Line #26 Creator/MasahikoOhta


1	-->''[[Manga/MinamiKe "This page is one that lightly describes the ordinary career of anime director Masahiko Ohta. Please don't expect too much from it."]]''
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3	Masahiko Ohta (born January 4th, 1967) is a Japanese anime director. He is closely associated with Creator/DogaKobo, and his adaptation of ''Manga/YuruYuri'' cemented the studio's evolution from "video factory"[[note]] ''the literal translation of their name''[[/note]] into "{{Moe}} factory".
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5	As his credits will attest, most of his directing gigs involve candyfloss-colored SliceOfLife. He has a distinctive visual style involving very kinetic and fluid animation, surreal absurdist humor, and bursts of HotBlooded MundaneMadeAwesome.
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7	----
8	!!His directing credits include:
9	* ''VideoGame/YoakeMaeYoriRuriiroNa'', the anime adaptation
10	* ''Manga/MinamiKe'' season 1
11	* ''Manga/{{Mitsudomoe}}''
12	* ''Manga/YuruYuri'' seasons 1 & 2
13	* ''Manga/KotouraSan''
14	* ''Manga/LoveLab''
15	* ''Manga/{{Sabagebu}}''
16	* ''Manga/HimoutoUmaruChan''
17	* ''Hagane Orchestra''
18	* ''Manga/GabrielDropOut''
19	* ''Manga/UzaMaidOurMaidIsWayTooAnnoying''
20	* ''Literature/DidntISayToMakeMyAbilitiesAverageInTheNextLife''
21	* ''Manga/DiaryOfOurDaysAtTheBreakwater'', guest director on "Preparations and Herons"
22	* ''Anime/{{Onipan}}'', his first [[AnimeFirst Anime Original]] series
23	* ''Manga/MyDeerFriendNokotan''
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25	!!His works include the following tropes:
26	* AdaptationExpansion: When he needs to stretch the source material out or is in danger of [[OvertookTheManga overtaking the manga]], he truly commits himself to creating memorable anime-original material. Among anime fans, said material often turns out to be some of the most memorable stuff...for better[[labelnote:]] '' -- "The Akari Who Leapt Through Time" and "Farewell, Protagonist, Until We Meet Again" from'' Yuru Yuri''; Satania's increased presence in the ''Gabriel Drop-Out'' anime -- ''[[/labelnote]] '''''or''''' for worse[[labelnote:]] '' -- The infamous DownerBeginning from'' Kotoura-san[[/labelnote]].
27	* AssociatedComposer: All his shows since ''Minami-ke'' have been scored by Yasuhiro Misawa, so naturally they tend to have similar incidental music. Generally, the "everyday life" themes will use cymbal-heavy percussion punctuated by arrhythmic fills, along with repetitive, stop-and-start pizzicato melodies. (Occasionally a driving techno beat or funky disco riff will be mixed in too.) Misawa's style perfectly encapsulates the quirky, off-beat SliceOfLife that Ohta's shows depict.
28	* CreatorBacklash: His first directing gig, ''Crescent Love'', had a scene with a cabbage that was so embarrassingly bad it's synonymous with "animation collapse", a Japanese term used when a production completely falls apart due to tight deadlines and a lack of money. On the Japanese Wikipedia, although he doesn't name ''Crescent Love'' directly, he does say that the potential for animation collapse is the reason he prefers to work with a tightly-knit ProductionPosse.
29	* CreatorsOddball:
30	** ''Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!'' It's his only full-length work which is straight-up ''isekai'' fantasy, as opposed to a SchoolgirlSeries with light fantasy elements like ''Kotoura-san'' or ''Gabriel Drop-Out''.
31	** There's also ''Hagane Orchestra'', a series of three-minute shorts about female mechanics in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, created to advertise a mobile game.
32	* LargeHam: His works typically feature one boisterous, egotistical girl who acts impulsively, makes HotBlooded proclamations, and is TheGadfly to her friends. And, inevitably, graces tons of anime memes for the next decade. Kyouko Toshino and Satanichia [=McDowell=] are hands down the most popular. Lesser examples include Kana Minami, Mitsuba Marui, Miou Ootori, and Sylphinford Tachibana.
