Shaft  | Yes  |  |
2016–2017  | The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer | Akiyuki Shinbo
Yuki Yase  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [12]
2019  | Ikebukuro | Yukio Takatsu  | Shaft  | Yes  |  | [13]
2021–2022  | Assault Lily Fruits | Shouji Saeki | Shaft  | Yes  |  |

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d 首都圏集中型のアニメ業界に変革を。その第一歩は静岡市から(株式会社シャフト) [Reforming the Anime Industry Concentrated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The first step is Shizuoka City (Shaft)] (in Japanese). December 23, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
2. ^ a b 花物語 [Hanamonogatari]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
3. ^ a b 幸腹グラフィティ [Gourmet Girl Graffiti]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
4. ^ @shaft_official (June 10, 2022). 【お知らせ】静岡に新スタジオをオープン致しました！ [[Notice] We have opened a new studio in Shizuoka!] (Tweet). Retrieved June 10, 2022 - via Twitter.
5. ^ ニセコイ: [Nisekoi:]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
6. ^ 終物語 [Owarimonogatari]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
7. ^ ３月のライオン [March Comes In like a Lion]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
8. ^ "Owarimonogatari II". Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
9. ^ "March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season". Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
10. ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 13, 2021). "Pretty Boy Detective Club TV Anime Reveals New Promo Video, More Staff, More Cast". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
11. ^ 暦物語 [Koyomimonogatari]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
12. ^ クビキリサイクル 青色サヴァンと戯言遣い [The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer]. Shaft (in Japanese). Retrieved March 7, 2023.
13. ^ 豊島区×アニメイト「池袋PRアニメ」【完成フルバージョン】 [Toshima Ward x Animate "Ikebukuro PR Anime" (Completed Full Version)]. YouTube. Toshima City Official Toshima Nanamaru Channel. January 16, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2023.

## Further reading

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* "The Art Of Animating "Delicious": Interview With Yoshiaki Ito Pt. 1". Otaquest. 2019.

## External links

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* Yasuko Watanabe at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
* Yasuko Watanabe at IMDb