Saida, Toshitsugu

Years active:1968-Present Hometown:Yamaga, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan An old-time animator behind many of Oh! Production's works and arguably the studio's most famous animator. Saida joined the studio soon after it was established in 1970. There he studied under Kazuo Komatsubara and Kouichi Murata, quickly becoming one of the studio's star animators. Gauche the Cellist was in part a vehicle for his skills, in which Saida single-handedly drew all of the key animation for the 63-minute film. Afterwards he was involved as character designer and animation director in many of the '70s and '80s series that were imported to Europe, including World Masterpiece Theatre classics Shoukoujo Sara and Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri. He is still active to this day, working near exclusively on the long-running Chibi Maruko-chan series.