Animator Spotlight: Yuki Hayashi

All gifs in order
Summer Wars (2009)
One Piece: Strong World (2009)
Kyosougiga (2013)
Yozakura Quartet: Hana No Uta (2013)
Kekkai Sensen (2015)
My Hero Academia Season 2 OP 2 (2017)
Kekkai Sensen & Beyond (2017)
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)
Baby I Love You Daze (2018)
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)
Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 Episode 13 (2019)
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019)
Healin Good Precure (2020)
Gotcha (2020)
My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission (2021)
Mob Psycho 100 Season 3 Episode 5 (2022)

Happy Belated Birthday to Yuki Hayashi Born December 22nd. An animator who has perhaps never animated a single mediocre scene, Hayashi lives by making consistently fun animation. Getting his start in the mid to late 00s at Toei Animation Hayashi quickly rose to prominence by having a calculatedly easy time animating action and character acting scenes. The praise he got came from how much personality and bouncy timing he was able to add, while conversely having heavy and seismic action. This was a running theme throughout his time on the Precure franchise, but once he got to his own projects frequently collaborating with Rie Matsumoto his own style in animation direction, and OPs and Eds came into fruition. Hayashi’s direction in animation can only be described as a glistening rainbow tinged symphony of cuts, filled with saturated filters, blitzing effects, and the feeling of a party (one famous example being the legendary Kekkai Sensen ED). While currently freelance, Hayashi maintains a strong relationship with Toei, but more so studio Bones where he has been a crucial part in My Hero Academia’s core group of top animators, being so good that he comes into the ranks of studio legends like Norimitsu Suzuki, Yoshimichi Kameda and Yutaka Nakamura. In fact Hayashi is born the exact same day as Nakamura, and he is just as headstrong and ambitious in his cuts. Though he is often regarded as an action animator he does also have strong ties to Makoto Shinkai working on his movies. So without further ado, here is a deep dive of one of the most electrifying animators of the modern day.

So the earliest placement of Yuki Hayashi was all the way back in 2004 on Osamu Kobayashi’s Beck, from here Hayashi had a pretty unique upbringing as an animator. He frequented around the webgen era of animators working alongside Ryo Timo and newcomers like Kenichi Kutsuna, and mentors Satoru Utsunomiya one of the most forward thinking animators of the Akira generation. He frequented them for several years, working on projects they gravitated towards like Eureka Seven, Noein, Gurren Lagann, and Dennoh Coil.

Having ties with chief animation director Takashi Hashimoto, one of the first decent sized shows Hayashi got his start on was Mononoke

Bright and colorful, looking like a Takashi Murakami painting, Mononoke would be a semi important show in shaping Hayashi’s aesthetics and creative process. There isn’t any particularly interesting drawn sequences from Hayashi, but did have him gravitate more and more to Toei.

There are several episodes he would frequent, having his first contribution to One Piece on Episode of Chopper more personality started to come through in his drawings, working with Naoki Tate’s simplified designs there was a lot of malleability in the character designs. Unlike a good majority of Japanese animators Hayashi applies a fair bit of squash and stretch into his animation, going for that bouncy feel I mentioned earlier. Xam’d: Lost Memories has Hayashi being surprisingly more grounded and realistic in his animation, showing off his true versatility. Lot of elements of Hashimoto in his animation, but unlike him he is very focused on character in action. Timing wise he’s able to make up for slow motion shots, while also being pretty conservative in frame count despite seeming like he is doing a lot more. After making a connection to a close in age Hironori Tanaka on Chopper, Hayashi hopped on Timo’s webgen opus Tetsuwan Birdy Decode and though he’s in a short scene Hayashi already had a plethora of influence and new generation techniques he picked up and helped him get even better in finding his own voice.

From 2009 to about 2013, moving on with an up and coming Rie Matsumoto, Hayashi was a frequent key animator on the Precure franchise getting his start on Fresh Precure! doing nearly 2 and a half minutes of KA on Episode 12.

This is where the mind boggling workload of Hayashi comes into play. We get comical character acting, brief stints of action comedy, and near the end a genuinely beautiful layout with a setting sky. The definitive factor in Hayashi’s work is how alive he is able to make his characters, and not in a realistic sense no, but the focus on getting as much expression and emotion as possible. Pay close attention to how much he plays around with the characters faces without veering too far out into the unrecognizable webgenny territory, its an indicative quality of a highly skilled animator and Hayashi is easily one of the best at this certain trait.

