I don't know many animators, but one I do know is Nishida Asako  西田亜沙子, known as "AS", who was character designer and animation supervisor on Simoun, Touka Gettan, Mouryou no Hako, and Yama to Boushi to Hon.In her blog, AS Days, she reports that she has done some key animation (genga 原画) on Star Driver. Specifically, she has done scenes with the little mascot animal. She says she used her own dog as model for some of the movements: In her career, which stretches back to the early 1990s, she has done animation supervision work on Fate/Stay Night, RomeoxJuliet, Keroro Sougun, Detective Conan, and the "Run, Melos" part of Aoi Bungaku, among other shows. Her key animation work ranges from House of Five Leaves through Kobato, Mai-HiME, Eureka Seven, Gundam Seed Destiny, Kurau Phantom Memory, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc., etc.Nishida-sensei is from Osaka. She moved to Tokyo for a while, but then she and her husband moved back to Osaka. On her official site, Berries, she says she is a homemaker, but not a very competent one. She has a collection of Blythe and Momoko large-scale dolls. She has gone on at least one trip with Rinko (of the DS Love Plus game). She loves anime, and has just finished re-watching Oniisama-e. In her own work, she specializes in sensuous and yuri work, and has a definite individual style (click some photos to enlarge):Jam, a collection of her art But she can also do her own version of stylish and elongated figures:Momoka in Touka Gettan, for which AS did animation character design, working from Carnelian's game designsHere are a couple of her own versions of designs from shows by others:Mai-HiMEAIRHere are a few more examples of her work. She is more than willing to do fairly erotic drawings of quite young girls. I have avoided the best examples of that, but you can find some on her official site and in her blog, or by searching Google images on her name:Aaeru (Simoun)Yami to Boushi to Hon no TabibitoYun (Simoun)SimounSimoun And finally, here is a photo of Nishida-sensei herself, apparently with her husband, Nakatani Seiichi, who is also an animator, specializing in mecha:She occasioned a bit of an uproar last June, when she tore into Angel Beats, saying it was a show she "hated," that the characters weren't given enough motivation, the morality was confused, and the story was crude. Within a day, she had added a postscript to the post on her blog, apologizing for causing trouble, and saying how much she liked the author's previous works, AIR and Kanon.
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