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Masaaki Yuasa Directs Daisy's Life Anime Film
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Entertainment news website Variety reported on Monday that Masaaki Yuasa will direct a new anime film titled Daisy's Life. The film will be a Japanese-French co-production at Yuasa's new studio ame pippin, and will release in 2026.
Sachiko Tanaka (Before We Vanish, Asaki I & II) is the screenwriter for the film as her first anime work. Original novel illustrator Nara is designing the characters. ASMIK Ace is producing the film. French studio Miyu Productions (Ghost Cat Anzu, A New Dawn) is co-producing the film. Producers from Miyu include Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron.
Variety describes the story:
“Daisy's Life” follows the emotional journey of a six-year-old girl named Daisy, who loses her mother in a tragic accident and struggles to adapt to life with her aunt. One sleepless night, she encounters a mysterious girl named Dahlia at her window. Their days together begin to transcend time and space, bringing a cosmic perspective to Daisy's modest life in a downtown yakisoba restaurant.
Yuasa launched the ame pippin studio in February in collaboration with ASMIK Ace, Aniplex, and CoMix Wave Films. The studio's website lists Yuasa as CEO and co-founder.
Yuasa started as a key animator for such anime as Doraemon: Nobita's Animal Planet and The Legend of the Dog Warriors: The Hakkenden. He moved on to Crayon Shin-chan where he was animation director on a number of episodes, and did animation work on the franchise films.
Yuasa co-founded Science SARU with Eunyoung Choi in 2013. The duo's "Food Chain" episode of the American animated series Adventure Time earned them an Annie Award nomination in 2014. Yuasa's major anime credits as director include Japan Sinks: 2020, DEVILMAN crybaby, Kemonozume, Kick-Heart, Lu over the wall, Mind Game, Ride Your Wave, Ping Pong, The Tatami Galaxy, and Kaiba.
Yuasa retired as president of the studio Science SARU in March 2020. He most recently directed INU-OH, the musical anime feature film of Hideo Furukawa's Heike Monogatari: Inu-Oh no Maki (Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh) novel. The film opened in Japan in May 2022.
Source: Variety (Jamie Lang)
