Yasuji Mori

Yasuji Mori (森康二, Mori Yasuji, January 28, 1925 – September 5, 1992) was an animator who worked with Toei Animation, while it was still known as Tôei Dôga, and a picture book author.

Early Life
Born in,. Mori Spent his childhood in Taiwan. Influenced by American animated shorts, and despite a degree in architecture (specializing in designing zoos) from the National University of Fine Arts in Tokyo, Yasuji Mori decided that he wanted to be an animator. Mori would later join Nichidô Animation (or Nichidô Eiga) in 1947. He studied under Sanae Yamamoto and, an early pioneer in Japanese animation that produced films from 1927-1950. He began working on inking and animation under Masao Kumagawa and Hideo Furusawa.

Career
In 1950, due to poor management, Nichidô was forced to retrench all of its employees. As the company underwent a period of restructuring, Mori began doing illustration work from Shogakukan's academic magazine, monthly publication Manga Shonen, publisher Kodansha and began working at the Seibu Department Stores' advertising department. Nichidô was then acquired by Toei Company in 1956 and renamed Tôei Dôga. Mori rejoined the company and began working on several short animation projedcts. Additionally, anime luminaries such as Sanae Yamamoto, Taiji Yabushita, Masao Kumakawa were also involved in Tôei. During his years at Tôei Dôga as a senior animator, Mori was partially responsible for creating and refining the Tôei Dôga style and therefore a major influence on the industry as a whole.

Protégé
At the time, Mori and Akira Daikubara were considered senior animators in the studio, and while Yasuo Ōtsuka was Daikubara's most famous pupil, Mori trained Daikichiro Kusube (later the founder of A-Productions and Shin-Ei Animation), as well as mentoring to Gisaburō Sugii (famous for directing Night on the Galactic Railroad), Yoichi Kotabe, Isao Takahata, Sadao Tsukioka, Kazuko Nakamura, Makoto Nagasawa, Seiichi Hayashi, Norio Hikone, Reiko Okuyama and Hayao Miyazaki.

Films
In 1957, Mori and Taiji Yabushita directed The Scribbling Kitten, described by Cartoon Research as "Toei Animation’s first animation short of substance". In 1959, the studio released Shounen Sarutobi Sasuke and by 1960, Mori was involved in , a forerunner of the anime explosion to come over the succeeding ten years. In March 1963, The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. Mori was the first to be credited as animation director in Japan, although Akira Daikubara had the same post on The Tale of the White Serpent but was not credited as that.

In 1968, Mori worked as key animator for Hols: Prince of the Sun, a film directed by Isao Takahata and produced by Toru Hara, featuring Reiko Okuyama, Yoichi Kotabe and Hayao Miyazaki as character designers and animators. The film performed disastrously at the box office, and Hara was forced to resign by Toei executives. Many of the key staff retained their positions.

In 1969, Mori produced Hustle Punch for Nihon Educational Television, a 26-episode series that involved Miyazaki as an animator and whose opening was directed by Isao Takahata. Notably, Ōtsuka stayed in Toei until 1969 to help his two protégés, Takahata and Miyazaki. In the same year, Mori served as animation supervisor for The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots.

Post-Toei Life
In 1973, Mori left Toei Animation to work with Zuiyo Eizo (Zuiyo Enterprises), which later became Nippon Animation. He, along with several exiles from Toei Animation went to focus almost exclusively on television animation, and Mori himself helped produce an early pilot for Heidi, Girl of the Alps, drawing many image sketches. He worked on the final series as an animator. The opening credit roll was animated by Hayao Miyazaki, except for two scenes by Mori. Assigned to animate a ring dance of Heidi and Peter, Mori wanted to analyze a movement of two real people, so Miyazaki and animation director Yôichi Kotabe did a ring dance in a parking lot next to their studio, and Mori shot them with an 8mm camera for reference. According to Isao Takahata (who worked with Mori on A Dog in Flanders at Nippon Animation), Mori's influence on the world of Japanese animation was "incalculable."

He married in 1950. Mori continued to illustrate children’s books, such as Folk Tales of the World series for Kodansha and Popurasha, and the cover illustrations of the monthly magazine Yoji to Hoiku / Infants and Nursing. In Fushigina Kaban / The Strange Bag and Hariemon no Kusuri wa Oishiika / Is Hariemon’s Medicine Tasty?

Hi died of liver cancer in September 4, 1992. He was only 67-years old.

Works

 * Key animator on The Tale of the White Serpent (1958)
 * Animation director on The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963)
 * Key animator on Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968)
 * Animation director on Puss in Boots (1969)
 * Animation director on "Rocky Chuck the Woodchuck" (1973)
 * Character designer on Dog of Flanders (TV series) (1975)
 * Key animator on Future Boy Conan (1978)
 * Layout supervisor, Noozles (1984)