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Yusuke Yoshigaki

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Yusuke Yoshigaki's selfie in June 11, 2024

Yusuke Yoshigaki (芳垣 祐介 Yoshi kaki Yūsuke?) is known for being a key animator on many, many anime productions () and serving in that capacity on The Enchanted Parade.[1] He was an Assistant Animation Director and main Main Key Animator for the Little Witch Academia initial short film and filled several roles in the Little Witch Academia TV series (Assistant Animation Director - eps 3, 23), Assistant Chief Animation Director - ep 16, Design, Key Animation).[1]dasdas

Along with recess ~The Art of Little Witch Academia~, Yusuke Yoshigaki also drew three Little Witch Academia booklets set after the events of anime TV Series; the first one serves as standalone sequel to The Enchanted Parade movie (events in said short film occurs in anime TV Series' continuity with the booklet picked from where it left off), while the second focuses on the visit of Akko's middle school friend who debuted in the portrait in The Enchanted Parade movie who becomes fast friend with Lotte upon learning their common passion for Night Fall series and the third a series of complications Mayor of Blytonbury faces in his upcoming projects. The following are links for reading such booklets;

Despite the uncertainty of new season or sequel of Little Witch Academia anime TV series, Yoshigaki remains interested in working on either upon given the chance. In fact, he occasionally posted illustrations of the series' characters in Twitter where some of them formed intriguing short stories (ex. easter egg hunt which leads Akko and Avery bonding with a cockatrice, Akko feeds Arcas with frozen food during heatwaves, Diana's own take on Shiny Chariot costume). Though neither of them necessarily official, such illustrations won't be out of place in canon proper nonetheless.

Personal Life[]

Per Studio Trigger official news release on October 27, 2017[2], the following is known of his life:

Born on November 17, 1973 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Yusuke initially decided to enter the animation industry after learning that becoming an animator would provide him with a high income despite being underpaid being among common issues in such industry. For that, he took the entrance exam for the animation production studio GAINAX, and made his debut as an animator with Neon Genesis Evangelion on the same day as Hiroyuki Imaishi did. After a year and a half of working in animation, he passed GAINAX's original picture exam and made his original picture debut with "Slayers NEXT" since the production company was located in GAINAX's neighborhood. He worked with Hiroyuki Imaishi, who also made his debut as an original picture artist at the same time, and expanded the range of his painting style.

The scene that attracted the most attention was episode 39 of "Micro Man, the Little Giant," in which the hero boy is playing grass baseball on a riverside when the heroine, a girl, walks by. She is approached by the hero and teased by her classmates, but she responds in a loud voice, a scene that evokes the friendship between children. His lively portrayal of the children was a testament to his ability. In addition to participating as an original artist for all episodes of "Furikuri," Hiroyuki Imaishi storyboarded the fifth episode, for which he was in charge of original drawings from the beginning of the episode to the subtitle. He masterfully wrote slapstick gag scenes ranging from gunfights to parodies. Since then, he has continued to show his ability in "Gurren Lagann" and "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt".

When many of his peers decided to leave Gainax for greener pastures, Yoshigaki followed suit by joining Studio Trigger with his close friend and fellow key animator Hiroyuki Imaishi. There, he would go on to work on key animation for When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, and of course, most recently, Little Witch Academia.[3] during which he was in charge of posters, illustrations, and sub-character designs[2].


His setting drawings, which include the characters' backgrounds, have contributed to broadening and deepening the world of the work. He also handled an enormous amount of work, including the original drawings for cuts in which hundreds of mob characters appeared, and he added brilliant color to the work.

Carefully surveying and observing – packing tons of ideas into one drawing. Layouts that make us feel the drama even outside the realms of a frame. For 20 years, he has been acquainted with Hiroyuki Imaishi, who has described him as the “ideal animator.”[3]

Representative works[]

  • Original art for "FURIKURIKURI" (2000, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki)
  • Original drawings for "Aim for the Top 2" (2004, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki)　
  • Gurren Lagann" Animation Director and original drawings (2007, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi)
  • Character Design, Animation Supervisor, Animation for "Mahoutsukai ni Ika na Koto ~Sora in Summer~" (2008, directed by Osamu Kobayashi)
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt" Episode settings, animation director, original drawings (2010, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi)
  • Character Design, Chief Animation Director, Accessory Design, and Animation Director for "Black Rock Shooter" (2012, directed by Shinobu Yoshioka)
  • Guest character design, animation director (joint), and original drawings for "Kill la Kill" (2013, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi)
  • Japan Anime (Tater) Trade Fair "Denko Chojin Gridman" character design, original drawings (2015, directed by Tetsu Amemiya)
  • Space Patrol Luruko" Character Design (Cooperative), Chief Animation Director (Cooperative) (2016 / directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi)
  • Design works and original drawings for "Little Witch Academia" (2017 / film directed by Yoh Yoshinari)[2]

