Yō Yoshinari

Yō Yoshinari (吉成曜 Yoshinari Yō), born May 6, 1971, is a Japanese key animator, storyboard artist and anime director. He is known for his exaggerated style of his effects animation, mainly for smoke and explosions^[1]. He is the concept creator for Little Witch Academia and has worked on other anime series such as Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. On the original short film Little Witch Academia, he served as director, character designer, animation director, and drew background roughs.^[2]

He was the director for the Little Witch Academia initial short film, the The Enchanted Parade sequel film, and the Little Witch Academia animated TV series.

Up until Michiru Shimada's passing, Yoshinari revealed during AnimeExpo 2017's Studio TRIGGER panel and interviews that he had plans for sequel where it will focus more on other witches such as Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka, or spin-off focusing on Chariot's backstory and Night Fall.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] During Shin Bungeiza X AnimeStyle Vol. 167 events which involves a talk show with Yoshinari and his fellow animators in addition of screenings of animes such as original short, The Enchanted Parade, and Gridman Universe, Yoshinari himself revealed his plan to make Little Witch Academia a long-running series as much as Nintama Rantarō.^[7]^[8]

Personal life[]

Yō Yoshinari was born in Tokyo, Japan. He is the younger brother of Kō Yoshinari, who is also an key animator. Yoshinari graduated from Tokyo Designer Gakuin College and entered the anime industry through the influence of his older brother. In his time as Kō's assistant, the brothers learned many things such as how to draw douga. After graduating at high school, he went to work as a pro before entering professional school and subsequently joining a studio. It was during his time at professional school that Yoshinari noticed anime to be more polished^[2].

He joined Madhouse in 1992, then left in the same year and joined Gainax, where he worked until 2011 when he joined Imaishi and other ex-Gainax employees to form Studio Trigger.

When looking back at the time he joined Madhouse, he admitted to have sent some applications to Gainax also but the latter responded very much late (3 months later) due to an implied misunderstanding among Gainax staff. Not wanting to explain, Yoshinari told Madhouse "being an animator is too hard for me, so I quit", and switched to Gainax. Prior to entering professional school and joining a studio, he worked as an uncredited pro helping his older brother in several early works, with his first being doing in-betweens and keys on the 1991 OVA Bousou Sangokushi: Specter Tanjou during high school^[2].

When joining Gainax on the other hand, Yoshinari was dismayed to see not many people around his age have proper knowledge about animators, which didn't help by the decline of interest in anime industry, leading to "ice age of talents" as Hiroyuki Imaishi also put it. In fact, not many people with great talent in such industry being around their age unlike previous generations and the period for things like Project A-ko where general atmosphere being everything had to be done came to a close. Still, new animation styles in courtesy of the likes of Satoru Utsunomiya, Masaaki Yuasa, Shinya Ohira came out, and Yoshinari implied his reason of joining anime industry being influenced by The Hakkenden while 'wandering around' in it instead of ambition^[2].

At one point when recently joining Gainax and it coincided with the airing of Sailor Moon, Yoshinari didn't think much about working on a franchise with magical girls, even commented that not wanting to do with series with such genre. However, he eventually changed his mind upon learning the studio's exceutives, Hideaki Anno included, love Sailor Moon series.^[9].

Yoshinari's earlier contributions for Neon Genesis Evangelion were done through commissions in which he must depict Evas posing somewhere in Tokyo-3, an endeavor which turned out more challenging than drawing characters^[10].

Throughout his career, Yoshinari found himself often, if not always, in charge of actions/effects of difficult scenes despite eager for other endeavors such as acting. He admitted doing so more out of fun instead of mastering action animation outright, but nevertheless put both the work and audience's enjoyment into consideration to make it enjoyable for everyone equally^[2].

During the development of original short of Little Witch Academia as part of 2013 Anime Mirai, contrary to some people assumption of it being retelling of Harry Potter series as with other fantasy works with magic school settings, Yoshinari confirmed it to be original work as its plot being in line with Anime Mirai's purpose in raising young animators (he even mentioned the film's initial idea revolving a wizard's apprentice which unfortunately, won't likely work like they hoped to be). To further drive this point, the theme of the film was a young animator who joined anime industry looking up to a late-night magical girl anime only to be ridiculed by people around him — a hardship which paralleled not just Akko's own who inspired by Shiny Chariot who perceived as maverick in the eyes of older, proud traditionalistic magical families, but also how Hayao Miyazaki inspired by Panda and the Magic Serpent. In all cases, admiration is important. As the short film's director, he was in charge of supervising the whole story while creating the general imagery in addition of coaching the younger staff. Yoshinari admitted the endeavor took so much time because he's admittedly still a learner as much as them. Despite having clear aspirations for entertainment, Yoshinari required Hiroyuki Imaishi's guidance in ensuring his works executed properly^[11].

