How Director Tatsuya Nagamine Created a Framework for Excellence in Anime

Image via ONE PIECE official YouTube channel When news of the passing of longtime director Tatsuya Nagamine emerged last week , there was an outpouring of grief and support, not just from his fellow staff members and peers, but from his fans as well. Nagamine, like few others, has become a figurehead of Toei Animation’s output over the last fifteen years, exemplifying the creative leaps it has attempted with its flagship franchises like Dragon Ball and ONE PIECE . Being in such a position rarely offers much in the way of glory — at best, you hope to be a careful steward of a beloved series, tending to it until you inevitably pass it off into new, curious hands. As Nagamine told the audience at the 2023 Anime Awards when ONE PIECE won “Best Continuing Series” : “ One Piece usually gets nominated to these things, but never receives anything... All the staff work very hard to turn this wonderful title into an anime to deliver to our fans. But quite often, it’s difficult to visualize and recognize that effort.” But what Nagamine gave these titles was nothing less than tremendous, and it’s hard to imagine their current state of international success without his contributions. Tatsuya Nagamine at the 2023 Anime Awards Image via Newtype Web Nagamine had been a staple of Toei Animation since the nineties, and though he gained a higher degree of worldwide recognition with Dragon Ball and ONE PIECE , his earlier work shouldn’t be discounted. He’d engaged with series like Ojamajo Doremi , Digimon and the Precure franchises, gigs that had the chance to be fairly thankless but were empowered by Nagamine’s adeptness at crafting adventure. Digimon Savers the Movie - Ultimate Power! Burst Mode Invoke!! is a short film that inevitably leads to a cool new evolution for its primary monster, but Nagamine manages to offer clever framing and choreography that keeps it from merely being a simple Digimon movie. This is in line, in fact, with one of the key lessons that he learned from the aforementioned work on Ojamajo Doremi , one that he’d take as gospel when he became a series director later. Under the supervision of Toei Animation staff like Hiromi Seki (the longtime Digimon producer), he became convinced that a staff works best (and that a studio can only attract talent) when they’re allowed to have fun within the “boundary” of a series . Diverge too much, and it won’t feel like the series at all. But allow the staff to exist in a sort of “playground” with the material? That’s the sweet spot. His work as the director of One Piece Film: Z is much more immediately potent. The film itself is a balancing act, being both a series of action set pieces and a poignant meditation on the passage of time. The lead villain, Zephyr, is a tired creature of the past, desperate to enact his vengeance before the sunset of his era. He also has a really cool metal arm that is great for punching and exploding things, so you gotta let that have its spotlight, too. Nagamine’s pacing in bridging the gap between these two tones is sublime. Like few other ONE PIECE movie villains, Zephyr is granted a sense of emotional scale, and Nagamine allows him the quiet, bittersweet moments that another director might have rushed. However, this all coincides with scenes like the frantic battle between the lightning-quick Kizaru and Zephyr, which displayed the former’s power in a way that raised the bar for all subsequent appearances of the character. Nagamine served as a series director in the latter half of the Dragon Ball Super anime, and his touch is evident there. The Tournament of Power storyline caused the already grandiose conflicts of the Dragon Ball series to go even larger, and the build to the finale (in which Goku and Frieza take on Jiren in fist-pumping fashion) brought the Dragon Ball fanbase to a fever pitch. That particular episode, storyboarded by Megumi Ishitani (whose later work in the ONE PIECE anime has made her a standout creative on the show), reflects the impact Nagamine had on his staff as he tried to bring out the best in them . The Dragon Ball Super films all reignited Dragon Ball ’s chances at the box office, but Dragon Ball Super: Broly continues to reign supreme. Working with series creator Akira Toriyama, Nagamine’s event-level film was an all-time crowd pleaser. Of particular note is his depiction of Broly, which granted the Saiyan an emotional and physical fluidity that belies his typical “final boss” appearance. And though Broly rarely dived into the pure pathos of something like Film Z , Nagamine replaced it with pure, martial arts-inspired aplomb. Goku’s little warm-up on his way to fight Broly for the first time, as the soundtrack murmurs a promise of the battle to come with the sound effects never extending beyond Goku’s tiny grunts and the patter of his boots in the snow, is masterful. The shouts of the combatants’ names, erupting as if from a professional wrestling announcer (“KAKAROT! BROLY!”) is an amazing crescendo. When combined, it’s as blood-pumping as the fistfight that follows. But perhaps it’s the Wano Kuni arc of ONE PIECE that best exemplifies Nagamine’s efficacy as a lead creative. It’s obvious that Toei Animation planned on doubling down on ONE PIECE ’s potential for spectacle — The Wano Kuni arc featured a reinvention of the series’ art style, favoring thicker line work, an updated score and a more consistent focus on the work of key animators, which often caused the series to explode in detail and motion and turned ONE PIECE into even more of a can’t-miss weekly experience. You not only followed along for the Wano storyline, a narrative that had been building in the series for over a decade, but for what Toei’s staff would pull off next time. Under Nagamine’s hand, ONE PIECE produced what many fans consider to be its crowning achievement. Nagamine did direct some episodes himself — most notably Episode 892 , an introduction to Wano that is a masterpiece of tone, and Episode 1071 , which was the first real display of Luffy’s GEAR5 — but the entire section of the anime shines with his passion. Nagamine, perhaps above all things, knew his way around an action scene: the proper cuts between wide framing and close-ups, the tempo that grants a battle a rhythm even as it builds to a knockout or is constantly interrupted, and the ability to measure design vs movement. Translating ONE PIECE into an anime has never been easy — Eiichiro Oda’s writing and character art make for an ever-expanding scope and the constant need to adapt to different body types and gestures. Nagamine, though, proved that it could be done, all while refusing to abandon the story’s emotional core (Alongside these high-impact fights, the tragic scenes in the Wano Kuni arc carry on with drumbeat urgency), and we were lucky to have him as the anime transitioned to the Egghead Island arc later. ONE PIECE , currently riding high at a degree of international acclaim that it’s never before experienced, wouldn’t be the same without Nagamine’s efforts. The loss of a creator like Tatsuya Nagamine is a profound one. But through his work, he proved to us that one can be part of something huge and still provide singular results. His dynamic approach didn’t just adapt — it gave these series a sense of life. And for that, we will always be thankful.

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