Director Masaaki Yuasa Got a Double Chances at the Ottawa Animation Festival and Won Once

The Ottawa Animation Festival is an event to enjoy and award a variety of animation works from all over the world. For this year’s festival, one director makes history for the event as he has not one, but two films slotted in for the competition.

This director is none other than Masaaki Yuasa and his two works which competed in the feature film category were “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” and “Lu Over the Wall.” From the two film it was “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” that had Yuasi taking home the Best Feature award.

The first film was released in April and is based on Tomiko Morimi’s novel. It is a romantic comedy tale that tells of a character simply known as Senpai and his misadventures as as he tries to confess his love to a junior in his college known as “The Girl With Black Hair”, unaware that she returns his feelings.

The two main cast of this film has Gen Hoshino playing as Senpai while Kana Hanazawa voiced The Girl With Black Hair.

“Lu over the Wall” on the other hand, tells the tale of a middle schooler name Kai and his life on a lonely fishing island. One day when he is invited to join his classmates, Kunio and Yuuho’s band and is reluctantly brought to Merfolk Island, where they usually practice. It is there that they meet, Lu, a mermaid girl.

As Kai starts to spend more time with the young mermaid he learns to be more open with his emotions and finds himself being more able to express what he is thinking. However, not is all at peace as apparently, the people of the island seem to have created the belief that since ancient times, mermaids were a sign of disaster. Between the town people and Lu, can one man’s heart’s cry change things?

The main cast for this film included, Shouta Shimoda, as the voice of protagonist Kai and Kanon Tani as the voice behind Lu. As for Kai’s friend Kunio and Yuuho, they were being played by Minako Kotobuki and Soma Saito respectively.

Source:Crunchyroll News