Atsushi Aono

Atsushi Aono
Profile
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	July 12, 1964
Place of birth:	Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan
Location:	Tokyo Metropolis, Japan
Position:	Animation director Character design Chief animation director Key animation
Years active:	1985-present
Aliases:	青野厚志
Website:	Twitter Account

Atsushi Aono (青野 厚司 ,Aono Atsushi), born July 12, 1964, is a Japanese animation director and freelance animator from Hokkaido. He is exceedingly well-known for his participation in Detective Conan, as well as his delicate drawings for Ai Haibara; even the author Gosho Aoyama took the name "Atsushi" as the name for Haibara's father in the manga as a sort of tribute.

Biography

Aono is a freelance animator, and his hobbies are related to cameras, model trains, tokusatsus etc. He made his debut as an in-between animator in 1985, via the anime Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (機動戦士Ζガンダム); and first served as animation director in 1989 within the anime Madö King Granzört (魔動王グランゾート). Since then, he has been involved in several major new animation works, until the present.

Nowadays, he mainly works for short-running series, and mostly with animation done by Bones (株式会社ボンズ) and Brain's Base (ブレインズ・ベース).

Just like other veteran staff, Aono joined the production of the Detective Conan anime in the first year the anime began to broadcast - as animation director for the fifth episode The Shinkansen's Bomb Case. Thereafter, he kept active within the production team and constantly did key animation and animation direction in several episodes. In the beginning, his work was not that noticeable, yet after some time, he started to craft his personal style (especially when the new millennium began). During the first half of 2001, Aono's drawing style increased drastically and reached its splendor - examples include the Haibara with the red hoodie in the 2nd part of The Mysterious Passenger. Most of the frames corrected/drawn by him were memorable since they were mostly close to the original manga style, and in great proportion. Another thing worth mentioning, is that in the case of Hooligan's Labyrinth, Aono was responsible for the animation correction for both two parts, this is extremely rare in the Detective Conan anime.

Nonetheless, after several years, the style of the manga has changed, and the anime character design has changed as well. Aono's peculiar style for drawing Detective Conan characters was far off the anime character design (despite undergoing the change from celluloid conventional production to digital production; the alteration in colour design and character design in Masato Sato era). Aono eventually terminated the long-term cooperation with the Detective Conan production team after 2005, after finishing the animation direction for the 1st part of Conan and Heiji's Deduction Magic. After that, he only served as the chief animation director for OVA7 A Challenge from Agasa! Agasa vs. Conan and the Detective Boys.

It was not until 2015 that he merely returned to the Detective Conan anime and did key animation for episode 783 (The Scarlet Truth). And surprisingly, in 2018, Atsushi Aono, was back in the anime and served as animation director after entirely 14 years. The reason behind it was to "return a favour" (there was an episode in the sixth season of anime Natsume's Book of Friends (夏目友人帳) that was outsourced to V1 Studio). As a result, Studio Shuka requested Aono to temporarily take over the job for the 2nd part of The New Teacher's Skeleton Case. During that episode, Aono worked with Seiji Muta and Masatomo Sudo, and the huge difference between them and Aono can be seen, which also implied that Aono's style might not be as befitting as the current anime character design anymore.

Works in Detective Conan

• See Animation directed by Atsushi Aono

Anime

Participation in: 78 cases (80 episodes)

