吉成曜

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Animator, director and storyboard artist currently working at Trigger. Yoshinari entered the anime industry through the influence of his older brother, Kou Yoshinari. Several of his early works were uncredited second key animation and in-betweens for his brother during high school. After leaving professional school, he applied to Gainax and Madhouse. Not receiving a response from Gainax, he joined Madhouse. Due to a misunderstanding, Gainax failed to process his application until three months later. Not wanting to explain, Yoshinari told Madhouse; "being an animator is too hard for me," and switched to Gainax.

At Gainax, Yoshinari had joined just after the closure of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. With nothing to do, he was immediately put onto visual development for the film Aoki Uru, although the film’s production was later broken off due to the studio’s financial state. Undoubtedly his breakout as an animator was just a few years later when he served as one of the lead animators in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yoshinari worked at Gainax until leaving for Trigger in 2011, a studio founded by fellow ex-Gainax members, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Ootsuka. At Trigger he debuted as a director on Little Witch Academia.

Yoshinari is recognized by the way he represents volume and perspective using spheres, especially for smoke and explosions, as well as his character action in general. His characters often borrow traits from western animation, such as rectangular heads, low contrast shading, big eyes and angular lineart. He uses expertly timed smears, dramatic camerawork, and complicated background animation to convey dynamism. His movement is springy and tense, cleanly situated in the dominant cartoony style of ‘00s Gainax. He remarks Nijitte Monogatari as one of his most important influences, with his artistic style particularly visible in his design work for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Little Witch Academia.

Also a big fan of Osamu Tezuka’s, having done multiple short animations based on his manga characters.

Married to producer Naoko Tsutsumi.