News

Production I.G Appoints Wit Studio's George Wada as Executive Vice President

IG Port, the parent company of several anime studios including Production I.G and Wit Studio, announced last Friday that it has made George Wada the executive vice president of Production I.G, effective June 1. Wada was previously a board member of Production I.G, and the president of sister studio Wit Studio. IG Port also appointed animator and Production I.G operating officer Tetsuya Nishio and animator Takayuki Goto as Production I.G company directors, both effective August 28.

Wada joined Production I.G in 2005, and was appointed president of Wit Studio in 2012. From this time, he has produced and overseen some of the studio's best known work, including Attack on Titan, Seraph of the End, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, The Ancient Magus' Bride, After the Rain, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, The Rolling Girls, and Vinland Saga. He will continue to act in his position as president of Wit Studio alongside his new position as Production I.G executive vice president.

Nishio is perhaps best known for his character designs on the many anime iterations of Naruto, as well as the Boruto sequel anime. He has also done character designs, key animation, and animation direction on notable Production I.G anime such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, Jin-Roh, and The Sky Crawlers.

Goto is a founding member of Production I.G, but has been an animator even before the studio's founding. He drew character designs for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG alongside Nishio, and also has numerous other character design and animation direction credits, including for The Beast Player Erin, Please Save My Earth, Blue Seed, the 1999 Hunter X Hunter, Appleseed XIII, Kuroko's Basketball, and The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These.

Sources: IG Port, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)