Yoshinari was content in contributing on series he and his peers developed in any way he could in addition of drawing and animation, which perhaps attributed to reality of anime industry lacked many talented people, especially concerning Hiroyuki Imaishi's works which he admitted to be quite special. Having worked with the latter all the time just as Mahiro Maeda with Hideaki Anno, Yoshinari acknowledged Hiroyuki Imaishi to have exuberant imagination and make good use of others' ideas despite not many ended up realized yet at the same time often came up with rough drawings which challenging to transcribe. As such, throughout their collaboration, he felt more useful in making designs that simply doing animation on special cuts^[11].

When it comes about works that set in real-life locations such as Tokyo, Yoshinari believes that realism is important in them; it's imperative to accurately show said works take place there, even as far as their art director go.^[12]

Animation Style and influences[]

“	"The first time I recognized 'Yoshinari Sakuga' was when I directly saw his key frames, as an in-betweener on (Neon Genesis) Evangelion. Even though I had put my sakuga mania aside at the time, I was shocked of not knowing someone as good as this. To my mind, his key animation is a "bundle". It has the essence of all Yoshinori Kanada, Masami Obari, Satoru Utsunomiya, Yasuomi Umetsu, or Hiroyuki Okiura (and many others, including people from overseas). Moreover, the way he takes good parts from each is very balanced. He doesn’t specialize only in tricky or realistic stuff, instead he tries to put the coolness of many kinds of sakuga into one vessel. That’s why I found his key animation very otaku-ish at the time (laugh). Since we're the same age I could see things like "Oh, this is that person's style" and I was immediately fascinated by the fact that he could replicate it on such a high level.	”
—Hiroyuki Imaishi explained the greatness of "Yoshinari sakuga"^[2]

In Imaishi's admission, he found Yoshinari to be "sharp", often using a ruler while working on mecha animations hence their sharper and more rigid feel despite his peers at Gainax no longer using such approach, at least until the development of Jin-Roh where he started softer forms. Yoshinari attempted to pour everything he took notes from best animations he had seen in the one he worked on. The tough development of spectacular animation style Yoshinari currently best known at also attributed to his past preference to draw realistic, plaster figure-like shapes and accurate movement which contrasted to his mentor Kazuya Tsurumaki's typical anime-ish rhythm and energy. Although he had less and less time to draw key frames since his and Imaishi's collaboration in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it didn't prevent his drawings to be less dense, let alone unable to finish them in time. In fact, there were instances of him drawing more than what he needed, mostly key frames depicting very detailed explosion cuts. Overall, Yoshinari served as the 'trigger' for Hiroyuki Imaishi in deciding his would-be career in animation industry, more so with him getting invested with directing and screenwriting to improve himself^[2].

Yoshinari didn't deny of his works being described as a "bundle" (condensing every kind of coolness in one style) by Imaishi, though he admitted there's more than that. He believed in importance of being open-minded so as not to develop biased tastes, having taken notes on not just from Yoshinori Kanada and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's styles, but also those of other various works to improve his own, animation from foreign countries included^[2].

Yoshinari admitted not to have any inclination or particular preference to certain drawing style, understanding that each one has different approaches/aesthetics and at the same time open to others' suggestions in revising his designs should they fail to meet their expectations. Although he initially sticked to the style he get used it while working as his brother's assistant, Yoshinari eventually had to develop his own upon joining Gainax because their approaches contrasted one another^[2].

It's worth mention that in an interview, drawing techniques are what interested him most when it comes about choosing manga series^[10].

Yoshinari utilizes all colors equally in his artworks, purple is apparently the most recurring one, which he cited to be influenced by Michitaka Kikuchi, who best known by the pen name Kia Asamiya^[10].

Yoshinari is recognized for action cuts with dense movement and composition, which are termed "Yoshinari cuts", though it was developed from habit instead of ideal form as he wanted to try different things. Still, he hasn't experimented so much after FLCL from losing pursuing spirit and even stopped putting his key frames to see how they moved — a contrast to how he usually checked how his key animation worked when he was younger. Although, he admitted to be afraid of not checking on new kind of key frames he never made prior.^[13]. Additonally, he is also well known for his very detailed explosion cuts^[2]^[14], along with the way he represents volume and perspective using spheres^[13].

