Real name: Ryousuke Sawa (澤良輔)

Birthday: May 6, 1979

Birthplace: Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

ryo-timo is an illustrator and animator who started out making amateur GIFs before going professional. He's best known for his work on several standout anime projects, though his path into the industry was a bit unconventional—he actually bombed his entrance exam for Gainax, but caught the attention of director Osamu Kobayashi while working on the Beck TV adaptation, which is where he first connected with animators like Satoru Utsunomiya and Norio Matsumoto. He and Matsumoto ended up collaborating on most of his projects afterward.

His real breakthrough came with Satelight's sci-fi series Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e. The 12th episode especially became a fan favorite and earned respect from fellow animators for what ryo-timo and Matsumoto pulled off together.

Around the same time, he worked on the Mainichi and TAF award-winning film Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. For one particular minute-long sequence of the main character Makoto running, he went out to the actual Tokyo street where the scene takes place, filmed himself running the same route, and used that footage as reference—studying his own movements and pouring his personal feelings into the animation itself. That level of commitment pretty much sums up his approach to the craft.