Animator Spotlight: Atsushi Nishigori

All gifs in order
Mahoromatic (2001)
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002) Presumed
Gurren Laggan Episode 1 (2007) AD only most likely
Toradora (2008) correction by Satoshi Yamaguchi
Gurren Lagann The Lights in the Sky are Stars (2009)
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (2010)
The Idolm@​ster (2011) direction + heavy corrections on Yoh Yoshinari’s genga, almost completely redrawn
The Idolm@​ster: Beyond the Brilliant Future! (2014) direction, AD, and storyboards only
Kill La Kill (2014) cuts shared with other animator
Doukyuusei (2016)
Darling in the Franxx (2018) storyboarding only
Promare (2019)
Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) chief AD only
Voy@​ger (2021) direction, storyboards, and AD
Spy x Family (2022)
Evangelion 3.0 (-46h) (2023) AD only

Happy 1 day Belated Birthday to Atsushi Nishigori aka Goripon. More of an artist than an animator, Nishigori found himself working at Gainax after initially being impressed being impressed by Hidenori Matsubara and Takeshi Honda’s work. After doing fantastic character direction on the Gunbuster 2 OVA, it lead him to his most popular contribution with iconic character designs on Gurren Lagann. Much like Honda, Nishigori’s designs are fairly straightforward. There is a sense of volume and bounciness to his designs, but never formlessness as the outlines are left fairly distinctive. This is especially true in his female characters, where Nishigori is ideal for bishoujo. It is no wonder he directed, and did drawings for the Idolm@​ster. Nishigori has also delved into sci-fi mecha on Darling in the Franxx, an original project, trying to Evangelion for a new generation but not quite landing the mark.

So covering Nishigori’s actual key animation is a little difficult, due to the very little involvement or discernible animation he has. Though Nishigori has been a very active animator is animation is subtle, and matches much of his contemporaries work, so I will be primarily covering his AD work and direction.

Nishigori graduated from Tottori Yonago East High, and came up into Toei’s Animation Laboratory, coming over to Gainax immediately after at around the age of 21. He spent his first two years doing in-between animation on FLCL, and doing second KA on Spirited Away where some of Gainax’s staff was outsourced for in-between animation.

His first initial key animation was on Mahoromatic (a production between Gainax and Shaft) Episode 1, 4, and 12. 4 is especially noteworthy with Nishigori’s mentors Sushio and Hiroyuki Imaishi taking up the animation direction. Imaishi and Sushio were both single-handedly responsible for reviving the Kanada style of animation, which is derived by being completely loose and limited. sakugabooru.com/post/show/184577 sakugabooru.com/post/show/184578 sakugabooru.com/post/show/184579\. Comparatively to Imaishi, and Sushio many of Nishigori’s character drawings are kind of lumpy, and soft; whereas Imaishi and Sushio are harsh and sharp. This is noted in background characters

The next year on Abenobashi Nishigori was able to flex his character acting sakugabooru.com/post/show/25189\. This is one of the very rare instances where (presumedly) a long scene is taken up by Nishigori. His character acting is exampled by a lot of fantastic facial expressions, and more comical timing albeit the seriousness of the scene. While the timing and editing of the scene isn’t the best, Nishigori does a great job timing out everything. On Petite Princess Yucie Nishigori made his debut on animation direction. It’s a pretty standard Gainax affair with Yoshinari and Imaishi doing heavy lifting of action sakuga, but another thing that stands out is Nishigori’s subtle character driven direction here and there sakugabooru.com/post/show/187105 this scene by Tadashi Hiramatsu is very true of this.

Two years later on This Ugly Yet Beautiful World (another joint project between Gainax and Shaft) Nishigori got his first chance at OP direction.

I won’t say it is his strongest work, but does a decent job at giving him bigger roles down the line.

That would come very quickly, on Gunbuster 2 where he was assigned as character animation director

The title of character animation director is a bit of a specialist role, mainly following through on the designs of the CD that being Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.



Having to do direction for Gainax’s primary character designer from Nadia, Evangelion, and FLCL is a big ask, and throughout the series I think series director Kazuya Tsurumaki made the right choice with Nishigori. When it comes to character acting here Nishigori values all facets of emotions expressed. Granted Nishigori was only on 2, and 5 (he was episode director here too) but he’s able to bring out quite a bit. In this scene Nishgori’s AD is pretty playful early on, but then he’s able to get a good chunk of more refined acting in the second part, mostly through drawings sakugabooru.com/post/show/224487\. Episode 5 is where a good chunk of the impressionable AD comes from. Once again a lot of it is carried by Nishigori’s propensity for dramatic scenes. This scene has gorgeous boards, and a nice hopeful scope with a lot warm orange colors sakugabooru.com/post/show/225518 then yet another scene with Tadashi Hiramatsu sakugabooru.com/post/show/192259, notice Nishigori’s use of contrast in a scene completely cooked in white light, with the red hair standing out.