Jpn#	Int#	Episode title	Original broadcast	Role	Note
5	5	The Shinkansen's Bomb Case	February 5, 1996	Animation director
10	10	Pro Soccer Player Blackmail Case	March 11, 1996	Animation director
13	14	The Strange Person Hunt Murder Case	April 22, 1996	Animation director
18	19	A June Bride Murder Case	June 3, 1996	Animation director
24	25	The Mysterious Woman With Amnesia Case	July 15, 1996	Animation director
29	30	Computer Murder Case	August 19, 1996	Animation director
36	37	Monday Night 7:30 p.m. Murder Case	November 4, 1996	Animation director
41	42	Victory Flag Tearing Case	December 9, 1996	Animation director
46	47	Alpine Hut in the Snowy Mountain Murder Case	February 3, 1997	Animation director
59	61	The First Errand Murder Case	May 19, 1997	Animation director
64	66	The Third Fingerprint Murder Case	June 23, 1997	Animation director
71	73	A Stalker's Murder Case	August 11, 1997	Animation director
75	77	Loan Company President's Murder Case	September 8, 1997	Animation director
79	82	The Bank Heist Murder Case	November 3, 1997	Animation director
83	86	General Hospital Murder Case	December 1, 1997	Animation director
90	93	The Flower Scent Murder Case	February 9, 1998	Animation director
94	97	Snow Woman's Legend Murder Case	March 9, 1998	Animation director
102	108	The Historical Actor Murder Case (Part 1)	May 25, 1998	Animation director
106	112	Scoop Picture Murder Case	June 22, 1998	Animation director
112	118	The Seven Mysteries of Teitan Elementary School Case	August 10, 1998	Animation director
116	122	The Mystery Writer Disappearance Case (Part 1)	September 7, 1998	Animation director
120	127	A Honey Cocktail Murder Case	October 19, 1998	Animation director
126	133	The Traveling Drama Troupe Murder Case (Part 1)	November 30, 1998	Animation director
137	147	The Old Blue Castle Investigation Case (Part 2)	March 1, 1999	Animation director
144	154	The North Star No.3 Express Leaving Ueno (Part 1)	May 10, 1999	Animation director
158	168	The Silent Loop Line	August 23, 1999	Animation director
164	175	The Secret of the Moon, the Star, and the Sun (Part 2)	October 18, 1999	Animation director
170	181	The Blind Spot in the Darkness (Part 1)	November 29, 1999	Animation director
177	191	Reunion with the Black Organization (Conan)	January 24, 2000	Animation director
184	198-199	A Cursed Mask Coldly Laughs	March 13, 2000	Animation director	1 hour
189	204	The Desperate Revival - The Wounded Great Detective	May 8, 2000	Animation director
198	213	The Super Car's Trap (Part 2)	July 10, 2000	Animation director
208	223-224	The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Colossus	October 9, 2000	Animation director	1 hour
216	232	The Bay of Revenge (Part 2)	December 4, 2000	Animation director
223	242	And Then There Were No Mermaids (The Deduction)	February 5, 2001	Animation director
228	247	The Murderous Pottery Class (Part 1)	March 12, 2001	Animation director
231	250	The Mysterious Passenger (Part 2)	April 23, 2001	Animation director
235	254	The Locked Wine Cellar	May 28, 2001	Animation director
240	259	The Shinkansen Transport Case (Part 1)	July 2, 2001	Animation director
241	260	The Shinkansen Transport Case (Part 2)	July 9, 2001	Animation director
246	265	The Mystery in the Net (Part 1)	August 13, 2001	Animation director
251	270	The Tragedy at the OK Corral	September 17, 2001	Animation director
256	275	The 14th Round of the Matsue Tamatsukuri Linked Verse Contest (Part 2)	November 5, 2001	Animation director	Mystery tour
260	279	The Shaking Restaurant	December 3, 2001	Assistant animation director
262	281	The Fearful Legend of the Snowy Night (Part 2)	December 17, 2001	Animation director
264	286	Courtroom Confrontation: Kisaki vs. Kogoro (Part 1)	January 14, 2002	Animation director
268	290	The Truth Behind Valentine's (The Resolution)	February 11, 2002	Animation director
270	292	The Forgotten Memento from the Crime (Part 2)	March 4, 2002	Animation director
274	296	The Truth of the Haunted House (Part 1)	April 15, 2002	Animation director
279	301	Hooligan's Labyrinth (Part 1)	May 27, 2002	Animation director
280	302	Hooligan's Labyrinth (Part 2)	June 3, 2002	Animation director
284	306	Chinatown Deja Vu in the Rain (Part 1)	July 1, 2002	Animation director
289	311	Mitsuhiko's Mystifying Forest (Part 1)	August 5, 2002	Animation director
295	317	The Smash of Determination and Love (Part 2)	September 16, 2002	Animation director
298	320	Courtroom Confrontation II: Kisaki vs. Kujo (Part 2)	October 28, 2002	Animation director
301	323	Parade of Malice and Saint (Part 1)	November 25, 2002	Animation director
304	326-329	The Trembling Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages	January 6, 2003	Animation director	2 hours
313	338	Festival Dolls Dyed in the Setting Sun (Part 2)	March 10, 2003	Animation director
320	345	The Art of Ninja Alibi Craft	May 19, 2003	Animation director
325	350	The Red Horse within the Flames (The Case)	June 23, 2003	Animation director
331	356	The Suspicious Spicy Curry (Part 1)	August 11, 2003	Animation director
337	362	Hidden Circumstances of the Falling Incident	October 13, 2003	Animation director
341	366	Hidden Bathroom Secret (Part 2)	November 10, 2003	Animation director
342	367-368	The Bride of Huis ten Bosch	November 17, 2003	Animation director	1 hour
345	371-375	Head-to-Head Match with the Black Organization: A Dual Mystery on a Full Moon Night	January 5, 2004	Animation director	2.5 hours
347	377	Find the Buttock's Mark (Part 2)	January 19, 2004	Animation director
351	381	The Forgotten Cell Phone (Part 2)	February 16, 2004	Animation director
356	386-387	Kaitou Kid's Miraculous Midair Walk	April 12, 2004	Animation director	1 hour
362	393	Teitan High School's Ghost Story (Part 2)	May 31, 2004	Animation director
368	399	The Candy House the Witch Lives In	July 26, 2004	Animation director, Key animation
376	407	The Time Limit is 15:00!	November 1, 2004	Animation director, Key animation
385	419	The Dissonance of the Stradivarius (Prelude)	January 24, 2005	Animation director
390	424	Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 6 (Part 1)	February 28, 2005	Animation director
397	431	Hot, Bitter, Sweet Soup	May 9, 2005	Animation director
402	436	A Jewel Thief Caught Red-Handed (Part 2)	June 13, 2005	Animation director
404	438	The Mysterious Angel's Mansion (Part 2)	June 27, 2005	Animation director
406	440	Conan and Heiji's Deduction Magic (The Trick)	July 11, 2005	Animation director	Concluded regular direction
783	836	The Scarlet Truth	June 27, 2015	Key animation
890	945	The New Teacher's Skeleton Case (Part 2)	January 27, 2018	Animation director	Brief return

