Masaaki Yuasa

Influences

In his youth, Yuasa was initially drawn to the animated television series Mazinger Z (1972–1974) and Space Battleship Yamato (1974–1975). A crucial influence which led Yuasa to work in the industry was Hayao Miyazaki's landmark feature film debut Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). In the 1980s, Yuasa began to focus on the study of individual animators, namely Takashi Nakamura and his work on Golden Warrior Gold Lightan (1981–1982). He also studied international animation, with particular influences being the works of Tex Avery, the British film Yellow Submarine (1968), The King and the Mockingbird (1980) by French filmmaker Paul Grimault, and Glen Keane's animation work on the climactic fight sequence in The Fox and the Hound (1981).

Some of his other favorite animations include Unico in the Island of Magic (1983),

Wicked City (1987),

Aim for the Ace! (1979), Galaxy Express 999 (1979), Mazinger Z vs. The Great General of Darkness (1974), Fantastic Planet (1973), Pinocchio (1940), Sing (2016), Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), The Wrong Trousers (1994), Gamba no Bouken (1972), Future Boy Conan (1978), Tensai Bakabon (1970), Lupin the 3rd Part I: The Classic Adventures (1971–1972), Tom and Jerry, Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974), Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld (1984), The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Hedgehog in the Fog (1975), 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976), Anne of Green Gables (1979), The Gutsy Frog (1972–1974), Doraemon: The Records of Nobita, Spaceblazer (1981), Kumo to Tulip (1943), and The Animal Neighborhood Community (1941).

Outside of animation, Yuasa was also influenced by the art of Salvador Dalí.

Yuasa described his process of inspiration:

I get inspired with a lot of things I see, hear, smell, and touch in everyday life... I often derive inspiration even from really modest visuals; a commercial, a cut from a movie, a movement from an anime as well as nameless flowers and grasses blooming on the road, clouds, stars, and moons in the sky. I’m also inspired with what I’m currently interested in and feeling. My humble wish for creating anime is to have common images, conversations, and scenes sublimed into art works.

Move to directing and Mind Game

Yuasa's opportunity to move into feature film directing came when Eiko Tanaka, the co-founder and CEO of Studio 4°C, requested Yuasa adapt the Robin Nishi manga Mind Game. Although the manga was little-known by the general public, several prominent staff members of Studio 4 °C were passionate about the title, and studio co-founder Kōji Morimoto had previously introduced Yuasa to the series. Yuasa felt the material suited him and agreed to direct the project. The production utilized an experimental visual sensibility, incorporating a variety of illustrated styles and including the use of live-action footage. Yuasa was inspired to make use of this combination of styles in order to preserve the feeling of the original manga, which was drawn in a rough, visual-gag style. In Yuasa's words, "I wanted it to look as though we hadn’t worked very hard on it, though of course we had." Although the film's story stuck closely to that of the original manga, Yuasa made one significant change: he altered the ending to be more positive for all of the characters, not only the protagonist. The intent of this change would be reflected in Yuasa's future works: a desire to create positive stories, where passionate action results in the culmination of dreams and desires.

Produced on a small budget, the making of Mind Game took two years and nine months from planning to completion. The production was also Yuasa's first project with frequent artistic collaborator Nobutake Ito, who was tasked with animating the film's climactic sequence; Ito would subsequently serve as a character designer and animation director on many of Yuasa's later projects. Mind Game was released in 2004 but did not achieve commercial success; following the release of the film, Yuasa struggled to find producers who would support him. However, Mind Game went on to become a cult hit and achieved widespread global critical acclaim, winning the Mainichi Film Awards' Ōfuji Noburō Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize for Animation, and the Fantasia International Film Festival awards for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Visual Accomplishment, as well as the Audience Award for Best Animated Film. Upon the film's eventual release in the United States, Mind Game achieved a 100% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Television directing at Madhouse

Following the release of Mind Game, Yuasa's next directorial opportunity came when Masao Maruyama, the co-founder of Madhouse, provided a unique chance. Maruyama, who over his decades in the business had developed a reputation for making animated projects that no other producer would consider, offered Yuasa the chance to direct television series' at Madhouse. Moreover, Maruyama used his power as a veteran producer to push the television networks to take risks, allowing Yuasa creative freedom and the opportunity to make precisely the sort of content that he wanted to make. The first of these projects was the original horror romance series Kemonozume (2006), which Yuasa created, directed, and wrote. The production marked a significant development in Yuasa's career, as it resulted in him meeting a key collaborator: South Korean artist Eunyoung Choi, who had recently moved to Japan to become an animator. Choi's work on Kemonozume as a key animator and episode animation director won praise from fellow animators and fans, and led to her participation in Yuasa's subsequent projects. Kemonozume was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, continuing Yuasa's run of critical successes.

