Yasuhiro Nakura

Nakura was born in Hamakita, Shizuoka, Japan, on January 10, 1959.^[1] His parents ran a textile shop.^[1]

He enrolled in an animation course offered by Toei Animation that he saw advertised in Manga Shounen [ja] and moved to Tokyo.^[1] After completing the course, he joined Studio Carpenter where he debuted as an in-between animator on Starzinger (1978),^[1] and later as a key animator on Dotakon (1981). He worked at Studio Carpenter for about three years and then went freelance, mainly for Toei Animation's works.

His character concepts were used for the 1984 television series Little Memole, which he also worked on as an animation director (his debut in the role). The following year, he was the animation director for Mamoru Oshii's film, Angel's Egg, with designs by Yoshitaka Amano, in which he supervised and corrected drawings to follow Amano's original image boards.^[2] In 1987, he served as character designer and animation director to another feature film, The Tale of Genji (1987) with director Gisaburō Sugii.^[3] In 1990, he participated in Moomin as the animation character designer, having been a fan of the series prior.^[4] He also served as the character designer and chief animation director for Rintaro's Metropolis (2001).^[5]

At some point in his career, Nakura began to take on more work as an illustrator, rather than an animator or animation director. While he continued to work on animated series and films, his output in either decreased significantly during the 1990s and 2000s. He was the character designer and chief animation director for the Tenshu Monogatari arc of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales and was the animation director for Gothicmade in 2012, but contributed in minor key animation roles between them.

In the early 2010s, Nakura developed a relationship with animation studio Shaft as a key animator and animation director on the Monogatari series.^[6] His output in the industry increased during this time as he contributed to other Shaft series like Mekakucity Actors (2014) and contributed as a guest director, designer, and animator for an episode of the Bones series Space Dandy (2014).^[7] In 2016, Nakura worked as the main layout artist, layout setting designer, and art setting designer for Shaft's adaptation of March Comes In like a Lion.^[8] He also regularly contributed to some of the series' ending animation themes, which he storyboarded, directed, and animated on his own.^[9]