Nakamura, Kazuko

Kazuko Nakamura was born in Manchuria in 1933. After graduating from the Western Painting Department of Joshibi University of Art and Design, she joined Toei Dōga in 1956 as part of its first class of employees. Reiko Okuyama was one of her juniors at the company. She worked on the in-betweens for Toei Dōga’s first color short film, Yumemi Douji (Yumemi dōji, 1958), as an animator, and on the studio’s first color feature film, Panda and the Magic Serpent, also known in English as The White Snake Enchantress (Hakujaden, 1958), as both a clean-up artist and an in-between animator. She continued to work as an in-between animator on Magic Boy (Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke, 1959) and Alakazam the Great (Saiyūki, 1960) before leaving the company. In 1962, Nakamura joined Osamu Tezuka’s animation studio, Mushi Production (Mushi Pro), and worked as a key frame animator on the studio’s first short film, Tales of the Street Corner (Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari). She also worked as a key frame animator on Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu), which began airing in 1963. She became a central figure in early television anime which implemented limited animation techniques that relied on the careful selection of movement, differing from the full animation techniques used in Toei Dōga’s theatrical productions. She served as animation director on Mushi Pro’s first original TV anime, The Amazing 3 also known as Wonder 3, or W3 in Japanese (Wandā Surī, 1965–66). Additionally, alongside Sadao Tsukioka, Nakamura was a key frame animator for the pilot of the girl-targeted color anime Princess Knight (Ribon no Kishi, 1966) and then served as animation director on the series’ broadcast version (1967–68). In addition to her work on serialized TV anime, she contributed key frame animation to feature-length films exploring erotic themes, such as A Thousand and One Nights (Senya Ichiya Monogatari, 1969) and Cleopatra (Kureopatora, 1970), as well as to the Ministry of Education–selected short film The Kindly Lion (Yasashī raion, 1970), which was based on a picture book by Takashi Yanase. She worked as the animation director for Phoenix 2772 (Hi no Tori 2772: Ai no Kosumozōn, 1980), which was an adaptation of Tezuka’s manga of the same name. Dedicating her career to creating anime for a wide range of audiences spanning from adults to children, she helped expand the expressive possibilities of anime in both the entertainment and artistic spheres. She passed away in 2019.