“Since Anime Mirai is a project to raise young animators, we wanted to make the story in line with that concept. So we wondered if we couldn’t transpose the story of a new animator to something else. Then the first idea was something about a wizard’s apprentice.” - Yoh Yoshinari

Many young animators were brought on board for the show, and would become essential to Trigger’s future. The primary new animators that worked on the project would be: Shuhei Handa, Yuuto Kaneko, Shouta Sannomiya, Hisao Dendo, and Masaru Sakamoto. All originating from Gainax. Out of these five, Kaneko would become an important animator of the studio in the future. At that point he only had a year of key animation experience.

This wonderful hour long documentary (narrated by Shiny Chariot’s VA) highlights the production process as the storyboard and animation stage had to be finished in a very short period of time. In the documentary you can see Yoshinari being very patient with his animators giving quiet informative suggestions. Though the doc showcases the newer animators others provided KA to the film including Redline’s Takafumi Hori and freelancer Mai Yonemaya. Even Imaishi helped.

After LWA Yoshinari would inevitably be brought on to Imaishi’s Kill La Kill. His first task was on OP 1 (directed by Otsuka) doing a 1 shot that he finished under a week.

Yoshinari 0:56-1:15, in the doc (Yoshinari barely got these cuts finished on time and spent days tirelessly making sure it flowed together properly so Imaishi would be pleased. In the end when Imaishi saw the OP he was laughing with joy at the final product). He’d then work on 8 episodes of the show, doing storyboards, AD work, and even second key animation.

The second installment of Little Witch Academia entitled The Enchanted Parade was released in October of 2015.
The circumstances of this film were interesting. It was originally slated to be 30 minutes then extended to 50 minutes due to the size and scope of storyboards, and the funding for the film was helped partially by Kickstarter. Initially having a goal of $150,000 and then exceeding it with a total of $625,518. The film illustrates Akko, Sucy, and Lotte being assigned to helping with a Parade. When they don’t affirm with the original traditions of the parade they end up going along with something different and working alongside new students Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka (designed by Yoshinari). Will the parade be successful?

documentary
This film had a way harsher crunch time compared to the last one, especially in the final weeks due to “Yoshinari’s perfectionism”. And there is a lot of his movement and animation corrections present. During the last leg of production a ton of staff would assist the animation department. The Gainaxers Sushio, Amemiya, Nishigori, and Imaishi would lend a hand. Even Tadashi Hiramatsu, the Gainax big three’s mentor also came to help. Kaneko probably had the most difficult sequence with Amanda, resulting in Shuhei Handa assisting. Also was left to the parade sequences. An exciting new animator brought on to the studio was Kai Ikarashi, and while he was relatively inexperienced in a short time would become a star player in Trigger’s future. You can see him at 25:40 being very warn out. Though the documentary is good it illustrates Trigger being limited on pumping out a project of this scale due to its small staff at the time.

Following Enchanted Parade, Yoshinari would work on some freelance projects. One being Battlesaurs with Imaishi and Kizumonogatari with his brother doing whatever the hell this is sakugabooru.com/post/show/180949.

In 2017 LWA would get a TV Series released on Netflix.

This series would not follow the original OVA and differ in some subtle ways. Akko is not as good with magic in the show, and struggles a lot more being similar to a Chowder like character, cause while being a bit of a screw up and not big brained learns important lessons throughout the show and becomes an inspiration to people around her. 25 total episodes and Yoshinari provided a ton of storyboards and layout work. Yoshinari wouldn’t do a ton of KA himself on the show, but did help pen the finale which is this insanely raucous affair with him doing a 1 take missile running sequence boarded by Imaishi sakugabooru.com/post/show/35742\. As for others, Takafumi Hori would show his stripes penning some of the most exciting moments. Kaneko and newcomer Ichigo Kanno would also do insane work for the show.

After LWA wrapped up, one of the show’s screenwriters Michiru Shimada suddenly passed away later that year effectively deading any chance of the show getting another season.

In 2019, Hiroyuki Imaishi directed Promare the full length feature debut for Studio Trigger. A mix of 2d and CGI no one was more capable for the job then him, and despite being a more CG dominant film Imaishi assigned Yoshinari to draw a brilliant sequence of Galo De Lion sakugabooru.com/post/show/111356\. A scene that absolutely harkens back to Gurren Lagann making for god tier effects animation, and texturally complex layers of cyan colors.

The same year Yoshinari worked on a Trigger short for an indie RPG called Indivisible

Serving as KA, AD, character designer, and background designer

The following year Yoshinari would direct his second series Brand New Animal once again for Netflix.

A story about a world where humans and “beastmen” exist, and center around Michiru a girl that became a tanuki beastmen along with her friend Nazuna who was abducted forcing Michiru to exile to Anima City, a metropolis made for beastmen only. The show plays out as a semi-buddy cop investigative comedy series with Michiru and Shirou discovering corruption throughout the city. This show is so rife with twists that questioning the intent of everyone is kind of impossible.

The series was not written by Yoshinari, instead Kazuko Nazakawa one of the Kill La Kill writers. Due to the short length of the series, BNA comparatively to LWA feels much more breezy and trying to get through as many beats as possible. Though there is room for episodicism as I particularly love the baseball episode.

Yoshinari barely did any animation for the show, though there are some scenes very reminiscent of him.

For the first time in 24 years Yoshinari returned to Evangelion on the final Rebuild film. Exalting his KA presence, he’d work presumedly alongside artful key animator and Gurren Lagann alumni Hisashi Mori on Unit 2’s transformation sequence to thwart Unit 13. sakugabooru.com/post/show/162037\. He’d also assist partially in the Unit 01 vs 13 fight along with Ikarashi and Imaishi marking one of the most memorable moments of the film and the Trigger boys being one of the many studios to assist Khara

Studio Trigger’s next big project was an adaptation of the 2020 Cyberpunk 2077 video game entitled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners released in 2022.

Trigger was given a lot of time to work on the show roughly 2 years. Thanks to the efforts of CD Projekt Red understanding the flow of an anime production the studio backed off from creative interference and let Hiryouki Imaishi and the Trigger team do their thing. Yoh Yoshinari was in charge of character designs, and would give the cast the Studio Trigger sheen that it needed.

here Yoshinari draws David the show’s protagonist. Yoshinari served as a supervising AD throughout the show’s run.

Yoshinari recently animated on Akira Amemiya’s Gridman Universe film released this year, and very recently the Omega Strikers game doing AD, and illustrations.

Random thought, are Japanese people generally anti abortion or pro choice?

you're asking that in here?

Anyways here's some of Yoshinari's art

An art contest by Gainax was held for a fanmade angel design in 1996 and one fan won, Yoshinari would make an official illustration for it