Yoshinari had disclosed various influences he drew inspirations from throughout his career, such as Ikuto Yamashita and Takeshi Honda for his use of forms; The manga Nijitte Monogatari as one of his most important influeces when it comes to drawing; Yoshinori Kanada and Shinya Ohira for movements; Satomi Kamie for manga, Egon Schiele for paintings and Mike Mignola for American comics. This also included Yasuomi Umetsu and Nobuteru Yuki, in which he acknowledged the endeavor of perfectly replicating the former's works demanded extensive preparations which included careful observation due to how difficult it was. The latter's style also similarly challenging that he was uncertain whether to be able to draw on his level. He remembered how most of past animators in 1980s ended up taking notes from Masahito Yamashita instead of Yoshinori Kanada whom they thought to be copied of, hence lacked the same sharpness as the latter. As Kanada's approach in animation changed, aforementioned animators followed Yamashita more due to the latter's more impactful style that focused on rhythm in addition of movement, which Yoshinari described as "ideal form". Yoshinari is also familiar with Hiroyuki Okiura whose style become more and more elaborate yet not underwent metamorphosis like Iso's for aiming to reach pinnacle by only elevating the pre-existing technique^[13]. Yoshinari's other inspirations were Satoru Utsunomiya (whose notable contribution being as key animation in AKIRA), Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and Kazuya Tsurumaki. He also wished to be as good as Nobuteru Yūki when it comes about cel art, admiring how good the latter was on such field. When it comes about drawing realistic artworks (which no longer as many as it used to be because of fewer authentic illustrators who pursue realistic drawings nowadays), Yoshinari credits Yoshiyuki Takani and Noriyoshi Ohrai for teaching him, though his own illustration style ultimately in the middle ground between anime and realistic^[10].

While working on his animations, Yoshinari is the one who made vague plans when inclined to do so instead of planning things meticulously. Nevertheless he ensured them to be at least less objectionable than the last^[11].

When it comes about works whose comedy being very heightened, over the top, and scandalous such as Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Yoshinari admitted in an interview that he relied on Imaishi's guidance to make sure it won't be too extreme, though the latter admitted they won't hold back if works in question will be aired in the likes of Adult Swim.^[15]

Other notable works[]

Boukyaku no Senritsu (mechanical Design)
Bousou Sengokushi: Specter Tanjou (uncredited)^[2]
Chou Kidou Densetsu DinaGiga (key animation, opening)
Dead Leaves (key animator)
Gunbuster 2: Diebuster (OAV)^[2] (Key Animation, episodes 1-5)^[16]
Gunbuster vs Diebuster Aim for the Top! The GATTAI!! Movie (Key Animation)
Gurren Lagann Parallel Works (director, animation director, storyboard artist, key animator, episode 8)
Mahoromatic - Automatic Maiden (TV) (Key Animation, episodes 1, 4, 9, 11)
Mahoromatic: I'm Home! (special) Guest Mecha Design, Key Animation (ep 2)
Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful (TV) Animation Cooperation (ep 11), Key Animation (OP; eps 1, 10, 13)
Mahoromatic: Summer Special Key Animation
Medabots (key animator)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (key animation, episodes 35, 39, 44, 51)
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (concept art, animation director, key animation, episode 12B)

Trivia[]

