Takashi Nakamura was born in 1955 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He's an animator and an anime director. He worked on a 1988 cyberpunk action film AKIRA as an animation
supervisor and has worked for many other films. He directed his first feature film Catnapped! in 1995. Among his other works are A Tree of Palme, which was an official selection of the Berlin Film Festival, The Portrait Studio (Shahinkan), and Bubu and Bubulina.
Michael Arias has had a colorful filmmaking career, spanning the worlds of VFX, animation, and traditional storytelling. After a young start on effects-heavy films as THE ABYSS and TOTAL RECALL, and with directors as diverse as Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers, he relocated to Japan, where he produced the popular MATRIX spin-off THE ANIMATRIX. In 2006 Michael directed the award-winning anime TEKKONKINKREET and then the live-actioner HEAVEN’S DOOR, and he continues to split his time between animation and live-action filmmaking.