Kenji Kodama

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Kenji Kodama

Kenji Kodama.jpg

Profile
Gender: Male
Date of birth: December 13, 1949
Place of birth: Hokkaido, Japan
Position: Director
Organizer
Storyboard
Episode director
Years active: 1970-present
Aliases: Chonin Kamikawa (上川 町人)
[citation needed]

Kenji Kodama (こだま 兼嗣 Kodama Kenji?), born December 13, 1949, is a Japanese anime director, and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing the anime Detective Conan and working with the anime Lupin III. He directed the anime from episodes 1 to 118. He was later replaced by Yasuichiro Yamamoto and became chief director from episodes 119 to 252. He was also the director for the first 7 movies.

Biography

In 1970, Kodama worked under Tokyo Movie (東京ムービー), afterwards, he joined the production of several anime works such as Star of the Giants (巨人の星) and Ghost Q-Taro (オバケのQ太郎). Which mainly, he worked as director, technical director, key animator, character designer, and animation director etc. Moreover, when he was working on the production of the series Lupin the Third (ルパン三世), he had accepted the training from senior animators, Takeo Kitahara (北原 健雄) and Yuzo Aoki.

From 1997 to 1980, Kodama was responsible for almost 70% of the animation directing work of the series Lupin the Third. Until he was responsible of the episode directing of the 26th episode of the anime The Gutsy Frog (ど根性ガエル) in 1981, he had just officially debuted as a proper technical director. Furthermore, the second season of the anime Cat's Eye (キャッツ・アイ) from 1983 was the first animation work that Kodama served as the director.

Kenji Kodama at Japan Expo 2010

In 1987, while Kodama was in charge of the director role in the anime City Hunter (シティーハンター), he consigned the character design role to his wife, whom he had met when he was working on Lupin the Third series. On the other hand, he did storyboard, episode director, and screenplay as well. In 1996, Kodama began to serve as the director of the Detective Conan anime and movies. After The Naniwa Serial Murder Case, he was promoted to the chief director of the series, and on the contrary his disciple, Yasuichiro Yamamoto thus became the director. In 2001, after The Kidnapper in the Picture, Kodama was no longer the director of the Detective Conan anime and quit the anime production. In 2003, after movie 7, Kodama also quit the Detective Conan movie production.

Surprisingly, in 2021, after entirely 18 years, Kenji Kodama, who used the pseudonym Chonin Kamikawa (上川 町人 Kamikawa Chōnin?)[Note 1], returned to the Detective Conan anime production team and temporarily did the storyboard work of Troublesome Kindness.

Works in Detective Conan

Anime

Participation in: 30 cases (36 episodes)

