Masaaki Yuasa is a Japanese animation director, scriptwriter, designer, and CEO of Science SARU. After graduating Kyushu Sangyo University’s majored Fine Arts, he joined Ajia-do (an animation studio in Tokyo) and became a key animator for the anime TV show Chibi Maruko-chan, he also did the animation for the first opening, Full of Dreams, and the ending, Dancing Pompokolin. After becoming freelance, he did the background set design and key animation for the Crayon Shin-chan movies. He also wrote the script for his first directorial work, the 2004 Mind Game, which won the Animation Division Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival put on by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan, as well many other awards. He would go on to direct his first original TV anime, Kemonozume (2006) as well as the 2010 The Tatami Galaxy, based off a book by Tomihiko Morimi, both of which won many awards.
In 2014, he also directed, wrote the script, and did storyboarding for Food Chain, an episode of the popular American TV series Adventure Time. This episode was popular enough that he was nominated for the Director’s Award (TV Division) at the American Annie Awards. Lu Over the Wall (2017) is his latest film and it won Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy International Animation Film Festival.