Mitsuo Iso

Mitsuo Iso (磯 光雄, Iso Mitsuo) is a Japanese key animator, designer, anime screenwriter and director.

His work mainly includes key animation starting in the late 1980s. Iso is known for his offbeat key animation in the prologue of Gundam 0080, large portions of Asuka's battle in The End of Evangelion and the first half of Ghost in the Shell's tank battle. He also did some design work and worked on visual effects for Blood: The Last Vampire and RahXephon. Iso has co-written an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion ("Liliputian Hitcher") and wrote, directed, and largely animated the RahXephon episode "The Children's Night". He wrote and directed the 2007 TV series Dennō Coil.

Mitsuo Iso is known for his jerky yet detailed animation, full of dense sophisticated motion. He refers to his own style as "full limited" or "full 3-frame". In traditional animation, animation with a drawing count below one drawing every two frames (or "on twos") is considered limited animation. Working on threes and fours, Iso draws every keyframe without passing his work to an in-betweener, allowing him full control to create the most detailed motion possible with the fewest number of drawings, hence the term "full limited".

Filmography

 * Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (1988)


 * Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) (key animator)


 * Only Yesterday (1991) (key animator)


 * Rojin Z (1991) (mechanical designer)


 * Porco Rosso (1992) (key animator)


 * Ghost in the Shell (1995) (key animator, weapons designer)


 * Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) (key animator, episode writer)


 * The End of Evangelion (1997) (key animator)


 * Perfect Blue (1998) (key animator)


 * Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) (key animator, digital effects)


 * FLCL (2000) (key animator)


 * RahXephon (2002) (key animator, digital effects, writer and episode director)


 * Dennō Coil (2007) (creator, series director, screenplay)