Koujin Ochi

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Koujin Ochi

Koujin Ochi.jpg

Profile
Gender: Male
Date of birth: unknown
Place of birth: Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Location: Japan
Also known as Hirohito Ochi and Chiko Uonji.

Koujin Ochi (於地 紘仁 Ochi Kōjin?), real name Hirohito Ochi (越智 浩仁 Ochi Hirohito?), is a Japanese anime director, technical director, and screenplay writer. He also uses rarely the alias Chiko Uonji (宇恩寺 稚子 Uonji Chiko?). He directed Detective Conan from episode 505 to 666, and later episodes 678 to 679.

He is mainly active in animation works done by TMS Entertainment and Bandai Namco Filmworks.

Biography

Ochi entered the Utsunomiya University Faculty of Education (宇都宮大学教育学部) in 1982, and even then, he was already active in the animation industry; he was affiliated with the animation research association of his university. Moreover, he was the person who held a screening event of Space Runaway Ideon (伝説巨神イデオン). In 1986, he dropped out of school during the academic year; thereafter, he began to work under his real name, Hirohito Ochi (越智 浩仁). In 1988, he served as the production advancement of the anime Topo Gigio (トッポ・ジージョ).

Photo of Koujin Ochi.

In 1996, he joined the production of the Detective Conan anime, and served as the storyboard artist and episode director for the 4th episode The Coded Map of the City Case, until the 2nd part of The Convenience Store Trap in 2003, Ochi temporarily quit the production (during this period, he had also written some screenplays for the anime, they were highly famed among the fandom as well). Starting 2006, he altered his name to Koujin Ochi (於地 紘仁), and became active again, which he returned to the Detective Conan anime production team in 2008, first he did storyboard for Clash of Red and Black (Disguise). And from episode 505 onwards, Masato Sato stepped down from the anime director role, so Ochi replaced him as the director in episodes 505-666 and episodes 678-679 also under his alias Koujin Ochi (which was from 2008 to 2012; Yasuichiro Yamamoto was the director from episodes 667 to 677).

After taking over the director role, Ochi first invited the staff who went to work on the movies, during the Masato Sato era, back to the anime production. Art director was altered, and stabilized; the color design was also changed to Shigenobu Kaihoko and became brighter; Masatomo Sudo became the anime character design again, working along with Junko Yamanaka. Ochi did the storyboard for several openings and endings during this time, performing the recovery for the severe alteration in the staff team from the Masato Sato era.

However, the anime production remain chaotic; outsourcing has made many episodes become unstable and the quality dropped significantly. It is not until 2011 that he first officially introduced the "Animation Supervisor" role for the anime, (the credit used was "Chief Animator" (チーフアニメーター ?) and "Key Animator" (キーアニメーター ?)); Seiji Muta was promoted by him for that role.[Note 1]

Yasuichiro Yamamoto took over his position after his resignation as anime director. Apart from these, Ochi is also an excellent screenwriter, and has written many renowned episodes for the series; A Cursed Mask Coldly Laughs is the well-known case he wrote. After 2010, he began to use the pseudonym Chiko Uonji (宇恩寺 稚子) when serving as the screenwriter. After stepping down as director, Ochi's activity in Detective Conan decreased drastically, and he merely served as the screenwriter for Eyewitness Testimony Seven Years Later in 2018.

Just like a lot of mystery cases found in Detective Conan, the two aliases used by Ochi have an interesting origin based on his real name: Koujin Ochi shares the same pronunciation as his real name but written in different ways; Chiko Uonji is the rearrangement of his real name's romanji (Ochi Koujin → Uonji Chiko).

Style analysis

The acclaimed "cursed mask" case by him.

Ochi is one of the veteran staff (like Kazunari Kouchi and Junichi Miyashita) who have joined the anime production since the series began to broadcast. Although he did not write a lot of cases for the anime, most of his cases are of high quality. He is sometimes referred to as the John Dickson Carr of the Detective Conan screenwriters, because his style is just like Carr's, most consisting of locked-rooms, impossible crimes, ingenious tricks; which is a symbolisation of Shinhonkaku Detective Fiction (新本格派推理). He is also good at mingling ghost legends into his stories, and depicting supporting characters - he has created lots of memorable characters to his audience, for example Shingo Nachi, Toshiya Tadokoro, Shimogasa Twins, Touya Aikawa, and Otaro Minakitaya etc.

His style is very similar to that of those mystery writers from the golden age; even the Detective Conan original author Gosho Aoyama thought that the trick Ochi devised in The Case of the Furisode at the Hidden Hot Spring on a Snowy Night is fairly interesting - according to the producer, Michihiko Suwa, who disclosed this information in an interview with Minami Takayama[1].

Scenarios written

Number of case scenarios written under the name of Hirohito Ochi: 4 (6 episodes)

Number of case scenarios written under the name of Chiko Uonji: 4 (7 episodes)

Other works in Detective Conan

As Hirohito Ochi

Participation in: 40 cases (49 episodes)

Participation in: 8 openings and 10 endings

As Koujin Ochi

Participation in: 3 cases (4 episodes)

Participation in: 3 OVAs

Other notable works

Anime

As Koujin Ochi:

  • La Corda D'Oro ~primo passo~: Director, Storyboard
  • Samurai Warriors: Director, Storyboard, Unit director
  • Voice of Fox: Director, Screenplay

As Hirohito Ochi:

  • After War Gundam X: Storyboard, Episode director
  • Nekketsu Saikyo Gozaurer: Storyboard, Episode director
  • Pocket Monster Crystal: Raikou Ikazuchi no Densetsu: Storyboard, Unit director, Opening animation
  • Pokémon - Destiny Deoxys: Unit director
  • Pokemon 4Ever: Assistant director
  • Pokemon Heroes - Latias & Latios: Assistant director
  • Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea: Storyboard, Assistant director

As Chiko Uonji:

  • Samurai Warriors: Screenplay

References

  1. 於地紘仁 - Wikipedia (Japanese)
  2. Anime News Network
  1. ^ According to the end credits in The Scarlet Alibi recap movie, Junko Yamanaka worked as animation supervisor, possibly during Ochi's directorial era where she also did character design, but she was not credited back then.
  1. ^ エンタミクス. May 2014. 
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