The next stop was Summer Wars

Another project with Hashimoto, on this Mamoru Hosoda film Hayashi was under the behest of action layouts by Takaaki Yamashita and AD by Hiroyuki Aoyama and Shigeru Fujita

Hayashi cuts of the digital world only past 1:01 to 2:23, real life scenes animated by a relay of several animators
A deceivingly grounded fight scene despite the playfulness of the digital world, the impact of Hayashi punches feel incredibly heavy. The physicality of the fight is super well conveyed, with some tight muay thai-esque choreography, and a nice sense of three dimensionality on the characters. It is a great scene.

After that came Hayashi’s second film of 2009, One Piece: Strong World

One of Hayashi’s first times being an Assistant AD among the six others that were on this film, Strong World revealed even more of Hayashi’s spring loaded animation. This came early in the movie with Luffy fighting a bear?

Hayashi start to 1:47 better quality
Working alongside Tate as an AD (I think), Hayashi is able to get some wonderfully heavy hits out of this scene despite the looseness of the character designs. The shot of Luffy getting punched, and landing in the tree has a surprising amount of physically realistic weight put into it then afterwards subverting that realism with Luffy throwing his giant hand at the bear. This cut is also interesting with an abundance of smears similar to Yoshihiko Umakoshi’s work, who also appears on the film.

Later on Hayashi animates a decent chunk of Zoro’s fight with Indigo

Hayashi 1:32 to end better quality
While more fantastical than the Luffy fight, the sheer amount of force and power felt in Hayashi’s animation is pretty unmatched even when he is not the most detailed animator in the world. Great use of volumetric smoke, fast paced looping animation, and just Zoro being a badass per usual. This scene would have felt a lot more breezy if Naotoshi Shida animated it, however, no doubt these are his storyboards.

For the next few projects Hayashi was mainly the Precure guy. He animated a brief fight scene on Heartcatch! late into the season. Then Hayashi did about two and a half minutes of character acting on All Stars Dx2 animated several character designs from all of the Precure series at the time. The Precure film he would have the most work on was Rie Matsumoto’s Heartcatch Precure! Movie

Nearly 4 minutes of animation Hayashi is nearly unstoppable. Hayashi appears in the first opening getting some dramatic character scenes out of the way. He then goes on to do a prolonged rooftop chase, nice debris effects towards the middle portion, and the final fight with the villain is super tight, adjusting perspectives and clever boards. Hayashi is able to achieve a lot and not be flashy.

After working on Toriko and C-Control, Hayashi made his debut on animation direction and character designs on Rie Matsumoto’s Kyousogiga in 2011

This absurd rainbow colored banger, relying heavily on the art direction of Hiroshi Katou, Hirotsugu Katoi, and Takashi Kurahashi, but most importantly color by Yuki Akimoto. With an absolutely ridiculous plot about a girl named Koto jumping into other dimensions with a “mirror Kyoto”, spirits and humans living alike, with even more bizarre art styles then previous Toei shows, the staff is fully allowed to be absurd as they want to.

Firstly character designs





Hayashi’s designs for the show are really solid with a lot of character, and definition in them. He takes several remnants from Umakoshi, Hosoda (in regards to creatures), and other Toei designers but is much more playful and easygoing in appearances. As for animation Hayashi was able to assemble a decent crowd that partly assist in the tv adaptation, Takeshi Morita, Tatsuzou Nishita, Naoki Tate, and more. Hayashi himself animates a good portion of the OVA, where he would do more layouts for the series.

For his second character design gig Hayashi got to work on Tanken Drilland which was a relatively unserious role, but the cute chibi nature of the show was conveyed well

After completing some AD on the additional episode ONA release of Kyosougiga and doing AD on One Piece: Film Z, Hayashi right around the time of the series release did an incredible scene on Episode 2 of Yozakura Quartet: Hana No Uta

His first project with Timo in four years, Hayashi comes swinging out of the gate being a completely different animator than he was several years before. While an honorary member of the webgen crew, we get to see the fruits of Hayashi’s influence from Toei, and his training with the webgen team come to life in this glorious action scene.

Hayashi 0:49-1:10
A mere 20 seconds is all Hayashi needed to make one of the most exciting action scenes ever. The thing probably the most effective in these cuts is the value of the start and end of each shot. Hayashi opens with some insane morphing effects in the opening attack, Hime dodges the attack leading into a nice dynamic running pose. The rock pillars forming afterwards seem to have strong indications of Hayashi using digital layouts as their is a great sense of smoothness in the debris more easily warranted in Flash or Photoshop. After Hime dodges the walls and slowly pole vault leaps across the air, her reaction to the bomb getting thrown at her with the spinning smear staff is so ridiculously cartoony, but is able to still keep an aura of seriousness and in the moment realization for her. It is a legendary cut.

