Shinichiro Watanabe is a director who should be well known to hardcore anime fans. He made his film debut in 2001 as director of the animated film Cowboy Bebop base on the series he created. He is the co-director of the anime science fiction series Macross Plus (1994).
Born in 1965, Shinichiro joined Sunrise as a production manager before becoming a supervisor of storyboards and unit director. He supervised storyboards for "Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory," and "Mellow Link." He was the 2002 guest of honor at the Big Apple Anime Fest.
Shinichiro Watanabe was the Director of Photography for a large number of episodes, and did the storyboard for a lot of episodes as well.Anime director Shinichirô Watanabe is a true master of his craft.
Director Shinichiro Watanabe is the Stanley Kubrick of anime. In COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE, Watanabe uses his camera with a wondering voyeurism reminiscent of CLOCKWORK ORANGE and BARRY LYNDON. As this camera intrudes into the lives of space bounty hunters Spike, Faye, Ed and Jet, we get a sense of normalcy and nonchalance. Spike sleeps on the couch. Faye showers. Ed hacks on the computer. Despite the retro-future setting, and the decidedly technocratic culture, these scenes are of a believable everyday life. And despite the fact that the images are (mostly) hand-drawn, the characters feel like real people.
