Naoko Yamada (山田 尚子, Yamada Naoko) is a Japanese animator, television and film director. Working at Kyoto Animation, she directed the anime series K-On! (2009-2010) and Tamako Market (2013), and the anime films A Silent Voice (2016) and Liz and the Blue Bird (2018). In 2021, she directed the original net animation The Heike Story under Science SARU. The series premiered on Japanese television in January 2022. She has won multiple awards for her work, as well as become world renowned for her stylistic choices in anime. She was also one of the youngest people to be made a director with Kyoto Animation, getting her first directing opportunity around 4 years after finishing college and starting work for the studio.