Beginnings as an animator Upon graduation, Yuasa sought work by consulting recruitment advertisements published in the animation magazine
Animage. After answering an advertisement posted by
Ajia-do, he was hired by the studio as an
in between animator. Yuasa initially struggled and came to believe he lacked talent and therefore had no future in the business. After an illness, he contemplated quitting, but lacking a good opportunity to actually do so, he continued on. A key turning point in his perception of his artistic skills came during his transition from drawing in between animation, which requires clean, uniform lifework that is consistent from artist to artist, to drawing
key animation, which establishes the key poses of motion and are more reflective of the individual sensibilities of movement of each artist. Yuasa's natural drawing style was fast, intuitive, and rough; it lacked the fine lines emphasized for inbetweening. As a result, when Yuasa became a key animator, he was able to utilize his rougher line style for greater personal expression and began to make a name for himself. Based on a popular manga,
Chibi Maruko-chan was a major hit and provided opportunities for Yuasa to refine his skills. His next breakthrough came with the film
Chibi Maruko-chan: My Favorite Song (1992), on which he was entrusted with two musical sequences. Yuasa storyboarded the sequences, the first time he'd taken on this responsibility, and was able to animate them in his own characteristic style; he later identified these segments as the first time that appreciation of his work by fellow artists led him to view his own work as good. Yuasa quickly became a specialist at imagining, designing, and animating the inventive visual climaxes of the annual
Crayon Shin-chan films, a practice he continued for nearly a decade. It was during his work on
Crayon Shin-chan that Yuasa at last found enjoyment in his artistic work, 1994 saw two significant developments in Yuasa's animation career: leaving Ajia-do to become a freelance animator, and participating as an
animation director on the fourth episode of the landmark OVA series
The Hakkenden: A New Saga (1993–1995). ''Hamaji's Resurrection'' generated considerable conversation within Japan's animation industry, was cited as one of the most important Japanese animated productions of the 1990s, and described as a masterpiece of Japanese animation. Following the success of ''Hamaji's Resurrection
, Yuasa continued working as a freelance animator for the remainder of the 1990s, including work on the Studio Ghibli feature film My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999). This freelance work brought additional early directorial and supervisory opportunities. These included the television pilot film Vampiyan Kids (1999), which Yuasa directed and storyboarded; the short film Slime Adventures: Yay, the Sea!
(1999), based on the popular Dragon Quest franchise, which Yuasa directed; and the acclaimed short film Cat Soup (2001), on which he served as screenwriter and animation producer. Cat Soup
was a critical success, winning an Excellence Award for animation at the Japan Media Arts Festival. The Cat Soup'' project in particular served as a springboard for Yuasa to move fully into the directorial phase of his career.
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, 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. 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. 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 Tatami Galaxy was an immediate critical success, winning both the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize for Animation, 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, He also directed the short series
Shin-men (2010–2012), a group of special episodes embedded within the main
Crayon Shin-chan television series. 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. 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). 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. Science SARU provided 'digitally assisted' animation production services,
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. During the production of
Lu Over the Wall, Yuasa was offered the opportunity to produce a second feature film, the comedy romance
The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017), based on the novel by Tomihiko Morimi. Although
Lu Over the Wall was completed first, it was released after
The Night is Short, Walk On Girl; this was in part due to a marketing suggestion that it might be preferable for the studio's first film to be based on a pre-existing property familiar to Japanese audiences. Both
Lu Over the Wall and
The Night is Short, Walk On Girl received immediate critical acclaim.
Lu Over the Wall received the Annecy Cristal du long métrage, a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and has been listed as one of the best Japanese animated films of the decade.
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.
Devilman crybaby was an immediate and massive international hit; with 90% of its viewers outside Japan, the series achieved the largest global audience for both Yuasa and Science SARU to that date. was profiled by YouTuber
PewDiePie, and was widely discussed on
Twitter. The series was nominated in 7 categories at the
Crunchyroll Anime Awards and won for Anime of the Year and Director of the Year, was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, was cited by
Vulture as containing one of the 100 most influential sequences in global animation history, and was listed as one of the best Japanese animated series of the decade. In 2019, Yuasa directed his next feature film, the romance
Ride Your Wave (2019). An original story,
Ride Your Wave received worldwide critical acclaim. The film was an official competition selection at Annecy, was nominated for the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film, was nominated for Annie Awards in the categories of Best Indie Feature and Outstanding Feature Film Direction, received a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and won Best Animated Feature Film awards at the
Shanghai International Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, and
Sitges Film Festival. Also in 2019, Yuasa served as director of the series
Super Shiro (2019–2020), an installment of the popular
Crayon Shin-chan franchise. Yuasa collaborated on directorial duties with veteran animator
Tomohisa Shimoyama, who made his directorial debut with the series. The project, animated at Science SARU and produced in association with main
Crayon Shin-chan studio
Shin-Ei Animation, served as a culmination of Yuasa's long and enduring association with
Crayon Shin-chan which dated back to his years as an animator. The end of the year saw the 2010s heralded as Masaaki Yuasa's "breakout decade"; inspired internet memes, and won the Japanese Broadcast Critics Association's monthly
Galaxy Award during its broadcast run. Following the conclusion of the broadcast,
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! received critical acclaim as one of the best Japanese animated series of both the season that it aired and the year as a whole, and was recognized by
The New York Times and
The New Yorker as one of the best television series of 2020. The series was nominated in 10 categories at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards and won for Director of the Year and Best Animation, was awarded the Grand Prize for Television Animation at the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival, and received the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize for Animation. Central to Yuasa's conception of the series were the immediacy of focus on a single family amid national catastrophe, as well as the idea of societal reincarnation, where the process of breaking and rebuilding can yield something better than what came before. The series attracted criticism within Japan for its condemnation of
Japanese nationalism, but also received positive attention for its multiculturalism and inclusiveness, The first episode of the series was awarded the Annecy Jury Prize for a Television Series, and was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival. On March 25, 2020, Yuasa stepped down as president and representative director of Science SARU. He cited his desire to take a break from directing after seven years of continuous work, but reaffirmed his commitment to completing additional projects with Science SARU in the future. Yuasa spoke further about his planned break from directing in September 2021, stating that he was "taking a break to study" during his time away from active production. In early 2021, Yuasa was recognized by the Japanese government's
Agency for Cultural Affairs, which awarded him the Cabinet Minister Award for Media Fine Arts for his career achievements. The film features character designs by
Ping Pong creator Taiyō Matsumoto, is produced by Science SARU, and was licensed for North American theatrical and home-video distribution by GKIDS. The film made its world premiere at the
Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, and a worldwide theatrical release followed in August 2022. The film won the Best Animated Feature Film award at the Fantasia International Film Festival, the Bucheon International Animation Festival's Special Distinction Prize for an International Feature Film, and was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. On February 18, 2025, Yuasa announced the founding of a new animation studio, ame pippin. Yuasa's first project for ame pippin will be an adaptation of Banana Yoshimoto's novel ''
Daisy's Life'', set for release in 2026. ==Works==