Before beginning his next project at Madhouse, Yuasa briefly returned to Studio 4 °C to direct a short film for the studio's anthology project Genius Party (2007). The film, entitled Happy Machine, centered on an infant's travels through a mysterious and dangerous world. Produced with a small crew of just four key animators, Happy Machine represented a continuation of the development of Yuasa's surreal visual style, winning acclaim both for its atmospheric sense of wonderment, and for Yuasa himself as a leader of Japan's experimental animation scene.

The following year Yuasa helmed his next television production at Madhouse, the original sci-fi drama series Kaiba (2008), which he created, directed, and wrote. The project saw an expansion of the collaboration with Eunyoung Choi, who directed and storyboarded episodes of the series, as well as co-writing an episode with Yuasa. A narratively-ambitious series dealing with memory, identity, and societal inequality, Kaiba received an Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and earned positive critical attention for its dreamlike visuals and imaginative story, with particular focus on the emotional impact generated from combining childlike imagery with mature themes and at times devastating loss.

In 2010, Yuasa completed his third and final television series at Madhouse, the absurdist psychological dramedy The Tatami Galaxy (2010). Adapted from a novel by Tomihiko Morimi, the series follows the misadventures of a nameless student who, via supernatural means, repeatedly relives his final year at college in an attempt to achieve his idealized conceptions of romance and happiness. After being approached with the opportunity to adapt the novel, Yuasa quickly saw the story's appeal and agreed, though the project presented challenges in transferring the witty, dialogue-intensive style of the original work into a visual medium. To capture the appeal of the novel, Yuasa emphasized the use of rapid-fire editing and fast-paced dialogue, in order to convey the protagonist's stream of consciousness narration. Unlike the earlier Kemonozume and Kaiba, which aired on the satellite television network WOWOW, The Tatami Galaxy was broadcast on national television via Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. The broadcasting deal with Fuji TV marked the start of an ongoing relationship with producer Kōji Yamamoto, who served as the chief producer of Noitamina before leaving to found his own development company Twin Engine; this relationship would cover the release of several later projects over the following decade. The Tatami Galaxy was an immediate critical success, winning both the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize for Animation, as well as the Award for Outstanding Television Animation at the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival. As the first of Yuasa's projects to receive a streaming release in North America, the series helped increase awareness of his work globally, and was subsequently named one of the best Japanese animated series of the decade.

Following the completion of The Tatami Galaxy, Madhouse was acquired by the broadcasting media conglomerate NTV. The studio's corporate culture underwent change, and Madhouse's creative head Masao Maruyama left to found a new production company. Yuasa once again sought opportunities with other studios, including briefly joining the production of the A-1 Pictures film Welcome to the Space Show (2010), for which he directed and animated a short sequence. He also directed the short series Shin-men (2010–2012), a group of special episodes embedded within the main Crayon Shin-chan television series.

Collaboration, crowdfunding, and the founding of Science Saru

Yuasa took advantage of the conclusion of his work at Madhouse to reunite with collaborator Eunyoung Choi, who had left Madhouse after working on The Tatami Galaxy to lead Ankama Japan, a Japan-based subsidiary of the French entertainment and animation company Ankama. The newly opened studio combined techniques of traditional hand-drawn animation with digital animation created via Adobe Animate and other programs, a new approach which Yuasa had not previously used. The studio was not only an international business enterprise, but a creative one as well, with 25 European animators working in the Tokyo-based studio. In a reversal of their prior roles, Yuasa joined a project which Choi had organized, an episode of the company's Wakfu animated series entitled Noximilien the Watchmaker (2010); Choi directed the episode, while Yuasa served as character designer. Shortly after completion of the episode, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred and Ankama closed the Japan studio. However, the experience at Ankama Japan, which mixed an international animation crew with a production method utilizing both traditional and digital animation, served as a model for Yuasa and Choi's later studio, Science Saru.

