One Piece TV Anime Enlists Henry Thurlow as First Ever Foreign Episode Director

 

Paving the way for foreign animators in Japan, animator Henry Thurlow will be getting another feather in his anime cap by being the first non-Japanese episode director for the One Piece TV anime. Thurlow revealed the news himself through Twitter, sharing an image from the latest Newtype magazine issue that announces staff members in advance. 

 

 

Reported in Newtype:
I, Henry Thurlow, am the episode director of One Piece 1066 airing this month.
As far as I can tell (& as far as the production staff knew when I asked) there has never been a non-Japanese ep director for OP, or possibly any Toei Animation TV series… ever. pic.twitter.com/y99tVE6U2l

— Henry Thurlow (@henry_thurlow) June 9, 2023

 

 

While Toei Animation has foreign studios, such as TOEI Animation Phils in the Philippines, who work on the finishing aspects of production and in-betweens while rarely working on the conceptual stage of the anime in higher ranking roles just as the episode director, which is usually done in Japan.

 

Thurlow muses that this may also be the first time a non-Japanese person has ever directed an episode at Toei Animation, though there may be someone in the pipeline pre-digital era that has been lost to time. Thurlow previously worked at D’ART Shtajio before being picked up by Toei Animation. 

 

RELATED: FEATURE: Animator Henry Thurlow Breaks Down Famous One Piece Fights

 

Thurlow’s episode will be the 1,066th episode of the One Piece TV anime, which airs on June 25 and will be streaming on Crunchyroll shortly after alongside the other over 1,000 episodes of the series.

 

Source: Henry Thurlow on Twitter

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.