Gallery[]

Concept Art[]

Various works[]

Official videos[]

Trivia[]

  • As revealed in his Twitter post in October 16, 2023, it was Yoshigaki who originally designed mob students in the series all the way back to the development of short films. In fact, his contribution in the classroom scene of the Anime Mirai short film impressed Yoshinari that the latter elected Yoshigaki to be one of Studio Trigger's animators.[4][5]
    • In the same post, he didn't expect the series' original short — which developed as part of Anime Mirai 2013 of Young Animator Training Project — to be successful enough to give rise its very own franchise considering it was originally meant to teach involved aspiring animators.[6]
  • According to Yusuke Yoshigaki in his Twitter post in October 19, 2023, among character designs which Yoshinari eventually unused was an elderly professor with wheelchair. Yoshigaki also stated that her absence was attributed to how the series' settings had become so elaborated to Yoshinari's liking that some parts he wanted to establish had to be left vague as the result.[7]
    • In the same post, Yoshigaki believed that second season of anime TV Series will likely greenlit if enough people (companies who provide production offer included) are interested to it. He also remarked the presence of aforementioned professor with wheelchair to be not unlike MSM-04N Agguguy in Gundam franchise.
  • During his time as a former member of Studio Gainax in 2011, Yusuke Yoshigaki participated in the 84-page Gurren Lagann Quake charity book entitled Jibun o Shinjite (Believe in Yourself) and provided an illustration for the book.[8][9]
  • According to TRIGGER live drawing 10[10]:
    • Yoshigaki uses a lead holder to draw, whereas his prefered eraser being malleable (kneaded), the air-in-soft variety.
    • He uses a Sharpie and Maki-e variety of fountain pen, specifically thin variety used by Hiromi Wakabayashi. He also had a plan to sell a picture book at the summer Comiket which unfortunately cancelled some time during TRIGGER live drawing 10.
    • Jackie, a character from BNA: Brand New Animal, happened to be the character he most comfortable drawing most.
    • Yoshigaki is noted to make a draft on a separate paper before cleaning it up at separate medium to get around the fact that shikishi paper in which he made the finalized picture, is more delicate that he can't revise the drawing with eraser too much.
    • Yoshigaki is uncertain of which specific BNA: Brand New Animal character he'd like to befriend with given to his advanced age but nontheless assures that he'll get along with everyone.
    • If Yoshigaki happened to be a beastman, he wanted to be sloth variaty because sloths seem to enjoy life.
    • Yoshigaki joined animation industry on the same year as Imaishi — a fellow former member of Gainax — did, and apparently noted Yoshinari's talent as demonstrated through the latter's image boards for Uru in Blue.
    • He enjoyed making pixel arts. Hiromi Wakabayashi noted that some of pixel animations he made being playable games such as Little Witch Academia and Space Patrol Luluco ones, with Sushio will be drawing, Naoko Tsutsumi retrieving the deliverables, and the player must intervene.
    • When it came about direction pertaining character design and inspiration given to him, Yoshigaki explained how the director being the one who came up with a rough idea which then explored to work on what would become its own concept design. Subsequently, such design and idea were interpreted so they could be easily replicated by animators.
    • He'd like to visit a haunted location.
    • His bicycle is a popular foldable variety which brand being ASAHI CO., LTD.
    • It was he who designed many of transformation sequences demonstrated by various characters in Studio TRIGGER works. Among them being Luluco's Judgement Gun Morphing that was based on the infamous 1999 Marvel Shapeshifter Punisher Power Pistol figure.
    • His favorite anime is Butt Detective because of its interactive premise similar to Dora the Explorer.
    • He was participated in the development of Gridman the Hyper Agent: boys invent great hero for the Japan Animator Expo.

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Icon-animenewsnetwork-22x22 Yusuke Yoshigaki
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://st-trigger.co.jp/news/889/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.otaquest.com/little-witch-academia-exhibition/
  4. ↑ Yusuke Yoshigaki's compiled Twitter conversation about his role in designing mob students
  5. ↑ https://twitter.com/Alcor_MX/status/1715570441983512617
  6. ↑ https://twitter.com/Alcor_MX/status/1715569505898766768
  7. ↑ Yusuke Yoshigaki's compiled Twitter conversation with the drawings of unused wheelchair-bound professor along with Avery and Katya in hockey uniforms
  8. ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-09-08/gurren-lagann-quake-charity-book-sold-on-kindle-store
  9. ↑ http://talkliveanimated.web.fc2.com/index_english.html
  10. ↑ Studio TRIGGER -10th live drawing event with Yusuke Yoshigaki from BNA!

News[]

External Links[]

Icon-animenewsnetwork-22x22 Yusuke Yoshigaki
Icon-twitter2012-20x20 Yūsuke Yoshigaki (@hil8DieG0wrQ1Ei) on Twitter
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