Yuasa and Choi continued their collaboration on their next project, the crowdfunded short film Kick-Heart (2013), which Yuasa directed and wrote, and for which Choi served as assistant director. An unlikely love story revolving around a masochistic male wrestler and his sadistic female opponent, the film was produced at Production I.G and was the first large-scale Japanese animated project to be successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter, raising over $200,000 from more than 3,200 backers worldwide. The film received a pair of unannounced surprise screenings on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block which achieved viewer ratings of 708,000 and 618,000, and earned positive reviews for its colorful visual storytelling. Kick-Heart was an official competition selection at Annecy, was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and won the prize for Best Animated Short Film at the Fantasia Festival.

During the production of Kick-Heart, Choi proposed establishing a studio with Yuasa. In February 2013, the new company was established under the name Science Saru. Yuasa and Choi settled on the name, which translates into English as "Science Monkey", in an attempt to combine both an international, technological focus (the 'Science' portion of the name, rendered in English), with a Japanese, traditional animation identity (the 'SARU' portion, rendered in Japanese). Additionally, Yuasa, who frequently drew himself as a monkey in self-portraits, wanted the studio to be smarter than an ape; as a result, he added the word Science in front of SARU with the intent of having a company that possesses both instinct and intelligence. The studio's first production location was a small suburban house converted into an impromptu workspace; by the end of 2013, the company had expanded to a staff of five.

Early works at Science Saru

Yuasa's new studio began its corporate activities by taking on subcontracting work, as well as by collaborating with other companies. Science Saru's first project was an episode of the American television series Adventure Time; the episode, entitled "Food Chain" (2014), was directed by Yuasa, co-directed by Choi, and produced entirely in-house. "Food Chain" received critical acclaim as one of the best episodes of the series, was an official competition selection at Annecy, and was nominated for the Annie Award for Outstanding Television Direction.

Later the same year, Yuasa returned to television series direction with an adaptation of Taiyō Matsumoto's sports manga Ping Pong the Animation (2014). In addition to directing the series, Yuasa wrote and storyboarded all of the episodes. Science Saru provided 'digitally assisted' animation production services, while Tatsunoko Production served as the primary studio. The series also reunited Yuasa with his old animation collaborator Shinya Ohira, who contributed the opening credits sequence. A major critical success, the series was highlighted as one of the best Japanese animated series of the decade. Ping Pong the Animation was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and won the Grand Prize for Television Animation at the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival; additionally, character designer and longtime collaborator Nobutake Ito won the Best Animator award for individual achievement.

Yuasa finished 2014 by directing an episode of the BONES television series Space Dandy (2014). The episode, entitled "Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Baby", was jointly produced by Bones and Science Saru and received critical acclaim.

Return to feature films

By early 2016, Science Saru had gained experience and was ready to undertake large-scale projects. The studio's first feature film production, the family-friendly fantasy film Lu Over the Wall (2017), was produced in less than 16 months using 'digitally assisted' animation techniques. Yuasa directed and co-wrote Lu Over the Wall; it was his first feature film with an original story. The film features the importance of self-expression as a central theme; Yuasa emphasized this aspect of the story in hopes of encouraging young people in Japan, who he felt were often not able to express their true feelings and emotions. Yuasa also decided to focus this project on a family audience out of a desire to return to the sensibility of his earlier works as an animator, including Crayon Shin-chan and Chibi Maruko-chan.

International recognition

In 2018, Yuasa achieved widespread international recognition following the release of his prior feature film works, as well as the debut of a landmark new series. The beginning of the year saw Mind Game, Lu Over the Wall, and The Night is Short, Walk On Girl licensed for North American release by acclaimed animation distributor GKIDS. However, even more important for Yuasa's international prominence was the release of the Netflix series Devilman crybaby (2018), based on the manga by Go Nagai. Yuasa had been a fan of the