After dropping out of high school, he joined Telecom Animation Film at the age of 18 because Hayao Miyazaki, whom he was a fan of, was a part of the studio. He soon stopped showing up at Telecom because of all the in-betweening work he was given, and was thus fired. He then joined the production of Royal Space Force, but quit after a week. He then gave up on being an animator and started working part-time jobs while trying to get a manga serialization. At this time, he was living with Kazuyoshi Yaginuma, who convinced him to take part in Akira as a key animator.