33	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Often exaggerates simple movements and gestures into portentous, world-shaking events, such as Kana Minami stomping into her classroom like Godzilla to confront somebody or Futaba Marui rising in slow-motion from an underwear bin with loud mechanical whining like a giant robot launching from its underground bunker.
34	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Despite working in a medium (in)famous for fanservice, he mainly uses nudity for laughs, such as ''Mitsudomoe'' framing all its [[ComedicUnderwearExposure Comedic Underwear (or lack thereof) Exposure]] so the audience can't see anything, or ''[=UzaMaid=]'' pixelating Midori Ukai's boobs, ''Series/{{Cops}}''-style, when they pop out of her blouse to make it both less erotic and more hilarious. Even the more-explicit ''Sabagebu'' OVA episodes treat their fanservice with tongue firmly in cheek, as a vehicle to embarrass and humiliate its ButtMonkey protagonists, while constantly thanking the viewer for buying the Blu-Ray.
35	* ProductionPosse:
36	** He never directs a show without Takashi Aoshima as the head writer and Yasuhiro Misawa as the composer.
37	** He cast Creator/AkiToyosaki as "schoolgirl friend of other protagonists" three times in a row: Yoshino in ''Minami-ke'', Yuki Yoshioka in ''Mitsudomoe'', and Chitose Ikeda in ''[=YuruYuri=]''. She also gets older and weirder every time, from a level-headed 10 year old, to a ditzy romance-obsessed 12 year old, to a 14 year old yuri fanatic who gets explosive nosebleeds when she fantasizes about her friends getting together.
38	** If there's a mother character in his works, it ''will'' be played by Creator/KikukoInoue. She's starred in no less than five of his works as the mother of a main or supporting character: ''Mitsudomoe'', ''Kotoura-san'', ''Sabagebu'', ''Himouto! Umaru-chan'', and ''[=UzaMaid=]''. She plays against type as a diminutive bear-''thing'' that only uses PokemonSpeak in ''Onipan!''
39	* SignatureShot: In the first episode of a series, he often includes a shot of the camera barreling through a room or down a hallway at full speed, all lovingly animated in lush [=3D=].
40	** ''Manga/MinamiKe'': When Kana is chasing her sister for a kiss, we get a [=POV=] shot of her racing down the hallway and running smack-dab into the wall.
41	** ''Manga/{{Mitsudomoe}}'': Right before Class 6-3 is introduced, the camera careens through the school hallway and rushes right at the class's sign.
42	** ''Manga/YuruYuri'': After Kyouko announces the Amusement Club does whatever they want, the camera zips up to the ceiling, spins around a few times, and then zips right back down to Akari's screaming face.
43	** ''Manga/LoveLab'': [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] when Maki is introduced and the camera drifts down the hallway towards her. Not as pronounced as some of the other examples, but given the overall stellar quality of the animation, anything more probably would've broken the show's budget.
44	** ''Manga/HimoutoUmaruChan'': When Umaru returns home and morphs into her chibi form, we get a [=POV=] shot of her scurring through her apartment on all fours, hurtling under the table, and rushing right up to her computer.
45	** ''Manga/UzaMaidOurMaidIsWayTooAnnoying'': After Misha spots Tsubame clinging to a utility pole outside her window, the camera follows Misha as she races out of her room, pelts through the hallway, and stomps down the stairs.
46	** ''Manga/DiaryOfOurDaysAtTheBreakwater'': In the episode he guest-directed, there is a very brief (probably due to budget reasons) 3D shot of a heron swooping towards the breakwater.
47	** ''Anime/{{Onipan}}'': Taken up to eleven. When the ''onikko'' try and return a stuffed animal to a little girl, Ohta takes advantage of Studio Wit's [=3D=] department to create an epic, two-minute parkour sequence as they race through town.

Context Creator / MasahikoOhta