Around the same time, the TV version of Kyosougiga aired

Directed of course by Rie Matsumoto, Hayashi was the prime candidate to orchestrate the animation of the series with his fun, and over the top style. Hayashi was in charge of an insane number of layouts for this show just to completely get the feel and vibe right. The show is a symphony of effects, character acting, and color, and while not overblown in stimulation like a Trigger anime its high energy gives an insane first impression. The first episode is a combination of the original ONA with new footage added on and Hayashi puts so much into the scenes himself and with the other animators. The entire episode is a display of veracity and force of talent, Toei adjacent animator Koudai Watanabe and freelancer Tatsuya Miki are able to keep up with Hayashi’s pace and be just as vibrant and exciting as he is. This is also likely due to heavy corrections. Hiroki Morimune, Naoki Tate, and Takashi Hashimoto also keep up with the insanity. The best of the roster is probably just Hayashi himself where he appears in the car busting scene. Hayashi seems incapable of making a cut not the most exciting thing you have ever laid your eyes upon, there is so much expression life and energy that everything looks like a sugar rush. He diligently follows Matsumoto’s boards, and she knows just how much Hayashi would up the ante.

Hayashi was mostly in charge of key scenes, like Koto falling in love with Myoe. Really cute scene, and I am not sure if the voice actors just got the layouts to the scene cause the sync up feels natural as hell.

All Hayashi
So good
The rest of the series is filled to the brim with exciting and ecstatic animation and visuals.

In 2014, Hayashi got his first work with Makoto Shinkai on Crossroad a prep school commercial

Hayashi 1:39-end
A pretty small cut, but they would come back together in the future

Hayashi also got to work on One Piece: 3D2Y having a fight scene with Luffy and Burndy with expressive use of Luffy's powers

After doing minor work on Psycho Pass and Death Parade, Hayashi was still fiercely loyal to Matsumoto and worked with her on her next show Kekkai Sensen, or in its funny English translation Blood Blockade Battlefront

Produced this time at Studio Bones, this was an important stepping stone for Hayashi’s connection at the studios working alongside Bones co-founder Toshihiro Kawamoto on CAD, and also Kouji Sugiura. You had a huge assembly of freelance and near and dear studio talent, with Hayashi and Matsumoto able to bring over their teams from Kyosougiga and the Bones staff coming fresh off of Space Dandy having Yutaka Nakamura and Bahi JD at their request. Having a minimal animation direction role, there was no time to waste on KA for Hayashi.

Hayashi’s first KA and AD role came on the ED, which if you’re not in the know is one of the most parodied and famous anime EDs of the 2010s

Hayashi dance cuts only
A simple and effective idea for an ED, and way better than the OP, and so good that it is perhaps more well known than the show. This is just another example of Hayashi having such an overwhelming hand in character animation, literally spotlighting each individual and their respective traits in a few motions. The cuts of the characters doing the stage play kicks together is super difficult to animate, and towards the end there is a dozen or so characters doing that same motion. It is incredible stuff.

Though Hayashi wasn’t placed on to too many action cuts, his characters cuts were lively and controlled throughout the series. Sometimes he got to show off effects but it was mostly just him being a god of excitement and even gripping emotional scenes. He really can do it all

Hayashi then hopped onto Dragon Ball Z: Ressurection F

With a film severely lacking in good character designs and AD, assistant AD Koudai Watanabe needed to bring on a good animator for this, and Hayashi was the one it would be. Hayashi comes on the scene with Frieza fighting Vegeta in his Blue form.

Hayashi 1:55-2:57
Not a great board to go off of, but Hayashi does everything he can to make the only clean looking scene in the film. In spite of maybe slight corrections from Tadayoshi Yamamuro Hayashi’s art style feels closer to 90s style Yamamuro, and he’s still able to retain that bounciness and spring loaded energy into the cuts. Volumetric smoke, good effects, and so on.

After working on a short called Kurage no Shokudou, Hayashi hopped on to One Piece: Film Gold being an animation director

Hayashi dominates a majority of the film, making up about nearly 3 minutes of animation. His first task was getting about two minutes of the racing scene done.

