Norio leads a double life. By day, he is a Director at ASTRO. By night, or whenever he can find time, Norio channels his passion for scifi, robots, and anime into sketches, paintings, and digital creations. Born in the U.S. to a first generation Japanese family, Norio was influenced by the clashes and similarities of both cultures. This bicultural environment, exposed him to a rich combination of media and entertainment. Reading a comic book and watching classic SCIFI TV or movies, flipping through a manga one moment then popping in an anime into the VCR (Beta) the next. Norio likes to explore and enjoys the contrast of traditional and digital media. But, whatever the final output is, it all starts with the initial sketch, his greatest joy.