Film festival takes place on March 2-5 in Berkeley

The GLAS Animation Festival revealed in December that animator and director Masaaki Yuasa will attend the festival, and will host two Q&A sessions and a talk. The convention is taking place on March 2-5 in Berkeley, California.

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.

He made his film director debut with the 2004 Mind Game film, and he went on to direct television anime such as Kemonozume , Kaiba , and Ping Pong . He has also directed select episodes or specials of Western cartoons, such as Wakfu and Adventure Time . He also directed the Kick-Heart anime short in 2013. He adapted Tomihiko Morimi's The Tatami Galaxy novel into an anime, and is also directing a film adaptation of another Morimi novel, Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome (pictured at right). Yuasa is also working on the original film Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta .

Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome will open on April 7, and Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta will open on May 19.

Yuasa is known for an experimental style of animation that mixes exaggerated perspectives, sweeping camera work and extreme angles, and deliberately off-model character animation.

He and fellow animator Eunyoung Choi co-founded the Science Saru anime studio.

Source: Cartoon Brew (Amid Amidi)