Ever since she was a kid, Nishii had a passion for manga and would often draw Revolutionary Girl Utenadoujinshi in the hopes of one day becoming a manga artist.[2][3] However, after watching the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion in high school, she suddenly developed an interest in animation and wanted to become an animator for the Utena TV anime.[3][4] In 1999, after graduating from the Osaka College of Design, Nishii sent applications to all the studios involved with the Utena anime in the hopes of participating in the theatrical version which was just announced.[4] Without any prior knowledge on animation, Nishii moved to Tokyo to join Studio Cockpit,[4] where she first worked was as an in-between animator on the film Adolescence of Utena under the direction of Hisashi Kagawa.[3] During her time at Studio Cockpit, Kagawa would introduce her to Yoshihiko Umakoshi, who asked her to work as an animation director.[3]
After working at Studio Cockpit, Nishii became a freelancer. When working on Mushishi, the offices that Nishii and other freelance animators, including Mitsuko Baba,[5] used were too far away, so they ended up renting a small house which was close.[3] Since they had a lot of fun working together, when the show was over, they decided to turn it into Studio Shiokaze, under the direction of Umakoshi.[3] Nishii would also go on to work with Studio Gainax on series like Diebuster and Gurren-Lagann.[2] In 2011, she became a character designer for the first time on the series Marawa Penguindrum. She was also chosen as the character designer for the Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern films by the producers at Nippon Animation, who asked her to draw some illustrations to see if her style would fit the series. She is noted to be an avid fan of the Saint Seiya series, and is in charge of character design for Netflix's Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac. Other series she's worked on as chief animation director include Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime, Penguindrum, Servant × Service and Haikara-san ga Tōru.
Despite working as a professional animator, Nishii continues to draw doujinshi in her spare time as a hobby. Most notably, her own original series, Crown of Ouroboros, which she sells it every year at the Comiket with her BBM/BKM circle. Nishii's style is compared to be similar to Umakoshi's, as the two of them were influenced by Shingo Araki.[2]
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Nishii had read the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series while in college, though she did not consider herself an avid fan. She remembers Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable the most, and considers the former to be her favorite. She was happy participating in Part 4 as it had Jotaro in it.[2]
_stats.png)
.jpg)
