Masaaki Yuasa

湯浅政明

An acclaimed anime director known for his wild, freeform style.

After graduating from the Kyushu Sangyo University's Faculty of Arts in 1987 he joined studio Ajia-do, initially as in-betweener but rapidly moving to key animation.

In the first part of his career Yuasa established himself as an idiosyncratic creator while working on several child friendly anime, such as Chibi Maruko-chan and Doraemon, but especially on Crayon Shin-chan, a project he was involved with for most of the '90s.

One of his breakthrough roles in this period was his participation on the second part of The Hakkenden, working as animation director under Shinya Oohira's direction. This OVA was an important outing of the '90s, uniting many veteran artists and talented newcomers.

He debuted as director on Mind Game, an abstract piece combining animation and live-action footage, winning the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival (overcoming even Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle), and earning Yoshiyuki Tomino's praise, who acted as the chief judge. After Mind Game Yuasa spent several years at MADHOUSE working on various projects. In 2013, he founded Science SARU alongside his close affiliate Eun-Yeong Choi.

On March 25, 2020 it was announced Yuasa stepped down as the CEO of Science SARU. He would work there as director until the completion of his latest Movie, Inu-Oh, and would later cease any affiliation with the studio.

On February 17, 2025 it was announced that Yuasa would launch of his own animation studio, ame pippin. Their debut project would be the film Daisy's Life.