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Former Science SARU Head Masaaki Yuasa Establishes New Studio ame pippin

Production company ASMIK Ace announced on Tuesday that anime director and Science SARU studio co-founder Masaaki Yuasa is establishing a new Tokyo-based anime studio named ame pippin. Yuasa is launching the studio in collaboration with ASMIK Ace, Aniplex, and CoMix Wave Films. The studio's website lists Yuasa as CEO and co-founder. The studio's website posted a recruitment noticed for prospective employees.

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 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.

Sources: Asmik Ace, Variety (Jamie Lang), ame pippin website