Hisayuki Toriumi (鳥海 永行,Toriumi Hisayuki, July 9, 1941 – January 23, 2009), sometimes credited asEikō Toriumi, was a Japanese animation director, storyboardist, screenwriter, and novelist.^[1]

He is best known for directing the TV showScience Ninja Team Gatchaman and also credited for his contributions to several otherTatsunoko Production anime series.^[1]He is known to Japanese fans for his TV seriesThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils andShima Shima Tora no Shimajirō and to international fans for his work inArea 88,Dallos,The Mysterious Cities of Gold, andTekkaman: The Space Knight.^[1]

After leaving Tatsunoko, he also became a prolific novelist from the 1980s onward.^[1]His representative work is theKyūkei no Figurido series, which depicts the adventures and revenge of a man ofMurakami Suigun who becomes a battle slave in Europe, where he arrives due to the betrayal of his comrades, set inEngland andFrance during theHundred Years' War and in Japan during theNorthern and Southern Courts.

Toriumi's direction is very smart, dramatic, and complete.^[2]Mamoru Oshii was strongly influenced by him, and Oshii professes him to be "my mentor."^[3][4]According to Oshii, he always dealt with family as a theme in his work, and the relationship between father and son was especially important to him. On the other hand, he had no interested in dramas between men and women.^[5]

Toriumi also authored nearly two dozen novels. In addition to animenovelizations, he wrote mainly historically-themed novels based onOtogi-zōshi andYomihon set in Japan from ancient times to the Middle Ages.^[1]

Toriumi was born inIsehara,Kanagawa Pref., Japan, and graduated from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law,Chuo University.^[1]After attending ascreenwriting institute while in college with an interest in filmmaking, he joined Tatsunoko Productions in 1966.^[1]

Toriumi was selected as the series director for the TV seriesScience Ninja Team Gatchaman in 1972, and went on to direct other Tatsunoko TV series in the 1970s includingTekkaman: The Space Knight andHurricane Polymar.^[1]He was then asked to direct a sequel to "Gatchaman," but he did not accept because the story was already complete in his mind and he had nothing further to do.^[5][6]

In December 1978, Toriumi left Tatsunoko.Shocked by the death of the first president,Tatsuo Yoshida, and concerned about his own future at Tatsunoko, he decided to become afreelancer and take on work for other studios.After working atSunrise, he joinedYuji Nunokawa, who had quit Tatsunoko earlier, and became one of the founding members ofStudio Pierrot.^[1][7]There, he worked on series such asThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils andThe Mysterious Cities of Gold. InThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Mamoru Oshii, who transferred from Tatsunoko to Pierrot after apply to be his apprentice, also participated as one of the episode directors.^[7]However, in the followingThe Mysterious Cities of Gold, Oshii, who was scheduled to be an assistant director, was approached by President Nunokawa to directUrusei Yatsura, and, prepared to be excommunicated, accepted the offer without telling Toriumi and dropped out.^[3]

Toriumi worked with hisprotégé, directorMamoru Oshii, on 1983'sDallos, the firstoriginal video animation (OVA) ever released.^[1]

Later, he left Studio Pierrot and became a freelancer again.

In 1990, he served as general director for the TV movie "Like the Clouds, Like the Wind," which featured character designer and animation directorKatsuya Kondō and many other eliteStudio Ghibli staff at the time.^[8]

In his later years, he worked mainly on the children's programmeShima Shima Tora no Shimajirō.

He died ofheart failure on January 23, 2009, at the age of 67.

• Yomiuri Online(in Japanese)
• Hisayuki Toriumi atAnime News Network's encyclopedia

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