# Hisayuki Toriumi

Hisayuki Toriumi (鳥海 永行, Toriumi Hisayuki, July 9, 1941 – January 23, 2009), sometimes credited as Eikō Toriumi, was a Japanese animation director, storyboardist, screenwriter, and novelist.
He is best known for directing the TV show Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and also credited for his contributions to several other Tatsunoko Production anime series. He is known to Japanese fans for his TV series The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō and to international fans for his work in Area 88, Dallos, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and Tekkaman: The Space Knight.
After leaving Tatsunoko, he also became a prolific novelist from the 1980s onward. His representative work is the Kyūkei no Figurido series, which depicts the adventures and revenge of a man of Murakami Suigun who becomes a battle slave in Europe, where he arrives due to the betrayal of his comrades, set in England and France during the Hundred Years' War and in Japan during the Northern and Southern Courts.

## Style

Toriumi's direction is very smart, dramatic, and complete. Mamoru Oshii was strongly influenced by him, and Oshii professes him to be "my mentor." 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.
Toriumi also authored nearly two dozen novels. In addition to anime novelizations, he wrote mainly historically-themed novels based on Otogi-zōshi and Yomihon set in Japan from ancient times to the Middle Ages.

## Biography

Toriumi was born in Isehara, Kanagawa Pref., Japan, and graduated from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Chuo University. After attending a screenwriting institute while in college with an interest in filmmaking, he joined Tatsunoko Productions in 1966.
Toriumi was selected as the series director for the TV series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in 1972, and went on to direct other Tatsunoko TV series in the 1970s including Tekkaman: The Space Knight and Hurricane Polymar. 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.
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 a freelancer and take on work for other studios. After working at Sunrise, he joined Yuji Nunokawa, who had quit Tatsunoko earlier, and became one of the founding members of Studio Pierrot. There, he worked on series such as The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and The Mysterious Cities of Gold. In The 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. However, in the following The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Oshii, who was scheduled to be an assistant director, was approached by President Nunokawa to direct Urusei Yatsura, and, prepared to be excommunicated, accepted the offer without telling Toriumi and dropped out.
Toriumi worked with his protégé, director Mamoru Oshii, on 1983's Dallos, the first original video animation (OVA) ever released.
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 director Katsuya Kondō and many other elite Studio Ghibli staff at the time.
In his later years, he worked mainly on the children's programme Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō.
He died of heart failure on January 23, 2009, at the age of 67.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Medium | Roll | Animation studio | Notes |
| 1967-1968 | Speed Racer | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1967-1968 | Oraa Guzura Dado | TV series | Episode director, scriptwriter | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1968-1969 | Dokachin the Primitive Boy | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1969 | Judo Boy | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1970-1971 | The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1971 | Animated Documentary Decision | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1972 | Pinocchio: The Series | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1972-1974 | Science Ninja Team Gatchaman | TV series | Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1974-1975 | Hurricane Polymar | TV series | Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1975 | Tekkaman: The Space Knight | TV series | Series director (episode 14 to 26), planner, screenwriter, episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1976 | Goliath the Super Fighter | TV series | Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1978 | Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie | Feature film | Director | Tatsunoko Production | Digest of the TV series. |
| 1976-1977 | Paul's Miraculous Adventure | TV series | Episode director | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1978-1979 | Gatchaman II | TV series | Planner | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1979-1980 | Gatchaman Fighter | TV series | Planner | Tatsunoko Production | |
| 1979-1980 | The Ultraman | TV series | Chief director (episode 1 to 13), storyboard | Sunrise | He left the program midway through. |
| 1980-1981 | The Wonderful Adventures of Nils | TV series | Chief director, episode director | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1980-1981 | Space Warrior Baldios | TV series | Screenwriter | Ashi Production, Kokusai Eiga-sha | |
| | Full Moon Legend Indra | Television pilot | Original story | | Only a pilot was produced. Toriumi wrote a novel based on it. |
| 1981 | Space Warrior Baldios the Movie | Feature film | General director | Ashi Production, Kokusai Eiga-sha | The first half is a digest version of the TV series; the second half is an unaired episode on TV. |
| 1982-1983 | The Mysterious Cities of Gold | TV series | Series director, animation production, storyboard, episode director | Studio Pierrot, DIC Audiovisuel | |
| 1983 | The Wonderful Adventures of Nils the Movie | Feature film | Director | Studio Pierrot | The film was not released theatrically at the time of its completion, but was screened for the first time in January 2015 at Uplink Shibuya in Tokyo. |
| 1983–1985 | Dallos | OVA | Original story, director, screenwriter, episode director | Studio Pierrot | Toriumi was in charge of episodes with a lot of drama, while Oshii was in charge of episodes with a lot of fight scenes. |
| 1984-1985 | Bismark | TV series | Planner | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1985-1986 | Ninja Senshi Tobikage | TV series | Storyboard | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1985-1986 | Area 88 | OVA | Director | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1986 | Bari Bari Densetsu | OVA | Supervisor | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1987 | Lily C.A.T. | OVA | Original story, director | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1988-1989 | Salamander | OVA | Director | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1989 | Baoh | OVA | Supervisor, storyboard | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1990 | Like the Clouds, Like the Wind | Television film | General director | Studio Pierrot | Based on the novel Kōkyū Shōsetsu (Inner palace Novel), which won the Grand Prize at the 1st Japan Fantasy Novel Award, the debut novel by Ken'ichi Sakemi. |
| 1991 | Shinzan Gensōtan (Yumemakura Baku Twilight Gekijō) | OVA | Coordinator | Studio Pierrot | |
| 1991 | Michitekuru Toki no Mukō ni | Television film | Director | Studio Pierrot | Based on the novel Rakuen (Paradise), which won the Excellence Award at the 2nd Japan Fantasy Novel Award, the debut novel by Koji Suzuki, known for his Ring series. |
| 1991-1993 | Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings | OVA | Director (episode 7 to 9), storyboard | Kitty Films | |
| 1993-2008 | Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō | TV series | Series director, series composition | Studio Signpost | |
| 1998 | Pinka to Umi no Otomodachi | TV series | Director | T Factory | |
| 1999 | Cybuster | TV series | Supervisor | Ashi Production | |
| 2001 | Kaze no Yojimbo | TV series | Story advisor, scriptwriter | Studio Pierrot | |
| 2008-2009 | Hakken Taiken Daisuki! Shimajirō | TV series | Series director, series composition | Studio Signpost | Last work. |