Jpn# Int# Episode title Original broadcast Role Note
1 1 Roller Coaster Murder Case January 8, 1996 Storyboard, Episode director
2 2 Company President's Daughter Kidnapping Case January 15, 1996 Storyboard
11 11-12 Moonlight Sonata Murder Case April 8, 1996 Organizer, Storyboard 1 hour
22 23 Luxury Liner Serial Murder Case (Part 1) July 1, 1996 Organizer, Storyboard
27 28 Kogoro's Class Reunion Murder Case (Part 1) August 5, 1996 Storyboard
28 29 Kogoro's Class Reunion Murder Case (Part 2) August 12, 1996 Storyboard
32 33 Coffee Shop Murder Case September 9, 1996 Organizer, Storyboard
43 44 Conan Edogawa Kidnapping Case January 13, 1997 Organizer, Storyboard
67 69 Stage Actress Murder Case July 14, 1997 Storyboard
76 78-79 Conan vs. Kaitou Kid September 22, 1997 Organizer, Storyboard 1 hour
77 80 Distinguished Family's Consecutive Accidental Death Case (Part 1) October 20, 1997 Organizer, Storyboard
80 83 The Wandering Artist Murder Case November 10, 1997 Storyboard
85 88 Ski Lodge Murder Case (Part 2) December 15, 1997 Organizer, Storyboard
87 90 The Crane's Return of a Favor Murder Case January 19, 1998 Storyboard
103 109 The Historical Actor Murder Case (Part 2) May 25, 1998 Organizer, Storyboard
109 115 Detective Club Pursuit Case July 13, 1998 Storyboard
111 117 Cooking Classroom Murder Case (Part 2) August 3, 1998 Storyboard
114 120 Scuba Diving Murder Case (Part 1) August 24, 1998 Organizer, Storyboard
119 126 The Kamen Yaiba Murder Case October 12, 1998 Storyboard
124 131 A Mysterious Sniper Murder Case (Part 1) November 16, 1998 Storyboard
146 156 Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story (Part 1) May 24, 1999 Organizer, Storyboard
147 157 Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story (Part 2) May 31, 1999 Organizer, Storyboard
153 163 Sonoko's Dangerous Summer Story (Part 1) July 19, 1999 Organizer, Storyboard
154 164 Sonoko's Dangerous Summer Story (Part 2) July 26, 1999 Organizer, Storyboard
159 169 The Legend of the Mysterious Five Storied Pagoda (Part 1) September 6, 1999 Storyboard
160 170 The Legend of the Mysterious Five Storied Pagoda (Part 2) September 13, 1999 Storyboard
161 171 The Murder Floating in the Water Stream Restaurant September 20, 1999 Storyboard
162 172-173 The Locked Room in the Sky: Shinichi Kudo's First Case September 27, 1999 Organizer, Storyboard 1 hour
190 205 The Desperate Revival - The Third Choice May 15, 2000 Organizer, Storyboard
201 216 The Tenth Passenger (Part 1) July 31, 2000 Storyboard
202 217 The Tenth Passenger (Part 2) August 7, 2000 Storyboard
208 224-225 The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Colossus October 9, 2000 Storyboard 1 hour
236 255 The Nanki Shirahama Mystery Tour (Part 1) June 4, 2001 Storyboard Mystery tour
237 256 The Nanki Shirahama Mystery Tour (Part 2) June 11, 2001 Storyboard Mystery tour
263 282-285 The Osaka Double Mystery - The Naniwa Swordsman and Toyotomi's Castle January 7, 2002 Organizer, Storyboard 2 hours
999 1056 Troublesome Kindness February 27, 2021 Storyboard Under pseudonym
上川町人

Openings and Endings

Participation in: 3 openings and 3 endings

# Song name Original title Role Note
OP
OP1 Mune ga Dokidoki 胸がドキドキ Storyboard, Technical director
OP2 Feel Your Heart Feel Your Heart Storyboard, Technical director
OP3 Nazo Storyboard
ED
ED1 STEP BY STEP STEP BY STEP Storyboard, Technical director
ED2 Meikyū no Lovers 迷宮のラヴァーズ Storyboard, Technical director
ED3 Hikari to Kage no Roman 光と影のロマン Storyboard

Movies

Participation in: 7 movies

Movie Title Original airdate Role Note
1 The Time-Bombed Skyscraper April 19, 1997 Director, Storyboard
2 The Fourteenth Target April 18, 1998 Director, Storyboard
3 The Last Wizard of the Century April 17, 1999 Director, Storyboard
4 Captured in Her Eyes April 22, 2000 Director, Storyboard
5 Countdown to Heaven April 21, 2001 Director, Storyboard
6 The Phantom of Baker Street April 20, 2002 Director, Storyboard
7 Crossroad in the Ancient Capital April 19, 2003 Director, Storyboard

Other notable works

Anime

  • City Hunter series: Director
  • Crayon Shin-chan: Action Kamen vs Haigure Maô: Inbetweener
  • Flanders no Inu, Boku no Patrasche: Director
  • Lupin III: Part II: Storyboard, Character design
  • Sonic X: Key animation
  • Tokyo Mew Mew: Key animation

Non-anime

  • Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats: Layout artist

See also

References

  1. こだま兼嗣 - Wikipedia (Japanese)
  2. Anime News Network
  1. ^ Note: This is a pseudonym based on the fact that Kodama is born in a town named Kamikawa, of Hokkaido. The literal translation would be "Kamikawa people".