Born in
Wakayama, Japan, he graduated from the
Osaka Designers' College in 1979 and a couple of years later joined the studio Annapuru as an animator for the TV series ''
Tomorrow's Joe. While working there, he saw some animation by Takashi Nakamura in Gold Lightan'', an otherwise standard
mecha TV series by a rival studio. He was impressed, and it inspired him to quit his job and become a freelance animator. Morimoto often collaborated with Nakamura, most notably in
Katsuhiro Otomo’s "The Order to Stop Construction" segment of the anthology film
Neo-Tokyo. This opened many doors for him, from working as animation director on Otomo's landmark feature
Akira and a chance to direct a short for the
Robot Carnival anthology. Around this time he founded
Studio 4°C with producer Eiko Tanaka and fellow animator Yoshiharu Sato. Since then, Morimoto has focused almost exclusively on his directing work. His work became increasingly unusual with time. This is best represented by the concert scenes in
Macross Plus This has begun to change in recent years, with his artwork being featured in
Takashi Murakami's
Superflat exhibitions worldwide, the Proto Anime Cut exhibition, and was invited by
The Wachowskis to direct "
Beyond", a segment of
The Animatrix. He is currently working on
Sachiko, his second feature-length film. ==Filmography==