Known for Directing
Naoko Yamada (山田 尚子) is a Japanese animator, television and film director. Working at Kyoto Animation, she directed the K-On! and Tamako Market anime series, and the anime films A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird. Yamada intended to work in film after university, but she decided to join Kyoto Animation after seeing an advertisement. Her first assignment at KyoAni was drawing inbetween frames for Inuyasha. She was eventually promoted to a key animator for Air. After working as an episode director of Clannad, she was asked to make her chief directorial debut with K-On!, an adaptation of a slice-of-life manga. The series was very successful, spurring a second season and a film. In 2013, she directed Tamako Market, and followed it with the film Tamako Love Story in 2014. For Tamako Love Story, she was awarded the New Face Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. She storyboarded the entire film herself, and also wrote the lyrics for the opening theme song, Everybody Loves Somebody. Yamada's next project was the feature film A Silent Voice, an adaptation of the manga of the same name, that reflected on elements of bullying and physical impairment in Japan. The film opened at #2 in the Japanese Box Office and grossed a total of ¥2.3 billion, the 19th highest-grossing film in Japan in 2016. The film also received multiple award nominations, including Best Animation Film in the Mainichi Film Awards and the Excellent Animation of the Year in the Japan Academy Prize. For Yamada, the most important part of being a director is to observe people. She describes herself as a "method" director, emphasizing the minds of the characters. On July 18, 2019, a man started a fire at the main studio of Kyoto Animation, killing 36 of Yamada's colleagues and wounding 33 others. Yamada was reported not to have been hurt in the fire. In 2020, Yamada left KyoAni to join Science SARU, where she directed 2021's The Heike Story. Source: Wikipedia
Born
November 28, 1984 (age 41)
Birthplace
Kyoto, Japan
Filmography
33 films, 48 shows


The Colors Within
2024 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
Totsuko is a high school student with the ability to see the 'colors' of others. Colors of bliss, excitement, and serenity, plus a color she treasures as her favorite. Kimi, a classmate at her school, gives off the most beautiful color of all. Although she doesn't play an instrument, Totsuko forms a band with Kimi and Rui, a quiet music enthusiast they meet at a used bookstore in a far corner of town. As they practice at an old church on a remote island, music brings them together, forming friendships and stirring affections.


Garden of Remembrance
2022 · 18m
country: Japan
An untidy room. Empty beer tins, empty wine bottles, a half-empty glass of whisky... A girl is getting up absent-mindedly and starts preparing herself. YOUR morning starts. Lazy and hard-to-wake-up YOU. The emoticon is ME watching over YOU. I play tricks on YOU, while YOU are playing the guitar and drinking. One day, in town, YOU walk past THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND who is buying an Anemone I liked, and remembering that I liked them, YOU rush out to buy them. THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND displays the Anemone with care. One day, years after I died, YOU hear noise from the closet. Opened, YOU see MY garden right in front of YOU. Overflowing emotions of ME and YOU. When exiting from the room with memories, a picture of the Anemone that YOU painted is displayed in YOUR new room.


Modern Love Tokyo: He's Playing Our Song
2022 · 30m
country: Japan
Modern Love Tokyo: Kare ga Kanaderu Futari no Shirabe was released as part of Amazon Studios' Modern Love Tokyo anthology series. It is the only animated episode featured in the live-action series.


Liz and the Blue Bird
2018 · 1h 31m
country: Japan
In their last year of high school, two girls in the brass band club perform a song inspired by a fairy tale that parallels their friendship.


A Silent Voice: The Movie
2016 · 2h 9m
country: Japan
Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shouko and Shouya do not speak to each other again... until an older, wiser Shouya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shouko once more. He wants to atone for his sins, but is it already too late...?


Tamako Love Story
2014 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
Devoted to her family’s rice-cake–making business and the high school baton club, Tamako is a little slow when it comes to love. She’s oblivious to her childhood friend Mochizo’s affections, even though all their friends know. With graduation closing in and Mochizo leaving for Tokyo, will Tamako realise her feelings and tell him in time?


K-ON! The Movie
2011 · 1h 50m
country: Japan
With graduation right around the corner, every member of the Light Music Club except for Azusa will be leaving for good. But the girls aren’t going to let something as silly as graduation tear them apart! For their final hurrah, the girls are going on the ultimate vacation tour— all the way to London! Their overseas journey will lead them on a trip of discovery and friendship as they take the stage one last time for their final encore together.