Hajime Ootani (大谷 肇) is a Japanese animator, director, and storyboard artist.
Early life
Ootani was born in Fukui Prefecture on September 22, 1979. He first became interested in animation while in high school after seeing Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke.[1]
Career
Ootani joined studio Imagin as an in-between animator around 2004. He mostly worked as a sub-contracting animator, and eventual episode director, for Madhouse and Imagin. He made his directorial debut with an OVA adaptation of Ayano Yamane's manga A Foreign Love Affair. Ootani's final projects with Imagin were Needless (2009) and Wolverine (2011), which the studio assisted under Madhouse for, where he was promoted to series assistant director.