When I cover the topic of directors on this blog, I typically cover directors who specialise in films such as Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai, Hiromasa Yonebayashi etc. rather than those who predominantly work in television. However, the director that I wish to cover today is one of the most important individuals within the history of anime and, while having done films and OVAs, has directed some of the most critically acclaimed anime of all time. Therefore, I thought I’d cover the stunning impact of the anime director Osamu Dezaki, his works and his history.
This stunning impact starts in 1963 when Osamu Dezaki, at the age of 19, was hired by a company called Mushi Production, not as a director but as an animator for the, at the time, newly released Astro Boy anime TV series. While working on Astro Boy, he ended up directing episodes of it as well and later directed episodes of other Mushi Production series such as Big X, Dororo and Moomin. However, it was in 1970 when he got the chance to direct a series himself and, as it turned out, it ended up becoming one of the most critically acclaimed anime series of all time, Tomorrow’s Joe.
Since then, he directed numerous other notable TV series such as Aim for the Ace!, more than half of The Rose of Versailles, Dear Brother and many others. His involvement with the Lupin the Third franchise is also noteworthy as he not only storyboarded several episodes of the original 1971 series but also directed the first, second, third, fourth and seventh TV specials. Additionally, he directed several OVA series with the most notable being the Black Jack OVA series and has directed many films as well such as the Black Jack anime film, Golgo 13: The Professional and Space Adventure Cobra. As late as 2009 he was still directing TV series and films such as Genji Monogatari Sennenki, The Snow Queen and the anime film adaptations of Air and Clannad. Sadly, Osamu Dezaki passed away in 2011 at the age of 67 due to lung cancer brought on by his excessive smoking.
Having briefly covered his history, it’s now time to look at the impact that he’s had. As someone who worked in the early days of television anime, he’s made significant contributions to the visual style that anime eventually adopted with two particularly notable examples being the pastel-chalked freeze frame and the use of repetition in action. If you’ve watched enough anime, you’ll probably be familiar with when a scene transitions from the simplified detail of animation to a more detailed still image of the same scene but looking as if it was drawn using pastels. The use of repetition in action is also frequently used where you’ll see an action such as a punch or kick repeated quickly in order to drive home the impact (as well as save a little money on animation!)
As with so many of the great directors of early anime, it breaks my heart how little of his filmography, especially his most important series, is available in English. Discotek Media have recently been releasing some of his series such as Aim for the Ace! and The Rose of Versailles but many other series, films and OVAs such as Tomorrow’s Joe and the Black Jack OVAs remain unreleased. For a man who contributed so greatly to anime, it’s a shame to see how underappreciated his body of work and legacy is in the English-speaking world and I can only hope we get to see more releases in the future.
Let me know your thoughts on the stunning impact of anime director Osamu Dezaki, which of his series, films or OVAs you’ve seen, whether you were aware of the visual techniques that he contributed that are still used today, which works of his are available where you live and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!