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30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

Yuasa Masaaki

YUASA Masaaki (1965, Japan) graduated from Kyushu Sangyo University, majoring in Fine Arts. He started his career at Ajia-do, an animation studio in Tokyo. He then became a freelancer and with his directorial debut, Mind Game (2004), amassed awards, including the Animation Division Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival and Best Film, Best Director and Best Script at the 2005 Fantasia International Film Festival. In 2014, he founded a new animation studio called Science Saru. His feature film Lu Over the Wall (2017) won the Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy. Night is Short, Walk On Girl (2017) won the Grand Prize in Ottawa. Yuasa is known for his wild, free-form style. His film Ride Your Wave (2019) won the Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2019 Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival. His credits for animated series include Ping Pong the Animation (2014), DEVILMAN crybaby (2018) and Japan Sinks: 2020 (2020, Jury Award for a TV Series at Annecy International Animation Film Festival). His latest film, INU-OH (2021), won the Special Distinction Prize for a feature film at the Bucheon International Animation Film Festival.

Filmography

(selection) Mind Game (2004), Happy Machine (2007, short), Food Chain (2014), Ping Pong the Animation (2014), Night is Short, Walk On Girl (2017), Lu Over the Wall (2017), DEVILMAN crybaby (2018, series), Ride Your Wave (2019), Japan Sinks: 2020 (2020, series), INU-OH (2021)

More info: Yuasa Masaaki

Yuasa Masaaki at IFFR

  • The Tatami Galaxy

    Twisted college romance meets absurd campus mythology in a delirious, time-travelling varsity comedy.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Ride Your Wave

    A breezy seaside romance turns into a delicate study of grief in a bittersweet anime feature.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

    An outrageous, alcohol-fuelled campus rom-com with oddball characters navigating a series of extraordinary situations.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Mind Game

    A cult classic that takes you on an animated voyage of surreal and psychedelic self-discovery.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Lu Over the Wall

    Mermaids, music and magic collide in this astonishing animation by a master of the craft.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Kick-Heart

    A fast and furious love story between a masochistic male wrestler and a deceptively demure nun.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

    Ragtag animation club grows into a media sensation in an exuberant, spectacularly mounted meta-anime.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Japan Sinks: 2020 Theatrical Edition

    A teenage athlete grapples with guilt and loss in this intimate, tonally complex disaster epic.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • INU-OH

    Set in medieval Japan, dissident musicians take on tradition in a counterculture manifesto with a contemporary feel.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki

  • Happy Machine

    Reality is not all it seems in this journey into an alternative existence filled with bizarre creatures.

    • Focus: Yuasa Masaaki