Known for Directing
Koji Morimoto is a Japanese anime director. Some of his works include being an animator in the Akira film; shorts in Robot Carnival, Short Peace, and The Animatrix; and key animation in anime such as Kiki's Delivery Service, City Hunter, and Fist of the North Star. He is the co-founder of Studio 4°C.
Born
December 26, 1959 (age 66)
Birthplace
Wakayama, Japan
Filmography
69 films, 25 shows


CONNECTED...
2020 · 2m
country: Japan
A collaboration of Mamoru Oshii, Koji Morimoto, and KENWOOD. This short animation is inspired by "Smart Headsets" (earphones with AI assistant) that depicts future life with a unique interpretation, set in a fictitious city where devices have become commonplace.


Sturgill Simpson Presents Sound & Fury
2019 · 40m
country: Japan
In this anime visual album, a mysterious driver heads deep into a postapocalyptic hellscape toward a ferocious showdown with two monstrous opponents.


Short Peace
2013 · 1h 8m
country: Japan
A traveler is confronted by spirits in an abandoned shrine; a story of honor and firefighting in ancient Japan; a white bear defends the royal family from a monstrous red demon; ragtag soldiers battle a robotic force in futuristic Japan.


Attraction
2010 · 10m
country: France
Attraction is a revolutionary interactive anime film by Koji Morimoto of Tokyo-based production studio 4°C and was requested by INPES (Institut national de prévention et d'éducation) to discourage first-time smokers.


Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind
2009 · 1h 5m
country: Japan
After the fall of Shadaloo, things went quiet and everyone continued with their daily routine. However a new evil is lurking on the horizon and the fighters that battled against Shadaloo must take up arms once again. Meanwhile a mysterious detective, whose motives are unknown, is going to any extent to find the lonesome wanderer Ryu, who appears to play a big part in the scheme of this new evil.


Genius Party Beyond
2008 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
Five stories, five maestros, five styles and one common denominator: maximum creativity. Studio 4°C, the coolest label on the planet, invites us for the second time to an exclusive reunion of a talents with a group film, full of freedom and ingenuity, that goes from Mahiro Maeda's classic anime, to Kazuto Nakazawa's intricate urban sketches, Shinya Ohira's bedlam of color and Tatsuyuki Tanaka's animated cyberpunk. And as if that wasn't enough, Koji Morimoto, the studio big boss, is charge of putting the icing on the cake with fantafabulous piece of abstract poetry that would make a VJ die of ecstasy. The party of the year.


FLUXIMATION
2005 · 14m
country: Japan
A compilation of 14 short videos made by Studio 4°C’s directors and artists.


Beyond
2003 · 13m
country: Japan
While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.


The Animatrix
2003 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.


Digital Juice
2002 · 20m
country: Japan
A series of short animations that show different worlds and different characters. These episodes are designed to take the viewer into a psychological world of fantasy and mystery.


Dimensional Loop
2001 · 5m
country: Japan
The story of an apparitious extraterrestrial and a vertically mobile prepubescent. "Dimension Loop" is an original animation by Koji Morimoto. This work displays visuals with a speed unlike any other piece directed by Morimoto. Unfolding visual images together with the gentle and in some ways nostalgia-evoking singing voice of Kicell, compel you to slip into the feeling of floating lightly on air. The refined sense of taste of the world of visual images is produced in a monotone. The characters transcend dimensions and link to each other…where do they finally end up?
Uraroji Diamond
Uraroji Diamond
2001 · 40m
country: Japan
24 daily suburb stories of a fictional morimotesque town. No real animation involved, the camera unveils through tilts and pans these B&W moments of intrapersonal conflicts and situations where the dialogue gets the star role.


Clip Cult
1999 · 1h 6m
country: Germany
A compilation of 12 cutting-edge music videos, including Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love", Squarepusher's "Come On My Selector", Autechre's "Second Bad Vilbel", Leftfield's "Africa Shox", Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" and Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker".


Glay: Survival
1999
country: Japan
It shows a section of a Japanese teenage girl's life and depicts how she's living aimlessly without a care. She later gets reminded of her childhood and the dreams she had, trying to change her current ways.


Tekkonkinkreet Pilot
1999 · 4m
country: Japan
Softimage's Michael Arias started the project as a short CG exercise, which then came to the attention of Morimoto, who then agreed to work on the project on the Softimage 3D software. A few months later, Visual Director Wilson Tang and Animation Supervisor Lee Fulton introduced a pilot to the Softimage staff, made entirely on computer with a staff of only 12. The pilot won the Excellence Award at the 3rd Japan Media Arts Festival in the Digital Art Division.


Hustle!! Tokitama-kun
1998 · 4m
country: Japan
Director's description: "I want to show you a world that you have never seen." I think this is something that all computer graphics producers strive for. What to create?! How do you create it with computer graphics? The skill of drawing does not change that much when performed on a computer instead of paper. This work is a mixture of traditional cel-based animation, 3-D animation and 2-D computer graphics techniques, each with its own history and production standards. My theme for this production was "The Transformation of Time and Space." I used ToonShader and hand drawn animation to achieve the desired effect. I think that I have succeeded in creating a world that you have never seen.


Noiseman Sound Insect
1997 · 16m
country: Japan
When a rogue science experiment starts filling the world with crystallized Noise, a group of rebels strike back to reunite the world with its Music.


Eternal Family
1997 · 29m
country: Japan
Six men and women who are completely underground to one another have been given false memories and are living together as a family in a capsule hall. They know nothing about the outside world, and that they are broadcasted as a real-life soap opera in the imaginary community of Champon City.


Memories
1995 · 1h 53m
country: Japan
Three back-to-back anime films by three different directors make up this sci-fi trilogy three years in the making.


Open the Door
1995 · 11m
country: Japan
It's bedtime and Nonoko is about to go to sleep. But the play of light and shadow on those objects on the wall, look almost like - a person.


Kawaguchi Kaiji's 9 Love Stories
1993 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
An OVA based on the work of Kawaguchi Kaiji consisting of nine independent stories, each animated by a different director. With Beatles music involved, somewhere.


Fly! Peek the Whale
1991 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
As a little boy Kei saw his fisherman father lost at sea only seconds after catching his parting gift of a pan flute carved from whalebone. A few years later young Kei and his kid brother Moito discover a baby whale trapped by a rock in a shallow inlet near the Spanish coast.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk
1989 · 13m
country: Japan
A little-known adaptation of "Jack and the Beanstalk," directed by Koji Morimoto and produced at Studio 4°C in 1989 for the collection "Anime Video Art Collection," a series of animated shorts based on stories for children. Released only on VHS.


Robot Carnival
1987 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.