In Japan's animation industry, the road from obscurity to renown is a long one. At least, it is for most. Indie creator Gensho Yasuda, however, is a young Japanese animator who has quickly amassed a legion of followers by embracing technology and creating his own animated shorts that he posts online.
Yasuda’s videos, which usually have a running time of just a few seconds to about a minute, feature cute 3D-rendered characters and dialogue-free, visual punchlines. The videos' combination of high-quality animation, charming character designs and comic timing puts them in the same league as content from major anime studios — but, aside from sound, they're entirely created by Yasuda alone. His constant stream of uploads has earned the creator over 6 million followers across major social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, and he has been hired to produce short ads for the likes of McDonald’s and Intel.
Now, Yasuda (who doesn’t disclose his real name and age for privacy reasons) has taken on a much larger project: “Make a Girl,” which expands the indie creator’s 2020 short “Make Love” into a full-length feature film. After its Asian premiere at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, the film is set for release in theaters across Japan on March 31.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.