was a Japanese film director known for his stylish and popular Roman Porno films for Nikkatsu, particularly the first two installments of the Angel Guts series. Despite a somewhat uneven career, many mainstream critics consider Sone the best of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno directors. Life and career Chūsei Sone majored in Art History at Tohoku University, and graduated in 1962. Soon after graduation, he began work as an Assistant director at Nikkatsu studios, where he worked with Seijun Suzuki. Suzuki's directing style was to have a lasting influence on Sone's own later work. In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the Weissers compare Suzuki and Sone, writing, "Sone's films are riddled with quirky characters and surrealistic metaphors, but unlike the works of Suzuki, these movies are much more linear, plot driven, and ultimately crowd pleasing." When Nikkatsu started their Roman Porno series of mainstream theatrical softcore pornographic films in November 1971, Sone was quickly given his chance to direct. His first film was the historical sex-film, Eros Schedule Book: Female Artist (1971). He directed several more films set in historical time periods such as Erotic Story: The Peony Lantern (1972), which became a mainstream hit and won several film industry awards. Later in 1972, Sone switched to contemporary themes with Lusty Sisters, but would return to the period-piece with his popular action-sex film starring Nikkatsu queen Junko Miyashita, Female Ninja Magic: 100 Trampled Flowers (1974). By the late 1970s, Sone had become associated with a more violent style of eroticism in such films as My Sex Report: Climax Point (1976) and Shinjuku Mixed-Up Street: Wait Till I Come (1977). When Nikkatsu decided to film Takashi Ishii's Angel Guts manga, Sone was a logical choice to helm the first two episodes of the series, Angel Guts: High School Coed (1978) and Angel Guts: Red Classroom (1979). Sone was given a Best Director award at the Yokohama Film Festival for Angel Guts: Red Classroom, and the film also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor at the ceremony. Director Toshiharu Ikeda, who worked as Sone's screenwriter and an assistant director on Angel Guts: High School Coed, said, of Sone, "He is simply a genius. He really is a true genius... We were all tremendously influenced by him." Of the Angel Guts series, Ikeda comments, "That series definitely had an impact on Roman Porno history, as well as on the audience." Throughout his