Biography
Toshinori Watanabe, credited in Japanese as 渡部穏寛, is a Japanese director whose career runs from key animation and storyboard work in the early 2000s through series direction today [1]. He directed both seasons of Tokyo Ghoul:re, including its opening and ending sequences and episodes 1 through 24, and has since directed Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, Edens Zero (second season), Mix: Meisei Story, and Bungo and Alchemist: Gears of Judgement, among others [1]. Earlier in his career he worked as an episode director on Naruto: Shippuuden, Beelzebub, and Log Horizon, storyboarded for Kingdom and Edens Zero, and did key animation on Code Geass and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure [1]. In a joint interview with voice actor Natsuki Hanae about Tokyo Ghoul:re, Watanabe admitted he had neither read the source manga nor watched the earlier anime when the directing offer first came, and only committed after learning how well-regarded the series was [2]. He storyboarded every episode himself to keep the production aligned with his vision, and framed the sequel not as a continuation that had to live up to the earlier seasons' acclaim but as its own project, a new work that simply had to be made on its own terms [2].
Regardless of the pressure, we had to make ':re' as a new work in its own right.