Kouichirou Itou, a prominent anime film producer behind hits like Suzume, Your Name, and Weathering With You, has been detained over serious allegations. Several major Japanese news outlets report that on February 21st, 2024, Itou was arrested on suspicion of violating child pornography laws.
Specifically, the Wakayama Prefectural Police allege that Itou solicited nude images from a 15-year-old high school girl via social media, after connecting with her online in September 2021.
Police say Itou was aware she was a minor, but requested explicit photos anyway and proceeded to save them on his phone.
The case apparently came to authorities’ attention during a separate investigation into child prostitution crimes.
Itou has generally admitted wrongdoing, conceding that he has “received images from underage women several times,” though claiming an inability to remember the specific victim in this instance.
Police are now looking into whether there may be additional victims preyed upon by the prominent producer. The allegations, if proven true, suggest a disturbing pattern of behavior taking advantage of minors.
Kouichirou Itou’s Journey in Anime Film Production
Kouichirou Itou has had an extensive career in anime film production going back over 15 years. He got his start in the industry at age 28 when he joined Comix Wave Films, the animation studio responsible for many of acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai’s most popular works.
Itou began working with Shinkai just as the director was releasing his breakout film Voices of a Distant Star.
In a 2011 interview, Itou described trying to balance growing Shinkai’s audience while preserving his singular directorial vision, as well as taking on duties like art direction and cinematography that Shinkai typically handled himself.
In addition to recent hits like Suzume, Your Name, and Weathering With You, Itou has producer credits on several other Shinkai films including The Place Promised in Our Early Days, the short Dareka no Manazashi, and The Garden of Words.
He is also said to have advocated for extending the runtime of the 2011 film Children Who Chase Lost Voices, convincing executive producer Noritaka Kawaguchi.
Beyond his prolific work with Comix Wave and Shinkai, Itou has also produced a live-action film titled Musicophilia and the anime series Kakurenbo.
If found guilty of the reported allegations, it would cast a disturbing shadow over what has otherwise been an acclaimed career in the animation business.
About Kouichirou Itou Produced Your Name
Mitsuha Miyamizu is a high school girl living in the sleepy rural town of Itomori, Japan, who dreams of escaping her boring life and being reborn as a Tokyo boy in her next life.
One day, she mysteriously begins switching bodies on random days with Taki Tachibana, an actual Tokyo high school boy.
When they swap bodies, Mitsuha and Taki must fully live each other’s lives for that entire day before switching back at night when they fall asleep.
They establish rules to properly manage the body-swapping, communicating through written messages on paper, cell phones, and even writing notes on their skin.
During her days as Taki, Mitsuha helps set him up on a date with his coworker Miki, while Taki’s days as Mitsuha make her more popular at her school.
When Taki is in Mitsuha’s body, he also visits the local Shinto shrine with her family and learns about the belief that gods connect humans across time.
Mitsuha shares that a comet called Tiamat will be passing very close to Earth on the day of Itomori’s autumn festival. After Taki returns to his own body, he goes on a date with Miki but realizes he is falling for Mitsuha.
He tries calling her but cannot reach her, and just as mysteriously as it began, the body-swapping stops completely.
Taki realizes he must find Mitsuha and travels to the Hida region with his friends Miki and Tsukasa, hoping to locate her town.
Without knowing the name, Taki sketches the landscape from his memories.
A restaurant owner in Takayama recognizes it as Itomori and agrees to guide them.
When they arrive, they are horrified to discover the town has been nearly destroyed by fragments that fell from the comet Tiamat.
Since Tiamat passed three years prior, Taki grasps that he and Mitsuha were separated by three years – her living in 2013 while he was in 2016. Searching the records of the 500 killed by the impact, he finds Mitsuha’s name.
As Taki starts losing his memories of her, he races to the shrine in a panic and drinks the kuchikamizake liquor they left as an offering years before.
A vision shows him that Mitsuha had once come to Tokyo to meet him, but he hadn’t recognized her; the ribbon she gave him that day is one he has worn since.