The next year he worked on the ending portion of Napping Princess produced at Mistuo Iso’s Signal M.D.. While most of the film was done digitally, Nishio, Inoue, and Masashi Ando opted for paper sakugabooru.com/post/show/227700 all under Kise’s AD even though the film had 15. That year he also returned onto Boruto ADing OP1

The only animation he’d do for the rest of the series would be on Episode 65 sakugabooru.com/post/show/106684, and on Episode 18 though that’s his scene from the Boruto movie. He also worked on the chibi-like Mahoujin Guru Guru

2018 Nishio did two scenes on FLCL Progressive a not that great sequel show by IG. sakugabooru.com/post/show/156987, this entire cut feels like a ripoff on Yutaka Nakamura’s Star Driver Episode 1 scene though I don’t blame Nishio for that. And then there is another scene that feels like the directors telling Nishio to reference himself sakugabooru.com/post/show/81130 though he does get to do his first Itano Circus I guess?

2019 we get possibly Nishio’s second best solo KA OP next to Onizuka, on Psycho-Pass 3

He also animated an insane fight scene on B: The Beginning alongside Madhouse veteran Hidehiko Sawada

Nishio 3:42-4:13

After a black hole of 2020, Nishio comes back on to Thrice Upon a Time in 2021 the final Rebuild film. Absolutely godly solo KA effort by Nishio animating Mari’s attack on the Evos sakugabooru.com/post/show/162053\. The same year Production I.G. was commissioned to work on Star Wars: Visions “The Ninth Jedi” by Disney, so Nishio did character designs with Kenji Kamiyama direction.


He also did animation on The Deer King the same year sakugabooru.com/post/show/206132 assisting on Inoue’s insane KA effort.

In 2022 Nishio joined on Vampire in the Garden, where he came on as Chief AD and character designer. A Wit Studio production directed by in house studio director and animator Ryotaro Makihara.

A series cutting its premise way too short in to just five episodes, and having way too many interesting things to not be a twelve episode, two season series. Here we can see Nishio’s more rounded approach for designs juxtaposing against gruesome horrific violence. This show boasts some of Nishio’s most refined animation direction, and great storyboarding by Makihara.

Nishio Interview by Netflix

Nishio’s AD corrections are incredibly intense on the show.





fantastic character notes

The same year Nishio was Chief AD on the Naruto 20th Anniversary homage, featuring a ton of OP songs.

Nishio did the last scene, and the eye-catch calligraphy at the end
The trailer features some newer animators who’ve been semi-regulars on Boruto like Hiromatsu Shuu and Hiroyuki Horiuchi, and Jay1Jay1Jay1 though its mostly packed with freelancers like Mitchell Gonzales, Gabriel Ugbodaga, Henry Thurlow, Fasto and several others.

Nishio’s most recent cut was on Cool Doji Danshi doing a cute scene on Episode 12 sakugabooru.com/post/show/214168 showing off his chibis.

Nishio’s upcoming project handled character designs on Production IG’s adaptation of Kaiju No. 8 coming out in 2024

While these designs were met with a fair amount of criticism straying pretty far away from Naoya Matsumoto’s original illustrations it might just be a case of Nishio’s being easier to animate. And we don’t know if Matsumoto just didn’t care, or had the team’s blessing with these designs. Either way, they are Nishio through and through.

Well that’s Tetsuya Nishio. Obviously one of the best in the Production I.G. and Pierrot hemispheres and insanely consistent. I’d say he has a similar career trajectory of guys like Yoh Yoshinari, but never directed, and also has an animation style more similar to Takeshi Honda. Ever since Yu Yu Hakusho Nishio made it apparent he was going places, and he always went above on beyond work that proceeded him. I think he strikes a good balance of realism, while also not being afraid to leave a reasonable level of anime-like exaggeration which makes him very innately prepared to take on any scene, or any character. Sure, he’s not the most novel animator, or is highly regarded as an S tier animator, but you got to give it to the man for being perplexingly diligent and shrewd in his approach. Whenever you watch Nishio’s scenes they feel so imbued with such a strong sense of care and malleability, with him sometimes shifting style to style with no reprise. The consideration between character and comedy, character and action, character and drama is never lost to Nishio as he is so definitively solid in every regard. Simply a fantastic animator, illustrator, and I can’t wait to see what he does next :)

Nishio art

Nishio’s original movie poster art for the OG Naruto films