Masaaki Yuasa

Masaaki Yuasa is a Japanese animator, screenwriter, and director affiliated with ame pippin. He is widely recognized for his distinct artistic style and creative voice. As the former president and co-founder of the animation studio Science Saru alongside producer Eunyoung Choi, Yuasa built a reputation as an influential independent creator. He initially gained industry attention as an animator on prominent television productions before establishing a cult following with his feature directorial debut, Mind Game.

Born on March 16, 1965, in Fukuoka, Japan, Yuasa developed a passion for animation in early childhood, discovering that his drawings could entertain his peers. A wave of popular animated feature releases in the late 1970s—including Space Battleship Yamato The Movie and Hayao Miyazaki's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro—inspired him to pursue a career in the medium. Although he initially considered becoming a manga artist, the rising profile of animators led him to choose animation. He studied design in high school and later earned a degree in oil painting from Kyushu Sangyo University.

After graduating, Yuasa joined the studio Ajia-do through a magazine job advertisement. Though he initially struggled with in-between animation, his transition to key animation allowed his energetic, fluid, and unrefined drawing style to excel. Under the mentorship of studio co-founders Osamu Kobayashi and Tsutomu Shibayama, he refined his techniques and earned key animation credits on the popular series Chibi Maruko-chan. In 1992, Yuasa joined the team for Crayon Shin-chan, contributing key animation, design, storyboards, and story ideas for nearly ten years. He became a freelance artist in 1994, directing animation on a celebrated episode of The Hakkenden: A New Saga and contributing to projects like Studio Ghibli's My Neighbors the Yamadas and the short film Cat Soup, which he co-wrote and produced.

Yuasa made his feature directorial debut with Studio 4°C's adaptation of the manga Mind Game in 2004, utilizing experimental visual techniques and a modified ending. Across the remainder of the 2000s and early 2010s, he directed several television series, including Kemonozume (2006), Kaiba (2008), and The Tatami Galaxy (2010), as well as the crowdfunded short Kick-Heart (2013).

During the production of Kick-Heart, Choi suggested forming Science Saru, leading to the studio's establishment in 2013. Yuasa subsequently directed a wide range of works at the studio, starting with an episode of Adventure Time (2014) and the series Ping Pong the Animation (2014). His directorial output included feature films such as The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017), Lu Over the Wall (2017), Ride Your Wave (2019), and Inu-Oh (2021), along with series like Devilman Crybaby (2018), Super Shiro (2019), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020), and Japan Sinks: 2020 (2020).

Yuasa stepped down from his position as president of Science Saru in 2020. His projects have received international acclaim and honors from the Japan Academy Film Prize, Mainichi Film Awards, Annecy, and the Japan Media Arts Festival. The Japanese government awarded him the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and the Cabinet Minister Award for Media Fine Arts. His musical film Inu-Oh premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, reached worldwide theaters in August 2022, and marked his first Golden Globe nomination.