Haruko Koga

I am an emerging Japanese animator based in the UK, creating hand-drawn, gesture-driven 2D animation.

My work explores the quiet emotions that exist beneath everyday life—feelings that are often unspoken, yet deeply shape how we care for one another.

I’m drawn to small rituals: cooking, touching objects, the rhythm of hands, the pauses in silence. These subtle gestures form the emotional core of my storytelling. Using soft textures, slow pacing, and minimal dialogue, I aim to reveal how love, memory, and loss can be expressed through the simplest acts.

My visual approach combines experimental, painterly drawing techniques with warm, tactile lines to capture emotional nuance with care and precision. I animate primarily in Procreate, and integrate Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro for compositing and editing. I also use Blender for specific technical and spatial elements when needed. Across all tools, I prioritize the intimacy and imperfection of hand-drawn work, allowing emotions to surface through texture, movement, and rhythm.

Sound plays a central role in my process—especially the use of silence, ambient noise, and breathing to express delicate emotional shifts that words cannot.

Through my films, I hope to create a quiet space where viewers can feel the weight of a moment, the warmth of a routine, and the lingering presence of someone who is no longer there.