Openings and Endings

Participation in: 1 opening

#	Song name	Original title	Role	Note
OP13	Aoi Aoi Kono Hoshi ni	青い青いこの地球に	Key animation

Movies

Participation in: 5 movies

Movie	Song name	Original title	Role	Note
5	Countdown to Heaven	April 21, 2001	Key animation
8	Magician of the Silver Sky	April 20, 2002	Key animation
9	Strategy Above the Depths	April 19, 2003	Key animation
19	Sunflowers of Inferno	April 18, 2015	Key animation
20	The Darkest Nightmare	April 16, 2016	Key animation

OVAs

Participation in: 2 OVAs

OVA	Song name	Original title	Role	Note
1	Conan vs. Kid vs. Yaiba - The Grand Battle for the Treasure Sword!!	October 11, 2000	Character design, Animation director
7	A Challenge from Agasa! Agasa vs. Conan and the Detective Boys	March 14, 2007	Chief animation director

Games

Participation in: 1 game

Title	Release date	Role	Note
Detective Conan: The Great Deduction of Three People	August 10, 2000	Animation director	Opening animation

Gallery

• 

  Episode 189

• 

  Episode 231

• 

  Episode 279

• 

  Episode 313

• 

  Episode 890

Other notable works

Anime

• Ah! My Goddess: The Movie: Key animation
• Baccano!: Animation director
• Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card: Key animation
• Durarara!!: Animation director, Assistant animation director, Key animation
• Great Teacher Onizuka: Key animation
• Last Order Final Fantasy VII: Key animation
• Macross Plus: Animation director
• Steamboy: Key animation
• Vermeil in Gold: Chief animation director

See also

• Johei Matsuura

References

1. Page partially or completely translated from the Chinese version of August 13th, 2023.
2. 青野厚司 - Wikipedia (Japanese)
3. Anime News Network