WADA Toshikatsu
Japan
Animation Artist
Born in 1966 in Fukuoka Prefecture, WADA graduated from the School of Law, Waseda University. A fan of the animated short films of OKAMOTO Tadanari, he went to work for the visual planning and production department of DentsuProx. In 1996 he began developing original techniques to produce animated films. His short animation Bippu to Bappu (The Adventures of Bip & Bap) has won prizes at animated film festivals in Japan and overseas. He also wrote and directed the making-of documentary that forms the second part of KAWAMOTO Kihachiro's Fuyu no Hi (Winter Days). In 2007 his animation of ARAI Ryoji's Sukima no Kuni no Poruta (A Country Between the Worlds) won an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Ar ts Festival. He is currently active in the animation unit G9+1, a group of veteran animators. Having retired from DentsuTec in 2011, he is currently an adjunct professor at Tokyo Zokei University, managing director of the Japan Animation Association, and secretary-general of the Japan Society for Animation Studies.