Animation Director. Born in Tokyo, Japan. Renowned for creating beautiful animation at Studio Ghibli with famed director Isao Takahata and at Studio Ponoc.
> Early Years as an Animator
Mr. Momose began his career as an animator in 1971 during high school. His first key animation work was Attack No. 1 (1969-71), followed by The Genius Bakabon (1971-72), Lupin the Third (1971), The Gutsy Frog (1972-74), and GON, THE STONE-AGE BOY, Hajime Ningen Gon (1974-76).
> Animation Director
In 1975, Mr. Momose became the first animation director (co-director) for Arabian Nights: Sinbad’s Adventures (1975-76). His works as an animation director include Dokaben (1976-79), Perrine De ‘En Famille’ (1978), Maegamitaro (1979), and Belle et Sébastien (1981-82) and Studio Ponoc’s newest animated feature film, The Imaginary (2023), based on the renowned book by A.F. Harrold.
> at Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. Mr. Momose joined Studio Ghibli as an assistant animation director of Isao Takahata’s Grave of The Fireflies (1988). Thereafter he was in charge of storyboard drawings for Takahata’s Only Yesterday (1991) and Pom Poko (1994), computer-generated portions of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997), and was the sequence director for Takahata’s My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999). After debuting as director of a theatrical feature with the Ghiblies episode 2 (2002), he directed music videos for Capsule and Yui Aragaki, and was in charge of scene design for Takahata’s final masterpiece, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013).
> at Studio Ponoc
At Studio Ponoc, Mr. Momose directed Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, one of the films in the studio’s short-film anthology Modest Heroes – Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 (2018), Tomorrow’s Leaves (2021), an animated short film created in collaboration with the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, and the studio’s newest animated feature film, The Imaginary (2023), based on the renowned book by A.F. Harrold.
