Naoko Yamada is a Japanese animator, television and film director. Working at Kyoto Animation, she directed the K-On! and Tamako Market anime series and the anime film A Silent Voice.
Yamada was born in Gunma Prefecture. As a child she enjoyed drawing images from the Patlabor and Dragonball anime series.
On her trademark shots of legs: When you're nervous, you move your legs around. I think that it would be nice to express emotion like that.
It's very important to me to treat the characters as individual people. I don't think of them as imaginary; instead I try to come in touch with them from their perspective.
When I direct a title, I'm determined to do anything to make it great, so that everyone walks out of it thinking it was worthwhile, glad to have been involved.