MAKE A GIRL had its world premiere at the Global Stage Hollywood 2024 Film Festival on November 3rd! The new and upcoming animated film is directed by Gensho Yasuda, an independent artist and rising star in the world of Japanese animation. The film began as a crowdfunding campaign where it met its goal of 10 million yen to bring this film to life. The film is set to premiere in Japan on January 2025. I had the opportunity to watch MAKE A GIRL , ahead of its Japanese premiere, a rarity in anime.
Dir.Yasuda Gensho, and lead actress Tanezaki Atsumi, (No. 0) at the Global Stage Hollywood 2024 Film Festival | Source
Prior to watching this movie, I only knew a few bits and pieces about it and had never heard of Gensho Yasuda. The first time I heard about him and his work, was through my colleague’s interview from this year’s Anime Expo. I approached the movie with no expectations, just hoping it would be enjoyable. I must say, the movie was unexpectedly amazing!
Amazing CGI Animation
What truly surprised me about MAKE A GIRL was its CGI animation. For me, CGI-animated movies can be hit or miss, but this one was absolutely stunning. The animation was crisp, clean, and packed with detail. From the subtle character movements to the dynamic action scenes, every moment felt alive and engaging. It’s clear that an incredible amount of time and effort went into bringing this film to life. It’s been a while since I’ve seen CGI animation this impressive, and MAKE A GIRL has definitely earned a spot on my list of outstanding examples of the craft.
MAKE A GIRL is both intriguing and enjoyable. In the aforementioned interview, director Gensho Yasuda shared that the plot was inspired by the phrase “make a girlfriend” and its various interpretations. While I’m not sure if this was his original intent, I saw the plot from a different perspective. To me, the film explores the many meanings of love and what it truly means to be alive. This theme is beautifully conveyed through the interactions between Akira, the main character, and Zero, the girlfriend he creates. Their unique relationship brings depth and emotion to the story.
The movie is full of unexpected twists, especially when it comes to Akira’s backstory and the ending. The final twist ties beautifully back to the film’s opening, creating a seamless connection. Without giving too much away, there’s a key moment where characters, Zero and Akira share an emotional conversation about their relationship. I highly recommend watching this film—it truly resonated with me and brought my interpretation to life.
MAKE A GIRL is an impressive film with breathtaking CGI animation and a captivating story. Coming in with no expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by how well-thought-out the plot and characters were. The animation truly stood out—it was clean, smooth, and an absolute visual delight. As someone who doesn’t watch much CGI animation, it’s been a while since I’ve seen work this polished, making MAKE A GIRL a must-watch for anime fans.
The film set to release on January 31st of the incoming year, I highly recommend watching this movie when it gets its international debut.
This marks the first full-length theatrical project by animator Gensho Yasuda, who has amassed over 6 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. Known for his 3D short animations, music videos, and corporate promos, Yasuda’s work has been praised both in Japan and abroad. MAKE A GIRL is a completely original story, brought to life with 100% 3DCG and described as “300% Gensho Yasuda purity.” Its success is already evident—the crowdfunding campaign exceeded its goal by 230%, showcasing Yasuda’s incredible popularity and the high anticipation for this film.
KADOKAWA describes the film as follows,
The story takes place in the near future: Akira Mizutamari, a scientific genius who succeeded in developing and commercializing SALT, a robot that supports people’s lives, finds himself stuck in a rut when all of his new inventions fail. After hearing from a friend that he can “power up” by creating a girlfriend, he does literally that and scientifically creates an “artificial” girlfriend named “No. Zero”. Torn between her programmed emotions and her growing feelings, No. Zero starts to waver. Is it “love” that buds between her and Akira, who is unaccustomed to communicating with others, or perhaps something else?
The fascinating characters for this story are played by Atsumi Tanezaki (No. Zero), who has shown her ability to transform from one character to another in roles such as Anya in “SPY x FAMILY” and Frieren in “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End”, and Shun Horie (Akira Mizutamari), who has been selected for leading roles in various popular works, including Kyoutarou Ichikawa in “The Dangers in My Heart”. Gensho Yasuda’s unpredictable super-new cyber love suspense animation is now coming to the world ──!
Read our interview with Make A Girl director, Gensho Yasuda during Anime Expo 2024 here. For more updates and information visit the film’s official website (Japanese).
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Gensho Yasuda, a member of Xenotoon Inc., is a rising star in the world of animation. With a social media following exceeding 6 million, Yasuda has captured the attention of a global audience through his innovative and captivating anime shorts. His breakthrough came with the self-produced anime “Make Love,” which garnered critical acclaim and won a prize at the prestigious 29th CG Anime Contest in 2020, Japan’s oldest CG animation contest. Building on this success, Yasuda has taken on the role of director for his latest project, “MAKE A GIRL,” further showcasing his talent and vision in the animation industry.
MAKE A GIRL is scheduled for release in Japan sometime in 2025. Film’s synopsis is as follows,
Akira Mizutamari, a scientific genius who succeeded in developing and commercializing SALT, a robot that supports people’s lives, finds himself stuck in a rut when all of his new inventions fail. After hearing from a friend that he can “power up” by creating a girlfriend, he does literally that and scientifically creates an “artificial” girlfriend named “No. Zero”. Torn between her programmed emotions and her growing feelings, No. Zero starts to waver. Is it “love” that buds between her and Akira, who is unaccustomed to communicating with others, or perhaps……?
The fascinating characters in this story are brought to life by Atsumi Tanezaki (No. Zero), known for her versatile performances as Anya in “SPY x FAMILY” and Frieren in “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End,” and Shun Horie (Akira Mizutamari), who has captivated audiences in leading roles such as Kyoutarou Ichikawa in “The Dangers in My Heart.”
