After finishing up an engineering degree from Waseda University, Okamura broke into the animation industry as in-between animator at Studio MADHOUSE in 1984. His first couple of projects included Galactic Patrol Lensman and The Dagger of Kamui, but it didn’t take this budding genius long to move into key animation on stone-cold classics such as Ninja Scroll and My Neighbor Totoro. It wasn’t until the mid-90s Okamura really let it rip with his directorial debut, Stink Bomb—the second segment of 1995’s Memories. In the thirty years since then, he’s maintained an incredibly healthy career, directing hits like Wolf’s Rain, Darker Than Black, Blue Exorcist, and The Seven Deadly Sins.