Itano spinoff school lineage

The Muraki Lineage

Muraki School

Toshiki Hirano

Narumi Kakinouchi

Yasushi Muraki 

Soichiro Matsuda 

Hirofumi Masuda

Koki Shikiji

Yoshihiro Kanno 

*Besides the obvious Muraki Laser Circus, Yasushi Muraki’s Anno Hikone hybrid school remains famous for showing off so many leggy and fanservicey character designs that it’s hard to distinguish between Muraki type and more obviously Obari-like designs from up until the mid late 1990s. Toshiki Hirano is indeed both a Muraki schooler and its founder, but whose designs lean somehow closer to older Obari-like styles to an extent, so that Yasushi Muraki is the best known member, hence the current school name. Narumi Kakinouchi is from Itano’s effects lineage, but still shows more similar designs to her husband’s rather than to Inomata’s. 

Ito School

Masahiro Shimanuki 

Koji Ito 

Eiji Suganuma 

Toshie Kawamura

*Koji Ito’s school is likely closer to both Yamashita effects and Obari mech schools rather than to fellow Itano group schools. However, it’s allied to an extent with the Masuo and Matsuo schools, whereas its exaggerated snapshot timing comes from Hideki Tamura, making it a Tamura Itano hybrid. 

The Ide Lineage

Ide School

Yasunori Ide 

Yuji Moriyama

Takayuki Goto 

Koichi Horikawa 

*The Ide school is an Itano Yamashita hybrid which started its life at both Neo Media and Toei animation. It’s in that informal directing school that Mitsuo Iso likely gained his early Yamashita-like timing from Yuji Moriyama, although he still comes instead from Yasuo Otsuka’s original lineage. It’s also known for debuting a prolific amount of character designers and groundbreaking animators who still live with us today. 

Nishijima School 

Akemi Takada 

Asami Endo 

Katsuhiko Nishijima 

Hiroaki Goda 

Seiji Mizushima

Kazuaki Morita 

Hisaaki Okui (Ikuo Geso) 

*The Nishijima school is an Itano Kamegaki hybrid, often mistaken for a rather less wacky Neo-Kanada style, although the more human details often suggest that it’s actually from the Itano group lineage. Like the Ide school, it’s also known for debuting a large amount of famous and popular character designers. However, Hiroaki Goda remains its most famous member, due to his sensual directing and also being a Studio Khara centric person, thus the school members are called Goda-Lites after him. 

The Itano Lineage 

Itano School 

Ichiro Itano 

Shinji Aramaki 

Mutsumi Inomata > Chikashi Kubota 

Masayoshi Nishida

Shingo Fujii

*Although Mutsumi Inomata remained known more so for video game character designs and manga artworks, she actually was a part of Itano’s effects lineage. Oddly enough, she began her career at Kaname Pro thus was initially a less radical yet still detail heavy first generation Kanada schooler just like Cindy H. Yamauchi. 

Anno School

Hideaki Anno

Hidenori Matsubara 

Hideki Kakita

*The Anno school, an Itano Utsunomiya hybrid, is perhaps the biggest standout of the whole Itano bunch, thanks to Satoru Utsunomiya’s early influence. Oddly enough, given that it’s usually more known for a variety of detailed, decadent effects, it’s one of the biggest influences on the styles of both Atsuko Ishida and Masashi Ishihama. Ishida would later go for a speedier flow-fast direction, while Ishihama usually remains a stylised realist leaning closer towards a fusion of both Satoshi Urushihara and Atsuko Nakajima. 

The Masuo Lineage (Masuo-Lite) 

Masuo School 

Nobuteru Yuki 

Shoichi Masuo 

Masayuki Yamaguchi 

Takashi Hashimoto 

Shinya Takahashi

Hiroshi Yoneda

Koh Yoshinari 

Katsunori Shibata

*The Masuo school, a Kozuma Itano hybrid, is where Takashi Hashimoto first worked under along with Nobuyoshi Habara. Habara has long been known for powerful zooming effects and pretty ladies, whereas Hashimoto himself gained a Mao Lamdo like flair at least from his, Shinya Ōhira’s and Shin Matsuo’s early days, while still allowing some fluidity from Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru’s movements, as well as adding in manic explosions via Mitsuo Iso. Still, the Masuo school has produced not only detailed mechanical designs, yet also a lot of character designs with manly, big chins and relatively smaller eyes than is usual due to an early association with Shin Matsuo. They’re both more related to Shinbo and Obari processes rather than to Itano’s and Iso’s own. Oddly enough, although the most unique member, Koh Yoshinari seems to be the only one who continues the OG Masuo style alongside Takashi Hashimoto.