Junichi Sato (佐藤 順一, Satō Jun'ichi, born March 11, 1960) is a Japanese anime director.
[9] He was to have directed Studio Ghibli's 1989 film Kiki's Delivery Service, produced by Hayao Miyazaki, but left the project before it started.
[15] Sato joined Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) in return for asking Hideaki Anno, a Sailor Moon fan, to do key animation and storyboards for it.
[16] Sato was asked by junior colleague Kunihiko Ikuhara to storyboards his first post-independent work, Revolutionary Girl Utena, he drew it under his real name despite it being a non-Toei film, as a pseudonym would not be celebratory.
[17] Sato directed his first original work, Magic User's Club, after Triangle Staff offered his the chance to make an OVA.
[19][20] He requested a double-headed system with two directors, as he was too busy to concentrate on Ojamajo Doremi and thought that if it was an original production, it would be better to have as many brains, especially young ones, to come up with ideas as possible.
[2][3] When he approached the production department to produce a TV series of Magic User's Club, they asked him to do it after he had resigned and was no longer officially affiliated with Toei, so he replied 'Okay'.
[17] He then worked as a freelancer for about a year until the show ended, and then also stepped down from his position as series director of Ojamajo Doremi.
[17][25] He is skilled at training and mentoring newcomers, and once the popularity of the series stabilised, he often steps down as director and passes the baton to his successor.
During his time at Toei Dōga, many talents studied directing under him, including Kunihiko Ikuhara, Kōnosuke Uda, Takuya Igarashi and Mamoru Hosoda.