Hiroyuki Morita

Life and career

Early life

Morita was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and graduated from Fukuoka Kenritsu Chikushikoto School. During his high school days, he produced an independent animated film called Glass-wari Shōnen (ガラスわり少年, The Glass-Breaking Boy), which won a prize in an animation magazine contest at the time. One of the production staff members for the film was Katsuyuki Toda, who later became a manga artist.

Animation career

After graduating from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at Fukuoka University, he joined the animation production company Shaft. His first work as an animator was Hiatari Ryōkō!. Afterwards, he became a freelancer and worked as an inbetweener on movies such as Akira and Kiki's Delivery Service, a key animator for Roujin Z, Hashire Melos!, Memories, Perfect Blue and many others, and an episode director for the OVA Golden Boy. Being an animator who cares about fundamentals, Morita even danced the choreography for the idols in Perfect Blue.

Other Studio Ghibli productions he has worked on include My Neighbors the Yamadas and Koro no Daisanpo, a short film for the Ghibli Museum. This led to him being selected to direct The Cat Returns. In 2007, he directed his first TV series, Bokurano: Ours.

On February 27, 2011, he was elected as director for the Japanese Animation Creators Association. He retired in June 2015 after serving on the board of directors for approximately four years.

Until mid-2017, he worked at Polygon Pictures, a digital animation production company, and was involved in the management of ACTF, a forum themed around digital animation. He is currently working as a freelancer.

During the production of the anime adaptation of Bokurano, Morita posted progress reports and held Q&A sessions about the aired episodes on his blog. There were various comments from the viewers such as criticism, support and inquiries. On the same blog, Morita stated, "I dislike the original work, and I admit that I made some malicious changes to the original when making it into an animation." In response to this, not only did viewers criticize the adaptation of Bokurano, but many also criticized Morita himself.

Later, Morita explained, "The word 'dislike' that I used towards the original work was misleading so I'll correct myself. The original manga is good and full of mysteries, and I think it was worth adapting. I wrote that I 'disliked' the original story simply because there was so much mystery there, and because of the hardships involved. I was wrong to easily blame my personal 'dislike' and 'malice' for the criticisms written about the quality of my work. There is no escaping the fact that we have our own interpretation of the greatest mystery of all: why do the children die."

In a Monthly Ikki magazine interview with the original author Mohiro Kitoh, Morita said, "I was half-forced to say [that I 'dislike' it]," to which Kitoh replied, "I'm sure you were (laughs)" and "On the contrary, you've shown some good stuff (laughs)."

Secondary Perpetration Issue Regarding DJ SODA's Sexual Victimization

In response to DJ Soda's performance on the third day of MUSIC CIRCUS'23 on August 13, 2023, and sexual victimization by an audience member, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "I guess the sexual victimization DJ SODA is talking about is a public type of enticement. She says that if you are seduced and befriended, someone will come along later to scare you. The organizers of the music festival should not be complicit in her art," he tweeted (later deleted), drawing criticism from the Korean media.

Filmography

TV anime

Hiatari Ryōkō! (1987) - in-between animation

Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty Crisis (1989) - key animation

Famous Dog Lassie (1996) - key animation

Rurouni Kenshin (1996–1998) - opening key animation

The Adventures of Mini-Goddess (1998) - storyboard

Master Keaton (1998) - key animation

Texhnolyze (2003) - key animation

Planetes (2004) - key animation

Paranoia Agent (2004) - key animation

Koi Kaze (2004) - storyboard

Uninhabited Planet Survive! (2004) - storyboard

Monster (2004–2005) - storyboard, key animation

Noein: To Your Other Self (2006) - storyboard

Witchblade (2006) - storyboard

Bokurano: Ours (2007) - director, storyboard, episode director, key animation

Dennō Coil (2007) - key animation

Himitsu – Top Secret (2008) - storyboard, opening key animation

Black Butler (2009) - storyboard

Birdy the Mighty (2009) - storyboard

OVA

Record of Lodoss War (1990) - key animation

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (1993–1994) - key animation

Golden Boy (1995–1996) - storyboard, episode director

Film

Akira (1988) - in-between animation

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) - in-between animation

Roujin Z (1991) - key animation

Hashire Melos! (1992) - key animation

Memories (1995) - key animation

Perfect Blue (1998) - key animation

Spriggan (1998) - key animation

My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) - key animation

Tenchi Forever! The Movie (1999) - storyboard, unit director, key animation

Koro no Daisanpo (2002) - key animation

The Cat Returns (2002) - director

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) - key animation

Keroro Gunsō the Super Movie (2006) - key animation

Tales from Earthsea (2006) - key animation

Doraemon: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King (2010) - key animation

Doraemon: Nobita and the New Steel Troops—Winged Angels (2011) - key animation

One Piece 3D: Mugiwara Chase (2011) - storyboard cooperation

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011) - key animation