• Film Director and Screenwriter Shinichiro Watanabe, 1965

 

Watanabe is known for blending together multiple genres in his anime creations. In Cowboy Bebop, for example, Watanabe mixes classic cowboy western with 1960s/1970s New York City film noir, Jazz music and Hong Kong action movies, and sets the entire series in space. In his later work, Samurai Champloo, Watanabe mixes the cultures of Okinawa, hip-hop, modern day Japan, and chanbara.

After joining the Japanese animation studio Sunrise, Watanabe supervised the episode direction and storyboards of numerous Sunrise anime, and soon made his directorial debut as co-director of the well received Macross update, Macross Plus. His next effort, and first full directorial venture, was the 1998 television series Cowboy Bebop. It was followed by the 2001 film, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Then, in 2003, Watanabe directed his first American produced anime, the short films Kid's Story and A Detective Story, both part of The Animatrix, an anthology of animated shorts of back stories from The Matrix. His next directorial effort was the anime television series Samurai Champloo which began broadcasting on Fuji TV in Japan on May 19, 2004.

He then directed a short film called Baby Blue which was released on July 7, 2007 as a segment of the anthology film Genius Party. In later years, he was been active as a creative music producer, overseeing the 2004 film Mind Game and 2008's Michiko to Hatchin, and also supervising the storyboards for episode 12 of Tetsuwan Birdy: Decode. He directed the anime television series Kids on the Slope (Japanese title Sakamichi no Apollon), which premiered in April 2012 on Fuji TV's Noitamina block.

In 2009 it was announced that Watanabe would be working as an associate producer on the upcoming live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, alongside fellow Sunrise staff members Kenji Uchida and Keiko Nobumoto. As of 2012 the movie was still in development. During FicZone in Granada, Spain, it was reported that Watanabe was collaborating with animé studio BONES on a space science fiction comedy. BONES subsequently confirmed that the studio was working with Watanabe, but did not confirm the genre of the series.

Watanabe has a distinct vision regarding the importance of the film score of his works and believes that music is the universal language. Cowboy Bebop is heavily influenced by American culture, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, hence the title "bebop". This style is blended with a score by the prolific composer Yoko Kanno featuring jazz, blues and funk music. In Samurai Champloo, an Edo period piece, the anachronistic soundtrack draws heavily from hip-hop music, and is full of melodic beats with record. Watanabe's series Sakamichi no Apollon has a soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno which demonstrates many classical forms of Jazz.