With such a strong propensity for character acting, and impressive direction on Gunbuster higher up Gainax staff were convinced of Nishigori’s talents. This ultimately led to Nishigori being assigned as the main character designer on Hiroyuki Imaishi’s debut series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

A huge blessing for not only Nishigori, but a milestone accomplishment for Gainax as a studio, rivaling their top works such as Evangelion. The show is rife in Imaishi’s wheelhouse with homages to classic mecha, and traditional masculine heroics going beyond that to be some of the most outstanding mechanical animation in the genre; due in part thanks to Yoh Yoshinari’s designs there. With characters, Nishigori drew iconic designs.




Differentiating himself from previous Gainax designers like Sadamoto and Hiramatsu, Nishigori feels more softer in approach. This was an ingenious choice by Nishigori, as the more harsh and heavily shaded mecha designs contrast well with his more even (but not mushy) people. It’s not all soft as a lot of curl and straights are instilled here and there, still pushing the Kanada aesthetics Imaishi wonderfully replicates.

Nishigori was also an AD on the series for episodes 1, 8, 17, and 27. 8 is one of the most phenomenal dealing with an epic battle and Hiramatsu handling the “let me see you grit those teeth!” segment sakugabooru.com/post/show/178750\. Episode 17 with a years long time skip and brand new adult character redesigns.


The final episode of the show was a joint effort between Imaishi and Nishigori and it is so fantastically mecha, that I recommend you watch it over and over and over.

For the next few years, Nishigori would work on a few shows. Some few of note include: Casshern Sins, Corpse Princess: Aka, Toradora, and two of the first Evangelion rebuild films. He of course spent time being an animation director back on the Gurren Lagann movies, handling the character centric scenes doing some of the best moments sakugabooru.com/post/show/202867\. Although out of the two movies we would get the Yoko Box video “Pieces of Sweet Stars”, Nishigori’s music video debut.

Some fantastic art direction in the model section of the video, taking out all the shading and limiting it down to outlines and high life colors.

As the years went by staff members began becoming fed up slowly with higher ups at Gainax, with their last big labor of love would simultaneously also be their weirdest on Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

A wild, raunchy and highly offensive raucous from the mind of Imaishi and other Gainax company. A show deliberately insane, and parodying a lot of American cartoons of the mid 2000s, resulting in some of the most wildly written episodes in all of anime. Nishigori was once again asked to take on the project, and his designs certainly met the quota as they feel they could fit in snuggly in a Cartoon Network…or in this case Adult Swim time slot



Now with the overwhelming array of comedy, many cooks were in the kitchen. Yes Nishigori was in charge of directing one episode, storyboarding, AD, and KA, but for the first time ever he did writing on Episode 5, which is technically the A section of Episode 3, as the episodes were split into two stories per episode (kind of like Chowder). So Episode 5 involves Stocking trying to get back her old ass pudding. And Nishigori does write some poetry such as “your titties are the size of dinner plates” and “whore-opolis” at least in the “too good to be real” English Dub. While it isn’t one of the more memorable episodes, its fun as the show usually is.

Nishigori famously animated Panty and Stocking’s "Repent Motherfucker!" transformation scene, with the realistic designs of the two also being his

Nishigori until 0:50, twisting gun and sword sakuga at the end by Yoh Yoshinari

After Gainax had been on a hot streak of shows, a lot of staff creatives left around 2011. Hideaki Anno was the first to leave to form Studio Khara as he believed the studio was beginning to prioritize money over artistic endeavors. Another major, crippling departure would be from Imaishi and Masahiko Otsuka where they formed Studio Trigger, bringing a lot of the animation department in tow. About more than a month before Trigger was announced as a company, Nishigori had his own goals, as he was brought on as series director for the A-1 Pictures adaptation of The Idolm@​ster

Nishigori had always been a fan of the series since the games. Originally released as an arcade game, the series exploded into dozens of media spinoffs. While there was a Sunrise anime that reimagined the idols with mecha, Nishigori’s adaptation is faithful to the material, with his own character designs close to Toshiyuki Kubooka’s originals. And there is a lot with over a dozen in the initial series. The first introduction of the characters in anime form, can best be exemplified in the OP where Nishigori is joined by former Gainax collaborators Hiramatsu and Yoshinari for certain portions

Goripon dominated this show, getting some insane 3D-esque animation with clever camera trickery in dancing sequences, and well realizing the characters here. Nishigori had help from some already established A-1 staff such as Isao Hayashi and Yuki Komatsu, as well as former Gainax staff with Akira Amemiya directing an episode, Sushio handling AD, and Chikashi Kubota doing KA on one episode. The real highlights of the show come from one immense talent Nishigori brought on that being Megumi Kouno**. Kouno had already been a great animator, putting out a staggering amount of work per year while freelance, but full-time on Idolm@​ster* she got recognized. Not only was she able to do some long character acting scenes sakugabooru.com/post/show/214140 full of the bouncy wonder that is typical in Goripon animation, but also able to be multifaceted through her dancing scenes sakugabooru.com/post/show/214146 and seldom action scenes sakugabooru.com/post/show/218582\. Kouno would be very important to the series moving forward.

