Souta Sugahara

Introduction:

Souta Sugahara, credited in his earlier works as SOTA, is a Japanese multitalent whose work is credited to a wide variety of positions including planning, 3DCG animation, direction, screenplay, composition, character design, graphic design, voice acting, video production, editing, manga artist and lyricist.

Biography:

Sugahara first made his debut in the entertainment industry in 1997, when he formed the indie rock band HAGUKI (later known as B-DASH) with the two other members, TANAMAN and ARASE. Though Sugahara later left the band, he would still be responsible for illustrating their mascot character Tonio-chan, as well as writing lyrics for one of their songs, Heiwajima, and working on several of their music videos and album jackets. He would still be credited as the band's "Golden Member" until the band's disbandment.

In 1999, at the age of 19, Sugahara made his debut as a manga artist. His CG-Manga Minna no Tonio-chan, featuring B-DASH's mascot character, was serialized for two years in the weekly magazine SPA!. One of the chapters of the manga, "500 Million Year Button", later became well known as an internet meme in Japan and abroad, and a number of derivative works were created among fans online.

In the early 2000s, other than working on music videos, album jackets etc. for B-DASH, he also produced openings movies for TV the shows Blog no Ojou and Webtama, as well as jingles for Downtown DX and Mechaike. He also did work as a VJ (Video Jockey), and won the MOOK01 Award for this work in 2001.

In 2004, his first original animated work, Minna no Tonio-chan: FUCK THE WORLD, a short CG anime episode which aired on the TV network MUSIC ON! TV, featuring music from B-DASH and voice acting from Yuuta Sugahara and Reiko Sugahara, Souta's brother and sister respectively. The same year he made his theatrical debut with the film SOTAWORLD, a collection of his works which was screened in a single theater.

In 2008, Sugahara started serialization of an original suspense manga Michijigen Dimension X in the monthly seinen magazine A-ZERO. He also produced CG images for the DVD Tsutomu Sekine no Mousou Chikara, and began broadcasting Net Miracle Shopping on the MBS TV channel, a "Silly CG" animation program for which he planned, composed, directed, wrote, edited, designed characters and casted. This year he also released Akarui Sekai, a Silly CG DVD made for fun with Katsuki Tanaka under the supervision of Mitsuru Kuramoto.

In 2009, DVDs of Net Miracle Shopping were released by Victor, and Michijigen Dimension X were published in 2 volumes by Futabasha. Sugahara formed the director's unit Hinokinobouizu with Yasuhiko Shimizu and produced the music video for the song Melt by supercell feat. Hatsune Miku. He also appeared as a video creator on the Fuji Television show Baby-Smap. This year the DVD SUGAGRAPH/Jibunyou-hen was released by TOKYO CULTUART by BEAMS, which featured footage from a visit by Tanaka Katuski and Gabin Ito to Souta Sugahara's home and workplace.

In 2010, the second season of Net Miracle Shopping was both broadcasted and released on DVD, which Sugahara once again planned, composed, directed, wrote, edited, designed characters for and casted. He also made monthly guest appearances in Chin↑Pom and Sou Ootsuki's workshop Konpei.

In 2011, at the request of Seiji Toda, he covered Kappa's Yoroyoro feat. Seiko Itou with original gag lyrics, and produced the music video Yoroyoro Tamatama, which was distributed as an OTOTOY New Year's gift video. Under the supervision of Mitsuru Kuramoto, Sugahara produced the video Chuujin for the 2112 segment of the DVD Pan: Warai no Shinkyouchi. This year the TV Animation gdgd Fairies started airing on TOKYO MX, for which Sugahara did planning, video direction and character designs.

In 2012, he participated in the STATION ID project Canvas 2.0.0, and two of his 2012 STATION ID productions, Space Shower TV and Bug-tta School Mizugi, aired on SPACE SHOWER TV. This year the BDs & DVDs for gdgd Fairies were released, and Sugahara made an appearance on NHK World TV's program, imagine-nation. He also produced the music video for "Z Densetsu: Owari Naki Kakumei" for Metal Clone X, and did character designs for Boku no Imouto wa "Osaka Okan".

