Takumi Yokota  

Takumi Yokota is currently a freelance animator and character designer who was previously affiliated with ufotable, Anime International Company (AIC), and Shaft. After graduating from the Faculty of Law department, he joined ufotable as a production assistant. In an interview with Akiba Souken in 2019, Yokota stated that while watching movies and anime at the library during his job hunting process, he fell in love with Patlabor The Mobile Police directed by Mamoru Oshii. This sparked his interest in becoming a director, and after researching how to become one, he discovered that starting out as a production assistant was one of the paths. He applied for this position at ufotable and later left due to various reasons. For almost half a year after departing from ufotable, Yokota described himself as a NEET (Not in Education or Employment). However, after more than three months of being a NEET, he decided to get a job and remembered his time at ufotable as a production assistant. A conversation with an animator there particularly stuck with him, leading him to consider becoming an animator himself.