We had the opportunity to interview Yasuda-san regarding his latest project, “MAKE A GIRL” who Yasuda serves as the director. Before we could ask our questions, KADOKAWA promotion team had the following questions for Yasuda-san,
KADOKAWA PT: Yasuda-san published many CG animations on SNS and YouTube. Total number of social media followers is more than 6 million followers. His works have been seen all over the world. What made you decide to create and post your own CG animation?
Gensho Yasuda: I enjoy reading and creating stories as a hobby. I work as a 3D animator, and I’ve been wanting to make 3D animations based on my own stories. In Japan, many creators, like mangakas, don’t frequently use social media to promote their work. Therefore, I’ve decided to use social media to promote my own creations.
KADOKAWA PT: For the production of the film “MAKE A GIRL,” you have set up a studio called Gensho Yasuda Studio. Is there any difference between working alone and working with a studio?
Gensho Yasuda: so working on my own the freedom that I experience is really the best part. It really allows me to set up and think about the technical approach in detail before starting so it’s really the advantage is being able to research while I’m working. So it’s kind of like a two birds one stone situation. Working in teams, in contrast really it’s a strength in numbers. The workload is reduced. The research can be done much faster. And in terms of MAKE A GIRL we worked with that eight-person team and so it was kind of like eight times the work was done in a very short amount of time. The research was done eight times faster, but it wasn’t just that it was that each animator brought with them their unique careers and their unique ideas and techniques, they discovered new techniques and they even taught me new techniques as well. So the ideas that weren’t mine got to be incorporated into this as well, which was a huge strength of working with that team.
KADOKAWA PT: What are some of the highlights of the film? What should the audience keep an eye out for?
Gensho Yasuda: So I’ve made a lot of short animes and in these short animes that were online I didn’t use any voice actors and it was just about the movement. It was simply only the visual that was involved which required some imagination from the audience and this time in this film, I’ve used voice actors and they really gave life to these characters so you can enjoy it a lot more like a classic anime. And in the sort of CG action scenes, that’s one of my strengths and one of my deeper wells of experience I would say so I think that will be a really fun and exciting part for audiences to watch as well.
Our Questions
Gensho Yasuda & Krystal during Anime Expo 2024
KRYSTAL: Usually your animations have little to no voiceover, for each character in this project has a voice actor. Do you think this project will resonate with your audience?
Gensho Yasuda: Yeah, I think so, but you know until now, imagination was such a big part of the shorts that hit, as you said, and people were just kind of free to imagine what they wanted based on their life experiences and what came to mind. This is a lot more like classic anime, so there isn’t as much that people can use their imagination with, so yeah. That’s a point that will be interesting to see how people relate to this.
KRYSTAL: Tell how you came up with initial story of MAKE A GIRL?
Gensho Yasuda: it’s literally ‘make a girlfriend’, is how you described when you get a girlfriend or that kind of thing. So thinking about the sentence written down I thought about how there could be a lot of different meanings to that sentence and the noun of girlfriend can be thought of in different ways. So I thought well what if there was a scientist that used science to create his girlfriend and I love science fiction and it’s sort of a meta expression of my love of SF that I put into this piece this film.’
KRYSTAL: What were some of the challenges that you faced in this project?
Gensho Yasuda: So the biggest challenge was really just making the film itself. There were 8 members including myself in this project and to get each of these people to become this fully fleshed-out animator was a process especially because I have a very unique know-how and I have some very interesting specialties that I taught these other people so that was the most challenging part was like creating the environment for that to happen before we even started making the film. However, at the same time, you know, six months or about a year in, each person focused on a different section, for example, like 3D modeling or background work, that sort of thing. And so each person kind of became a specialist in each area and so much so that their level of detail and expertise became deeper than mine in those areas. So I really came to rely on them and learn from them.
KRYSTAL: I know it’s probably too early to tell but you have created a numerous characters throughout your career releasing your shorts. Do you think you’ll create a film or a larger animations based on the other characters you’ve created?
Gensho Yasuda: In terms of characters I’d like to expand upon, definitely the cursed doll and the Miko character, I’d like to flesh out their stories. I have a clear image of how their stories end and how their journey ends but I don’t know exactly what medium would be best to tell that story. So it might be short, it might be long, I’m not too sure yet.
KRYSTAL: During the casting, was there a moment where you said to yourself, “Ah, There! There’s the voice of my main character”?
Gensho Yasuda: So I’d say yes, Akira’s- Yeah, I had an idea of what sort of acting I wanted to use for the character of Akira and then Shun Horie who played him really did an incredible job with like small nuances at the end of sentences or doing that sort of thing in bringing him to life because if you just read his dialogue, he’s not a very likeable character and yet he truly became Akira and even I think was somewhat likable and there were moments like that. That really made me think. Oh, yeah, this is this is Akira for sure.
KRYSTAL: Have you given any thought to venturing into other mediums, such as 2D animation or hand-drawn animation?
Gensho Yasuda: No, I have not. I think the reason is that people who can’t draw enter 3D; that is really why I entered. The 3D that I create look like hand-drawn and feels hand-drawn animation, and to do that, there are interesting adjustments that need to be done over and over again, and in making these adjustments, I find myself learning a little bit more skills in drawing, but that doesn’t mean I can draw anime.
You can follow Gensho Yasuda on social media here. Visit the film’s official website. I would to special thanks to KADOKAWA and the MAKE A GIRL PR team for this wonderful interview opportunity.
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