In 2013, Sugahara made a guest appearance on the NOTTV program Social @ Talk #Endan with Gabin Ito and Tanaka Katsuki, as well as Toshio Tsuchiya and Mitsuru Kuramoto's event Art to Warai no Kyoukaisen. This year the BDs & DVDs for Boku no Imouto wa "Osaka Okan" and the 2nd season of gdgd Fairies were released, and he did interviews featured in the NOTTV program Anijuu,the Net Debut Handbook Mook. He was in charge of CG and production for the TV programme Hatsune Miku no Miku Miku Make Miku, where he appeared in the 4th Miku x Creator corner as well. He also produced the music video for Tamaki ROY's song Wonderful and animated the music video for the B-DASH song Zassou-kun, for which's album, E', he also designed the album jacket. The 2009 SUGAGRAPH DVD was also rereleased, along with official SUGAGRAPH tote bags and t-shirts. Finally, he performed as a VJ on the 44th Snack Nagako event.

In 2014, Sugahara directed a gdgd Fairies movie, and two different TV anime series during the Fall season. These being Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girl and Konna Watashitachi ga Nariyuki de Heroine ni Natta Kekka www, the latter even having a short film screened alongside the gdgd Fairies movie. He appeared on the TsugiAni! Fall 2014 event, and the TOKYO MX show 5-ji ni Muchuu!. In addition to this, his interviews were published on the radio show Soko☆Ani, in the newspaper ILCAP@pper Vol.2, twice on AnimateTV, and in Dengeki Online.

In 2015, he made an appearance at the Sehagaga Gakuen: Nouten Chokugeki! Yume no Onsoku Popopon Matsuri, Treasure Festa in Ariake 13, and Sehagaga Live! Soft de Hard na Kanshasai events. At the end of the year, Kochinpa! started airing, a 15-second TV Anime featuring the direction and script of Souta Sugahara, made to advertise the pachinko and slot machine parlor Island in Akihabara.

In 2016, Sugahara appeared as a guest judge at the 3rd UTAU Works Festival. He also animated several short commercials for T.M Revolution's ALL TIME BEST album, and did 3DCG works for Yasuhiko Shimizu's Nagano DVD: Ω film. He also appeared on the event Sehagaga Live 2!, the radio show SegaRadi, and had his interview featured in Chinichi ZHI JAPAN 36: No Dou Tokushuu. This year the Complete DVD of Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girl released, which featured a new OVA episode which he also directed, and at the end of the year a second season of Kochinpa! started airing, again featuring Sugahara's direction and scripts.

In 2017, he was in charge of the Music Video for Denki Groove's song Kao Kawacchatteru. (Donkey Town Mix). He also served as the episode director of the Onyankopon anime series. In december, he participated at the PHYSICAL TEMPO HENTAI event in Harajuku, where he sold original goods based on his characters.

In 2018, Sugahara directed two new TV anime, Devidol!, a sequel to his previous KochinPa! shorts, and gd Men, a spin-off of the gdgd Fairies series. A book of the popular 5 Fungo ni Igai na Ketsumatsu released this year was based on several stories from Sugahara's Minna no Tonio-chan series, and he once again appeared on the SegaRadi radio show.

There was little activity by Sugahara in 2019 and the following year, other than directing two music videos for bands under his brother's record label. In late 2020 he revealed his lack of activity was caused by him becoming a father and had been spending time raising his child.

In addition, he is an official researcher for the Adobe sponsored event After Effect Night, chairman of the STASH BATTLE NIGHT committee for the monthly DVD magazine STASH, guest lecturer for the art school contemporary media training course Genius High School!!!! ~Contemporary Art Seminar~, and has served on the selection committee for the 8th MMD Cup as well as the MMD Cup ZERO3 events. He was featured in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 isues of the Eizousakka 100-nin - JAPANESE MOTION GRAPHIC CREATORS books.

He has a VJ unit called MOVIE BOYZ with Sou Ootsuki, Masatsugu Nagasoe, Yasuhiko Shimizu, and Soichi Nakazumi, but it is currently inactive.

He was also recognized as a "Silly CG Artist" in the event Baka-CG no Shinjitsu hosted by Gabin Ito and Tanaka Katsuki in 2006.

(Source: Sugahara Souta Official Home Page, translated, edited)