Kenji Kamiyama

Kenji Kamiyama is a veteran anime director/writer/animation artist who has steadily worked with Production I.G. anime studio in film and television. Kamiyama’s feature debut was as assistant art director on the Hiroyuki Kitakubo-directed Roujin Z (1991), followed by his work as unit director on director Hiroyuki Okiura’s and writer/creator Mamoru Oshii’s Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1998) and then as screenwriter and assistant planner on the Kitakubo-directed anime horror movie, Blood: The Last Vampire (2000).

Kamiyama was elevated to the director’s chair on the sequel which he also co-wrote (with Shotaro Suga and Yoshiki Sakurai), Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex—Solid State Society (2006), co-produced by Production I.G., Bandai Entertainment and Manga Entertainment. Kamiyama directed the segment titled “Dandelion: Mabu of the Dining Hall” in the anthology feature comprising six short story segments, Eat and Run: 6 Beautiful Grifters (2007), all of which was written by Mamoru Oshii (who also directed one of the segments) and was released by DEIZ and Geneon Entertainment.

Kenji Kamiyama was the director/writer of the linked features, Eden of the East: Air Communication (2009) (compiled from the TV series, Eden of the East) as well as the follow-up features, Eden of the East: The King of Eden (2009) and Eden of the East: Paradise Lost (2010). Kamiyama was again director/writer of 009 Re: Cyborg (2012), based on Shotaro Ishinomori’s manga, Cyborg 009, and released by T-Joy, and Kamiyama followed this up with his directing of the sequel, Cyborg 009: Call of Justice (2016).

Kamiyama was the director/writer of the fantasy adventure, Napping Princess (2017), released worldwide by Warner Bros including in an English-language dub version, and grossing over $4 million in just the Japanese market. Kamiyama directed and co-wrote the paired features from the Ghost in the Shell Universe on film and television—first, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045-Sustainable War (2021) and Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045-The Last Human (2023), co-directed by Shinji Aramaki.

Kenji Kamiyama was the director of a new animated version of The Lord of the Rings saga, titled The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), set 183 years after the action of the original movie series directed by Peter Jackson and with an English voice cast including Brian Cox and Miranda Otto.