Just in time for the anime premiere of "Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life", we welcome the director of the series to Anime Messe Babelsberg 2026: Hideyo Yamamoto, known to many as the director of "Strike the Blood". We celebrate the premiere on Saturday 18 July 2026 at 16:30 in the great hall. On top of that, he will hold an autograph session on all three days of the convention: on Friday at 15:20, on Saturday at 18:00 and on Sunday at 10:40.
Some names in the credits turn up again and again before you quite place them, and Hideyo Yamamoto is one of them. He began his career in 1997 as a production assistant at Production I.G, made his first mark as an episode director on "Noir" at Bee Train, and then went freelance. In the years that followed he worked as a storyboard artist and episode director on a long line of defining titles, among them "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex", "Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor" and "Bleach".
In 2012 he stepped into the director's chair for the first time with "New Prince of Tennis". Since then he has directed productions such as "Strike the Blood", "Cells at Work! CODE BLACK!", "My Master Has No Tail" and, most recently, "Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan". With "Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life" he now directs a series whose hero happens to be a reclusive gamer, which suits him rather well, since Yamamoto cheerfully describes himself as a complete homebody who spends his free time on films, books and video games.
At Anime Messe Babelsberg 2026 you can catch him twice over. On Saturday 18 July 2026 at 16:30 he will answer your questions about the making of the series after the premiere in the great hall. He will also hold an autograph session on all three days of the convention, on Friday at 15:20, on Saturday at 18:00 and on Sunday at 10:40. Join us in giving him a warm welcome in Potsdam.