From Indie to Pro: Make A Girl Anime Director Gensho Yasuda

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Creator, director, screenwriter —Gensho Yasuda He began his creative journey online. He focused on what he could do himself and shared his short animations with his growing audience on social media. He gained attention on his YouTube channel for solo efforts including compilations of fox girls and robots that attracted hundreds of thousands of views.

His latest work is a full-length feature film, Create a girlits expansion Make love animated short that premieres in Japan on January 31. Yasuda is embarking on his biggest creative journey yet; in his own studio, working from his own script, as well as handling directing duties. We spoke with Yasuda about his journey from a one-man show to a larger ensemble, and his advice for other creators looking to build an audience.

Can you discuss your early work? Make love and how it turned into Create a girl?

Gensho Yasuda: Unlike the previous short animation, this time we focused mainly on issues that required in-depth research and discussion when drawing a full-length animation. Create a girl tells the story of the protagonist, Akira Mizutamari, who scientifically creates a girl. Initially, he was never interested in love; even when he took steps to create a girl, his disinterest remained. However, these actions and thoughts are deeply intertwined with a certain person’s calculations. The story of this character was something we could fully develop.

Compared to Make loveHow did your animation resources “grow”? What animation tools or software are used to create the film?

Jasuda: While Make loveI was a solo artist, and since my goal was to constantly share my work online, I was committed to speed, sacrificing a certain level of quality for each task. But for this full-length production, we formed a team—albeit a small one—of eight people. Then we could give each task our own special attention, and above all, the research on expression in each area of the tasks that I had done alone moved eight times faster. When I was shown the finished works, created from ideas that I would never have thought of on my own, I felt the pleasure of teamwork.

I usually create my work with Blender, an open-source 3D software, and Adobe’s After Effects. As a former indie, Blender was a godsend for me.

The creation of a girl is a classic anime premise that hasn’t been seen in modern shows in a long time. What was it about the premise of a scientist and a girl created in a lab that interested you?

Jasuda: The phrase “getting a girlfriend” in Japanese literally means “to get a girl.”

“Make” itself has different meanings, so I thought it was interesting that there were a few ways to play on the words “make a girlfriend.” Besides the traditional meaning of getting a girlfriend, what about making a literary girlfriend? What about making her philosophical? Or making her scientific might be a good idea—that’s how I played around with that idea.

What are your greatest artistic influences and inspirations?

Jasuda: I am greatly influenced by works with a strong SF flavor, such as: Madoka Magic AND Steins Gatewhere the problems the main character has to face are redefined. I used to work at a company that produced these titles, Nitroplusso I’ve always been a fan.

IN Make love in short, we see the rise of No. Zero, her conflicts with Akira Mizutamari, and her capture by a mysterious assailant. Can we expect the new film to follow the same narrative path? What changes or additions can fans expect?

Jasuda: Create a girl is a story based on Make love. But as Make love it’s a short, two and a half minute animation, as mentioned before, Create a girl contains a story of a character whose intentions deeply affect the behavior of the protagonist. In addition, there are spectacular action scenes and character expressions that have evolved significantly from the short animation, allowing you to fully enjoy everything from deeper meanings to surface-level entertainment. I hope you are waiting for it!

What was the process like redesigning the characters for the film?

Jasuda: Because I was not satisfied with the projects in YouTube For the short animation, I really wanted to redesign everything for a full-length animation.

Since I had always been making animations by myself, at that time I felt uneasy due to my lack of in-depth knowledge of design. Fortunately for Create a girlWe were able to use the help of a professional illustrator; for example, adding tags to the jacket design gave it a realistic look, which allowed us to create more detailed character descriptions.

Thanks to this, I think we managed to increase the diversity and realism of the character’s appearance.

How important do you think it is for independent artists to achieve success by amassing a large following on social media?

Jasuda: I think it’s very important.

Whether it’s getting commissions or the chance to work on a feature-length animation, how you sell your creativity and win the hearts of those responsible is important. Social media is a very direct marketing approach that anyone can use; building a following there leads to just as many opportunities.

If you had access to the same technology as Akira Mizutamari, what would you create?

Jasuda: I would like to create a garden that will clean itself automatically.

I am currently addicted to traditional Japanese dry landscape gardens, called karesansuibut they are very difficult to maintain. Even if I had such a garden in the future, I am absolutely certain that I would waste it because of the difficulty of maintaining it. Now, if this Japanese garden were to automatically tidy up, no matter how busy I am with creating animations, I would still enjoy a beautiful garden – wouldn’t that be fantastic?

The important thing is that I would like to get it dirty at least once. Only then would I be able to appreciate the change in the garden, so having a garden that cleans itself up after getting dirty is ideal.

But I think that someone like me, who can’t even enjoy keeping a garden clean, is probably not qualified to have a Japanese garden.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.