Prior to becoming an animator, Yoshinari made some mangas and copy pictures. However, he didn't draw existing characters because he's not good at replicating others' drawing style. While he's not into manga series, Yoshinari was nonetheless read magazines like Ryu, Weekly Captain, and The Motion Comics in addition of Weekly Shonen Jump^[10].
Yoshinari sees drawing illustrations and animations being different while not two separate things, citing that it's not easy to impress with a single piece of drawing hence his decision to become an animator. His illustration often comes with noise effects to provide a rough, analog aesthetic which he found absent in digital art. If he lacked good ideas for them in mind and/or wanted to trick the viewers with the mess, Yoshinari often added many components and little space which he jokingly remarked as illusions^[10].
In Yoshinari's admission, he started to draw illustrations after switching to tablets — his skill in traditional art leaned to oil painting from his high school days which he's not very good at back then. Digital drawing proved to be more convenient, as cleaning up after using drawing equipment and finding a perfect place for drawing such as a studio proved handful. Among the benefits of drawing through digital medium being able to adjust the colors better if needed. In retrospect, it was his brother's idea for working on artworks of Valkyrie Profile from start^[10].
- On a related note, he used Painter for one-shot drawings while photoshop for ones which requires editing. His brother never used the former, however.
- He had no digital artists who inspired him when it comes about digital drawing.
- He considered himself to be "so-so" as both animator and illustrator, but nonetheless continues working as long as everyone is interested with his work.
- According to Yoshinari, becoming an animator, illustrator, or director are indeed different; drawing techniques are limited when one works on animations thus must compromise. With illustrations on the other hand, one can express what they couldn't with the former. Upon being asked whether he considered of making an animation resembling an illustration, Yoshinari stated the endeavor will take a lot of time, having tried a bit with White Album, though he wanted to focus in directing at the moment.
- On a related note, Yoshinari believes that things one can achieve from animation is nothing alike with illustration. As he put it, "Animations make a wonderful piece dull and a horrible one a little better - all sketches turn more mediocre when they are put in an animation. This is an advantage for when you work with a number of people because the results are relatively uniform. If you follow how Princess Kaguya was made, it adds an extra layer of difficulty since you start noticing the difference in quality, which you would not want as a director."
Yoshinari was chosen to be the director of the original Little Witch Academia short because he was free and therefore readily available when the roles were assigned. He was delighted upon learning it being integrated into Anime Mirai hence its more flexible production schedule than works intended for TV broadcast^[17]^[18].
Although having little to no involvement in the Kickstarter held for The Enchanted Parade movie and that Studio Trigger attempted to try something new at the time, Yoshinari nevertheless confessed his pleasant surprise upon positive feedback it received which made the film greenlit.^[19]
According to Yoshinari, if a second season or sequel to TV Series adaptation of Little Witch Academia eventually greenlit, he wanted to explore more about Jasminka's background, more slapstick of daily life-centered episodes, and expanding the lore about magic in the franchise.^[20]
The following are things Yoshinari regretted not doing back during the development of anime TV Series, as stated during Trigger Night Vol. 6^[21]^[22]:
- More screentime for Hannah, Barbara, Jasminka, and Avery.
- How Akko's parents reacted upon seeing her and Diana's final battle against Noir Rod-infested missile.
Yoshinari's favorite manga is Nijitte Monogatari, which is remarked as one of the most important influences in his drawing style^[13]. He came across it in 1988 back when said series' style reached its peak^[10].
Kazuo Koike's content is one of Yoshinari's influences for story^[13].
According to Yō Yoshinari, his top 3 animators as of 2013 are Hiroyuki Okiura, Shinya Ohira, and Mitsuo Iso^[13].
In an interview, Yoshinari admitted himself to be the one who can immediately appreciate anything instead of just drawing and content of correctly handling the works he get^[11].
Yoshinari was inspired by Mobile Suit Gundam franchise. He also used to read various works of Fujiko F. Fujio such as Doraemon. He is also no stranger to Bande dessinée, comic book company which famous for various series such as Lucky Luke, which he sees the work of animators in general close to in terms of relationship with drawing^[12].
Yoshinari believes that manga and anime creators have different roles. To elaborate, the former is a very individual process while the latter a collective effort where animators have the task to focus only on the drawing^[12].
Yoshinari's interest in anime in general leans more to storytelling than characters features as most of characters in question represent archetypes one won't likely encounter in real life^[12].
