Mitsutoshi Kubota

Mitsutoshi Kubota (Japanese: 久保田 光俊, Hepburn: Kubota Mitsutoshi) is Japanese painter, color designer, producer, and the current president of Shaft.

Mitsutoshi Kubota
久保田 光俊
Born	1960 Kikugawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation(s)	Producer, color designer
Years active	1980–present
Employer	Shaft

Career

Kubota began his career in the anime industry as a cel painter for the 1981 film Furiten-kun as a sub-contractor with painting studio Shaft, which had been founded in 1975 by Hiroshi Wakao. The next year, he debuted as a color designer Hitotsuboshi-ke no Ultra Baasan (1982–1983). From then until 1995, Kubota mainly served as a cel painter, color specifier, clean-up inspector, and clean-up artist In 1995, Kubota moved up to production management, which began with Shaft's first original series: Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger. He was promoted to managing director of the studio that year. The year after, Kubota and Shaft were approached by Triangle Staff and Ryūtarō Nakamura to produce the second episode of their Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring OVA series, which the studio and Kubota accepted the offer to. In 2004, Shaft's founder, Hiroshi Wakao, retired as president of the company and Kubota was chosen to succeed him, with the former staying as a chairman with the studio.

After watching several Akiyuki Shinbo's works as a director, namely The SoulTaker and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, Kubota invited the former to become a director and mentor with the studio for the purpose of creating a uniquely identifiable brand. Shinbo brought many talents to the studio, such as directors Shin Ōnuma, Tatsuya Oishi, Naoyuki Tatsuwa, and Tomoyuki Itamura, and the studio has since achieved fame for having "arthouse" productions and "striking" visuals throughout the studio's works. In the mid-2000s, following several instances of Triangle Staff and Nakmaura outsourcing episodes of their series to Shaft, Kubota asked Nakamura to direct REC at the studio, which Nakamura agreed to. During production of the series, Kubota was approached to produce a film version of Kino's Journey, which Nakamura had previously directed at Triangle Staff, to which Kubota and Shaft obliged their services.

Kubota remains relatively active in the creative process to Shaft's series. For The Quintessential Quintuplets∽, Kazuya Shiotsuki mentioned that Kubota directly supervised the creation of the key visuals for the work and gave much of his opinion on the colors. Doroinu also mentioned that Kubota came up with the idea of expressing a theme of "connectivity" in the Magia Record anime adaptation. It was also Kubota's idea to change Nagisa Momoe's hair color from blonde to white in Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion according to Shinbo.

Works

Television series

Year	Title	Producer	Animation Producer	Planning	Other role(s)	Ref(s)
1982–1983	Hitotsuboshi-ke no Ultra Baasan	No	No	No	Color designer
1995–1996	Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger	No	No	No	Production manager Assistant production manager (#16, 22, 26, 30, 37)
1998	Silent Mobius	No	No	No	Production producer
1999	Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure	Yes	No	No	No
2000–2001	Dotto Koni-chan	Yes	No	No	No
2001	Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden	Yes	No	No	No
2002–2003	Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful	Yes	No	No	No
2003	Popotan	Yes	No	No	No
2004	This Ugly yet Beautiful World	No	Yes	No	No
2004–2005	Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase	No	Yes	No	No
2005	He Is My Master	No	Yes	No	No
	Pani Poni Dash!	No	Yes	No	No
2006	REC	Yes	No	No	No
2006–2007	Negima!?	No	Yes	No	No
2007	Hidamari Sketch	No	No	Yes	No
	Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei	No	Yes	No	No
	Ef: A Tale of Memories	Yes	No	No	No
2008	(Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei	No	Yes	No	No
	Hidamari Sketch x 365	No	No	Yes	No
	Ef: A Tale of Melodies	Yes	No	No	No
2009	Maria Holic	No	Yes	No	No
	Natsu no Arashi!	No	Yes	No	No
	(Zan) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei	No	Yes	No	No
	Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū	No	Yes	No	No
2009–2010	Bakemonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
2010	Dance in the Vampire Bund	No	Yes	No	No
	Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu	No	No	Yes	No
	Arakawa Under the Bridge	No	Yes	No	No
	Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge	No	Yes	No	No
	And Yet the Town Moves	Yes	No	No	No
2011	Puella Magi Madoka Magica	No	No	Yes	No
	Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl	No	Yes	No	No
	Maria Holic Alive	No	Yes	No	No
	Hidamari Sketch x SP	No	No	Yes	No
2012	Nisemonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
	Nekomonogatari: Black	Yes	No	No	No
	Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb	No	No	Yes	No
2013	Sasami-san@Ganbaranai	No	No	Yes	No
	Monogatari Series Second Season	Yes	No	No	No
2014	Nisekoi	Yes	No	No	No
	Mekakucity Actors	No	No	Yes	No
	Hanamonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
	Tsukimonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
2015	Gourmet Girl Graffiti	No	No	Yes	No
	Nisekoi:	No	No	No	Chief producer
	Owarimonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
2016–2017	March Comes In like a Lion	No	No	Yes	No
2017	Owarimonogatari II	Yes	No	No	No
2017–2018	March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season	No	No	Yes	No
2018	Fate/Extra: Last Encore	No	No	Yes	No
2019	Zoku Owarimonogatari	No	No	Yes	No
2020	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story	Yes	No	No	No
	Assault Lily Bouquet	No	No	Yes	Produce
2021	Pretty Boy Detective Club	No	No	Yes	No
	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story - The Eve of Awakening	No	No	Yes	No
2022	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story - Dawn of a Shallow Dream	No	No	Yes	No
	Luminous Witches	No	No	Yes	No
	RWBY: Ice Queendom	No	No	No	Planning supervisor

