Yoshinori Kanada

A highly prolific and an extremely influential animator.

Know for his experimentation with the timing of keyframes, his dynamic poses, and his peculiar effects Kanada pioneered a number of techniques and concepts that permeated and shaped the Japanese animation industry, influencing not only his peers but also the generations to come.

Kanada's ability and his tendency to be very personal with his drawings, even to the point of ignoring storyboards if the situation required, popularized in the industry the concept of letting the individual animator's talents shine instead of being uniformed into anonymity. This precept is still respected today and it's one of the reasons Japanese animation is so distinctly unique. His career is also a testament to his ethos that expressive and vibrant animation is not achieved simply through increasing the number of frames but through playing with movement, poses and timing.

In the early '00s, Kanada became an employee at Square Enix.

Notable Square Enix titles in which he was credited:

• 2002, Final Fantasy XI (Motion Capture, Animation Director)
• 2005, Musashiden II: Blade Master (Storyboard)
• 2006, Dawn of Mana (Facial Setting)
• 2007, Final Fantasy 4 DS Version (Storyboard)
• 2009, Final Fantasy XIII (Storyboard Director) - Posthumous credit.
• 2011, Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Storyboard) - Posthumous credit.
• 2012, Dragon Quest X (Storyboard) - Posthumous credit.