Mahiro MAEDA

Born in 1963 in Tottori Prefecture, Mahiro MAEDA worked as a director, a chara-designer, and animator for many of Japan's top series. He worked as a key animator and layout artist on Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the self-produced independent short film DAICON Ⅳ OPENING.

He contributed to the production of Nausicaä of the valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky as a key animator. He also helped on Wings of Honneamise, Gainax’s first major film not only on the animation but also for the storyboards and production designs.

For Gunbuster, he provided key animation in addition to production designs and illustrations used in the ending sequence. He assumed numerous roles in the production of The Secret of Blue Water, working as layout and storyboard artist, key animator, and provided direction as well as mechanical designs. Mahiro MAEDA helped on the design of the angels in Rebuild of Evangelion and participated in the subsequent films as a key animator. Plus, he not only directed on The Animatrix, the Second Renaissance PartⅠ & PartII, he also assumed the role of character designer and animation director. Mahiro MAEDA participated in Evangelion: 3.0 as concept artist and key animator and on Mad Max: Fury Road as production designs. He is now working for Studio Khara on Japan Animator Expo.

Mahiro MAEDA will be at Japan Expo with Shirô SAGISU on the Kuri stage to talk about his work with Khara inc. during the conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of the studio.