The differences between Japanese and Western animations, as Yoshinari put it: "First of all, animators need to draw so many pictures, so many sheets, that they are required to simplify the drawings. Animation is a western invention, and when watching American cartoons, they are constantly moving; they use so many sheets of drawings. Outside Japan, animation is often done at 24 frames per second. That’s different from Japanese animation, where we use less of them because of the time and budget constraints. This explains why in anime, even still scenes are considered essential and bear a lot of meaning. In my opinion, Japanese animation’s particularity was born from having to concentrate the meaning in a few frames. Japanese animation did not seek to be realistic and was very inspired by Disney. Osamu Tezuka, the pioneer of Manga was influenced by Disney. One may say that the source of Japanese animation is Disney. But even though the origin is found in Disney, we did not have the same resources, so each picture needed to bear a lot more meaning. That’s how Japanese animation took the path it did. It wasn’t a direct evolution but more of a deviation with some circumvolution."^[12]
Thanks to his remarkable talent in drawing as showcased back during the production of Gurren Lagann or Kill la Kill, Yoshinari earned the nickname of "The Dreams Factory"^[12].
Yoshinari is no stranger to the fact that anime studios in general, Studio Trigger included, operate 24 hours and not comfortable in discussing their staff's working conditions as the result. He does however hopes some improvements in them and used to working on a series all night while resting during the day^[12].
As of 2018, Yoshinari's residence is situated at rural regions of Tokyo^[12].
When designing the female cosplayer featured in the poster of Japonisme 2018 Official Project MANGA TOKYO Exhibition (see the poster in gallery below), M. Kaichiro Morikawa, Shigeto Koyama, Yoh Yoshinari, and Tsuyoshi Kusano ensured her not to show too much personality and neither actual main character nor heroine thus more of a side character hence why she wears glasses. Yoshinari acknowledged the endeavor to be challenging since they worked on characters who serve as their respective franchise's mascot of sort^[12].
When talking about the beginnings of the collaboration between Studio Trigger and Netflix, Yoshinari described their circumstances to be like this: "Netflix did not have any specific requests, but it’s probably because it was at the very beginning of their activities within anime. Now they had time to analyze the trends and what kind of works audiences are expecting and are thriving. Netflix is very sensitive to trends. They have started making requests following these trends. Because they had time now to spot what shows are successful or not, there is now less freedom."^[12]
Yoshinari confirmed in Convention Jonetsu 666 2024 that Luna Novq faery custodians' strike with Akko later joining them upon understanding their plight which started it all in "New Age Magic" was influenced by his recurring experience of stumbling upon revolt of some kind every time he visited France.^[23]
On related note, he also joked that Japanese people are compliant in comparison hence if they have to fight for real, they should follow French citizen's example^[24].
When questioned about comparison between Ninja Slayer the Animation and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in an interview, Yoshinari claimed to have watched the former and expressed his confidence in ensuring the latter had better lighting^[25].
According to TRIGGER live drawing 01^[26]:
- When inquired about an easy way to get better at drawing, he stated that he'd like to learn this way too if it exists.
- He looks up to so many people, that it felt too numerous to state, but he opted to mention young people who does drawing streams not unlike the one he carries out in the interview (TRIGGER live drawing 01) as an example.
- He and Hiromi Wakabayashi clarified that Little Witch Academia's setting techincally doesn't extend to the outer space, which true to the fact Akko and Diana's final battle against Noir Rod being arguably somewhere at stratosphere.
- He believed that fans may support animators through buying their doujinshis/artbooks whereas Hiromi Wakabayashi outlets such as streams given that the studio could only provide them more work.
- His favorite pizza topping is tomatoes.
- He expresses an interest in directing the second season of Inferno Cop.
- He likes to draw explosion effects.
- He draws things which he came up and thinks about them later on rather than using references, let alone items and equipment.
- He actually planned to draw Jasminka but forced to Akko instead at the time of TRIGGER live drawing 01.
As revealed by Hiromi Wakabayashi during TRIGGER live drawing 03^[27];
- As stated by Tattun, Yoshinari mentioned how much animators improved just like Olympics.
According to TRIGGER live drawing 10^[28]:
- It was Yoshinari who provided a photo book full of animals as the reference for BNA: Brand New Animal.
- Yoshinari worked on image boards for Uru in Blue as noted by Yoshigaki.
- Yoshinari's capabilities in directing was notable considering that he used to be difficult to manage back at Gainax. Hiromi Wakabayashi mentioned how much he changed quite a bit over the years, faster and metter than most people that he could everything himself so much others uncertain of his interest in it.

Gallery[]

Various artworks[]

Little Witch Academia-related artworks[]

Others[]

Production materials[]

Sketches[]

Miscellaneous[]

Videos[]

LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA Interview - Talking To Yoh Yoshinari & Naoko Tsutsumi

Animation Interview - Little Witch Academia creators Hiroyuki Imaishi and Yoh Yoshinari

「TRIGGER」特番「"TRIGGER" your Excitement !!」【TOHO animation 10周年大感謝祭アーカイブ配信】

【海外イベント】TRIGGER in マレーシア！吉成曜監督と『COMIC FIESTA』に参加して来ました！

La création de Little Witch Academia

References[]

External links[]

You Yoshinari

Yō Yoshinari

Yō Yoshinari at Anime Matsuri site (archived in May 20, 2015)