Restart! from the last episode

Shortly after the show ended, the Shiny Festa OVA dropped, a tie in to the video games directed by Nishigori.

After work on Evangelion 3.0 and KA freelance work, Nishigori was brought on to direct Idolm@​ster’s movie, The Idolm@​ster: Beyond the Brilliant Future! in 2014.

Nishigori pulled no punches here making sure every scene had something interesting going on with the focus being character and character only. The opening imaginary action scenes by Kouno and Kumatsu are exceptionally well done sakugabooru.com/post/show/218111 sakugabooru.com/post/show/218112\. One of the weirder portions is a use of rotoscope in one scene sakugabooru.com/post/show/229153 feeling strangely alien in a series like this. Despite that the final dance number is well done, with the 12 doing their best amiss a cgi crowd lol sakugabooru.com/post/show/229228\. The camera work in this portion by photography director Shinya Kato and CGI director Yuichi Goto does a fantastic job of integrating 2D characters.

Between the time of his next big series, Nishigori did an OP for The Promised Neverland

Great leaping cut near the end by Ken Yamamoto

After another four years of freelance work, and occasionally doing KA on Trigger projects, Nishigori was able to get his own Trigger show…kind of on Darling in the Franxx in 2018

A three way production between A-1 Pictures, Cloverworks, and Trigger (with Khara assisting here and there) it was Nishigori’s first big directorial series focusing on monster action anime. Written by Nishigori, and Naotaka Hayashi the world of Franxx is set in a future where children are sent to save remnants of human populations, where they battle giant monsters in mechas with drift compatible male and female counterparts. Focusing primarily on Hiro and Zero Two out of the twelve pilots.

“Since GAINAX was very good at action and giant robot anime and A-1 is better at everyday life and more subtle dramas, I felt that gathering this group of staff together would allow me to do what I envisioned. I also hadn’t had the chance yet to work with the talented Tanaka-san, so I felt it would be a good challenge for me to add new blood into my group of favorites.” - Nishigori

“It basically started with my thought “what can I make with this staff?” The fortes of the staff that I gathered are robots and everyday life The concept was a natural result of the staff I had gathered and also the thought that I don’t feel it has been done very well in the past few years. It definitely came afterwards, however. First the staff, then the concept.” - Nishigori

Masayoshi Tanaka was brought on as series character designer, formerly from Artland and had been a primary CD at Cloverworks for year, best known for his designs on Toradora.

As for mecha designs those were handled by Shigeto Koyama whose designs were interestingly inspired by a blend of mixing elements of Chinese folklore with Japanese philosophy, in some kind of hand in hand two popular Asian ideals and make it into the mechs. One notable Chinese-esque feature was giving the mechas red eye shade which isn’t super common.

There are a lot of animators on the 24 episodes of the show. So many to name that highlight throughout that are usually the spotlights of each scene they’re in. Trigger staff like Takafumi Hori, Sushio, and Kai Ikarashi all make appearances. You have Cloverworks animators like Keisuke Kobayashi and Akira Hamaguchi showing up. Nishigori was also able to bring back A-1 friends Kouno and Hayashi to work on a few key scenes.

The only bleeding issue with Darling in the Franxx is its somewhat verbatim tit for tat one for one imitations of other more interesting mecha anime cough Evangelion. The MC’s arcs are wrapped up fairly quickly in the first couple of episodes with the series then somewhat dismantling its world building by being predicated on weird happenstance of the creator making bad decisions. Despite that I think Nishigori was able to achieve what he wanted, here as he exclaimed that “I regret nothing”. So that is that.

After Franxx wrapped up Nishigori would head back to Trigger to work on Promare Imaishi’s first film for Trigger.
Nishigori handles the fantastic scene of Galo reawakening Lio after nearly being killed sakugabooru.com/post/show/111414\. Finally ending the mountain sized gay tension throughout the film. Haha :)

In 2021, Nishigori returned as AD on Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon A Time

A movie that took nearly half the industry to develop. With Takeshi Honda spirited away on Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live?, Hideaki Anno’s final installment in his Rebuild of Evangelion was in desperate need of a Chief Animation Director, Nishigori would fill that role, with three others filling the slot: mysterious legend Kouichi Arai, Naoyuki Asano, Shuichi Iseki, and Masayoshi Tanaka. Gundam animator Se Jun Kim and Yoshimichi Kameda were on action AD duty for the Eva heavy portions. For plot reasons and creative decisions this entire movie was heavily corrected in the animation department. Nishigori amidst Anno’s boards fits in pretty snuggly taking on a much more refined and beautiful approach aside from Honda’s more action oriented previous film