Akihiko Yamashita

山下明彦

As a teenager Yamashita was influenced by the works of [Yoshiyuki Tomino](https://anilist.co/staff/97337/) and [Tomonori Kogawa](https://anilist.co/staff/105957/), and was inspired to become an animator. After graduating from Kurashiki Minami High School, he moved to Tokyo to become an animator and joined Bevore. After Bevore's dissolution, he joined Atelier Giga, and from there he joined Project Team Muu. There he was jointly in charge of the character designs, animation direction and storyboards for [Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Still](https://anilist.co/anime/2321/). The production took nearly 10 years, during which Yamashita gave it his all. After the production was over he started losing his motivation for animation. Though, it sparked again, after having met [Norio Matsumoto](https://anilist.co/staff/100991/) and [Tomohiro Hirata](https://anilist.co/staff/122071/) on the opening animation for a video game called, Gensou Suikogaiden. In 2001, Yamashita worked as a key animator on [Spirited Away](https://anilist.co/anime/199/), a [Studio Ghibli](https://anilist.co/studio/21/) feature film. There he was in charge of multiple scenes, most notably Chihiro a

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