FROGMAN

Frogman is the name of a writer, character designer, animator, editor, voice actor, and director who created a Flash-based show known as Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume (Eagle Talon Secret Society). The show became an internet sensation in Japan and the studios came calling. Frogman got a TV deal, a movie deal, and rampant merchandising can't be far behind. Frogman's real name is Ryo Ono who set out to prove that with the right talent and ambition, an entire studio wasn't necessary to produce enticing works. Unlike other Japanese animation, drawn meticulously to make the images look real, his characters — made with Adobe Flash software designed for creating Web page animations — only move horizontally and their facial expressions do not change. In this way, he could create a five-minute animated movie in a week with little overhead. In 2004, Ono uploaded a sample of his first five-minute short, titled "Sguy & The Family Stone," on his Web site. The animation, whose title came from the American funk and rock band Sly & The Family Stone of the 1960s, gained popularity by word of mouth. With the success of his Web animation work, he moved back to Tokyo to work on a new series titled "Coffy the Tomb Tyke," a romantic comedy of ancient Japanese tomb characters, and "The Eagle Talon Secret Society," a comedy about an evil society called Eagle Talon (the alternate Japanese title is "Taka no Tsume," which means red pepper). TV Asahi broadcast both for three months in 2006. His works are unique in that they are comedic with satirical elements. In 2006, his short animation series "Kaeruotoko Gekijo" ("The Frogman Theater") that satirizes Japanese politics was broadcast on the popular TBS TV news program "NEWS23." (Source: AniDB)