Kenji Kodama

Kenji Kodama
Profile
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	December 13, 1949
Place of birth:	Hokkaido, Japan
Location:	Japan
Nicknames:	Chonin Kamikawa (上川 町人)

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 animator seniors, 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, returned to the Detective Conan anime production team and temporarily did the storyboard work of Troublesome Kindness.

Works in Detective Conan

As Kenji Kodama

Participation in: 29 cases (35 episodes)

• Roller Coaster Murder Case (Episode 1): Storyboard, Episode director
• Company President's Daughter Kidnapping Case (Episode 2): Storyboard
• Moonlight Sonata Murder Case (Episode 11): Organizer, Storyboard (along with Kuchiru Kazehara)
• Luxury Liner Serial Murder Case (Episode 22 only): Organizer, Storyboard
• Kogoro's Class Reunion Murder Case (Episodes 27-28): Storyboard
• Coffee Shop Murder Case (Episode 32): Organizer, Storyboard
• Conan Edogawa Kidnapping Case (Episode 43): Organizer, Storyboard
• Stage Actress Murder Case (Episode 67): Storyboard
• Conan vs. Kaitou Kid (Episode 76): Organizer, Storyboard (along with Michiyo Sakurai)
• Distinguished Family's Consecutive Accidental Death Case (Episode 77 only): Organizer, Storyboard
• The Wandering Artist Murder Case (Episode 80): Storyboard
• Ski Lodge Murder Case (Episode 85 only): Organizer, Storyboard
• The Crane's Return of a Favor Murder Case (Episode 87): Storyboard
• The Historical Actor Murder Case (Episode 103 only): Organizer, Storyboard
• Detective Club Pursuit Case (Episode 109): Storyboard
• Cooking Classroom Murder Case (Episode 111 only): Storyboard
• Scuba Diving Murder Case (Episode 114 only): Storyboard
• The Kamen Yaiba Murder Case (Episode 119): Storyboard
• A Mysterious Sniper Murder Case (Episode 124 only): Storyboard
• Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story (Episodes 146-147): Organizer, Storyboard
• Sonoko's Dangerous Summer Story (Episodes 153-154): Organizer, Storyboard
• The Legend of the Mysterious Five Storied Pagoda (Episodes 159-160): Storyboard
• The Murder Floating in the Water Stream Restaurant (Episode 161): Storyboard
• The Locked Room in the Sky: Shinichi Kudo's First Case (Episode 162): Organizer, Storyboard (along with Masato Sato)
• The Desperate Revival (Episode 190 only): Organizer, Storyboard
• The Tenth Passenger (Episode 201-202): Storyboard
• The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Colossus (Episode 208): Storyboard
• The Nanki Shirahama Mystery Tour (Episode 236-237): Storyboard
• The Osaka Double Mystery - The Naniwa Swordsman and Toyotomi's Castle (Episode 263): Organizer, Storyboard

Participation in: 3 openings and 3 endings

• Mune ga Dokidoki (Opening 1): Storyboard, Technical director
• Feel Your Heart (Opening 2): Storyboard, Technical director
• Nazo (Opening 3): Storyboard
• STEP BY STEP (Ending 1): Storyboard, Technical director
• Meikyū no Lovers (Ending 2): Storyboard, Technical director
• Hikari to Kage no Roman (Ending 3): Storyboard

Participation in: 7 movies

• The Time-Bombed Skyscraper (Movie 1): Director, Storyboard
• The Fourteenth Target (Movie 2): Director, Storyboard
• The Last Wizard of the Century (Movie 3): Director, Storyboard
• Captured in Her Eyes (Movie 4): Director, Storyboard
• Countdown to Heaven (Movie 5): Director, Storyboard
• The Phantom of Baker Street (Movie 6): Director, Storyboard
• Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (Movie 7): Director, Storyboard

Under pseudonyms

• Troublesome Kindness (Episode 999) : Storyboard (as Chonin Kamikawa (上川 町人 ,Kamikawa Chōnin))

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

• Yasuichiro Yamamoto
• Masaharu Okuwaki

References

1. こだま兼嗣 - Wikipedia (Japanese)
2. - Anime News Network
3. ^ 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".