OVAs

Year	Title	Producer	Animation Producer	Planning	Other role(s)	Ref(s)
1987	Yume kara, Samenai	No	No	No	Color specifier
1995	Weather Report Girl	No	No	No	Painter, (Ep. 1)
1996–1997	Legend of the Galactic Heroes	No	No	No	Assistant production manager (#64, 66, 73, 78, 85) Production manager (#87, 90, 93, 96, 99, 102, 105, 108) Production desk (#87, 90, 93, 96, 99, 102, 105, 108)
1997	Sakura Diaries	No	No	No	Production manager
1998	Legend of the Galactic Heroes: A Hundred Billion Stars, A Hundred Billion Lights	No	No	No	Production manager (#5–8) Production producer (#17)
2001	Initial D Extra Stage	Yes	No	No	No
2002–2003	Arcade Gamer Fubuki	No	Yes	No	No
2006	Negima!? Spring Special!!?	No	Yes	No	No
	Negima!? Summer Special!!?	No	Yes	No	No
2008–2009	Mahō Sensei Negima!: Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba	No	Yes	No	No
	(Goku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei	No	Yes	No	No
2009–2010	Mahō Sensei Negima!: Mō Hitotsu no Sekai	No	Yes	No	No
	(Zan) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Bangaichi	No	Yes	No	No
2011	Katte ni Kaizō	No	Yes	No	No
2013	Hidamari Sketch: Sae & Hiro's Graduation Arc	No	No	Yes	No
2014–2015	Nisekoi	Yes	No	No	No
2015–	Magical Suite Prism Nana	No	No	Yes	No
2016–2017	The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer	No	No	Yes	No

ONAs

Year	Title	Producer	Animation Producer	Planning	Other role(s)	Ref(s)
2016	Koyomimonogatari	Yes	No	No	No
2019	Ikebukuro PR Anime	Yes	No	No	No
2020	Luminous Witches	Yes	No	No	No
2021	Assault Lily Fruits	No	No	Yes	Produce

Films

Year	Title	Producer	Animation Producer	Planning	Other role(s)	Ref(s)
1981	Furiten-kun	No	No	No	Cel painter
1983	Urusei Yatsura: Only You	No	No	No	Painter
1994	Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie	No	No	No	Painter
2007	Kino's Journey: Country of Illness —For You—	No	Yes	No	No
2011	Mahō Sensei Negima! Anime Final	No	Yes	No	No
2012	Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Beginnings	No	No	Yes	No
	Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Eternal	No	No	Yes	No
2013	Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion	Yes	No	No	No
2016	Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu	Yes	No	No	No
	Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu	Yes	No	No	No
2017	Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu	Yes	No	No	No
	Fireworks	No	No	No	Production committee

Notes

Book citations

• Kizawa, Yukito; Takayama, Atsushi; Saitou, Fusano, eds. (2014). 劇場版魔法やまどかマギカ[新編]叛逆の物語公式ガイドブック only you. [Movie Version Puella Magi Madoka Magica [New Edition] Story of Rebellion Official Guidebook only you.]. Houbunsha. ISBN 978-4832244290.
• Maeda, Hisashi; Nakagami, Yoshikatsu; Kawabata, Takeshi; Nishitani, Nanako (2020). マギアレコード 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ外伝 TVアニメ公式ガイドブック 1巻 [Magia Record Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV Anime Official Guidebook Volume 1] (in Japanese). Houbunsha. ISBN 978-4832272019.

External links

• Mitsutoshi Kubota at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Mitsutoshi Kubota at IMDb