Hayashi 0:34-1:49, 1:53-2:56, 3:10-3:55, 4:07-end
A sensational race scene. Hayashi is such a charismatic animator it’s actually unfair. There is a ton of great little character moments with the racers, the guy refusing to turn on the bridge, the bull with the barrel, Luffy Usopp and Chopper getting stuck on the golf course. So well done, and I believe some of the racers were designed by Hayashi himself so that only adds more to the scene.

Hayashi comes in later with a confrontation between Zoro and Tetsoro

Hayashi 0:18-0:34
Nice fluid half rotation perspective shots, and shifty effects here.

In the spring of 2017, Hayashi for the first time joined the My Hero Academia crew on Season 2, working on the two OPs

Working with the Bones crew yet again, likely brought on by Yoshihiko Umakoshi, Hayashi would regularly frequent the series from here on out. After a small cut on OP1 of the season he got to work on OP2 doing an amazing cut

Hayashi 0:51-0:58
A really strong shot with all the characters emerging from the tree line Hayashi is too good at matching crowd and effects shots.

But of course Hayashi’s name was calling, as he was brought on to Season 2 of Kekkai Sensen

While not sporting an ED close to the original, Matsumoto and Hayashi still have a hyperactive synergy with each other. Hayashi of course does the second AD, making some modifications to his style from the last.

Hayashi might have done the stills
Filled with saturated colors and filters, and heavy line work with sticker like cut outs of characters in effects, Hayashi starts leaning into a comic book style, that would come up later on.

Hayashi got in two action heavy scenes on the season. The first was a prolonged fight with Steven and a Blood Breed Bodyguard

Hayashi start to 0:24, 0:47-1:05, 1:55-2:04, full scene
A more grounded, Ghost in the Shell esque fight scene. There is a good assemblage of acrobatics and super powered effects throughout the cut, but you get all the Hayashi isms right at the end.

His more well known cut comes at the very end of the show in a punch the air moment, with Leo defeating the villain

Hayashi 1:59 to end non dimmed version
A nice low angle running cut with Leo then grabbing and constantly head butting Dr Gamimozu to beat him, it is not an incredibly complex scene, but through defined drawings, and a strong layout, Hayashi makes up for it.

On the first My Hero Academia film Hayashi was placed in the final moments of the film with Deku taking on the villain Wolfram

Hayashi 0:50-1:26 full scene
Once Deku hops off onto the pillars Wolfram attacks with, not only is there major FMA vibes similar to Kameda’s Bradley and Scar fight, but also the perspective shots in this are so wonderful.

You have Deku face first and zoom out of frame, and then as he dodges the attacks getting further away the pillars lead him right back towards the camera with nearly his whole face in frame. Not an easy board to do for a normal animator, but Hayashi is not normal.

In the fall of 2018, Hayashi was back with Matsumoto again, collaborating with Yuki Akimoto on a music video called Baby I Love You Daze performed by Bump of Chicken with Hayashi on KA, CD, and AD, Masataka Ikegami on photography, and of course Yuki Akimoto on colors

Hayashi Start to 1:04, 1:44-1:56, 2:33-End
While literally a commercial for Ghana chocolate bars, Matsumoto and company once again make a vivid future technicolored barrage of character acting, colors, and gorgeous compositing. With help from Bones friends on part of Hayashi, with Yutapon, Watanabe, and Sugiura all lending their talents, an interesting aspect is the character designs. Hayashi seems to make characters with a resplendent amount of freedom, but there is always elements of the characters looking like whatever he last worked on, in this instance these characters look like they came from a mix of My Hero Academia and a Shinkai movie. The video is just as sugary as the candy, and the bright lighting and nostalgic feel of the scenery adds on to the sensations. Those last couple of cuts animated by Hayashi are the cutest thing ever.

On Dragon Ball Super: Broly director Tatsuya Nagamine was able to arrange for the return of several former Toei animators like Umakoshi and Hayashi to come and work on the film

Between Chikashi Kubota, Hayashi, and Umakoshi all three of them got to animate on the closing portion of the battle between Gogeta and Broly. Hayashi easily has the strongest part.

Hayashi 7:21-8:01 better quality
Anime Ajay five years ago described this scene as “every single blow is littered with effects, and hits with the force of a f***ing galaxy sized jackhammer” and I could not agree more. One thing Hayashi does so well is push the envelope with expressions. The mouths are so big and absurd whenever Broly is hit, or Gogeta is screaming, even to the point where they are nearly off model. The foreshortening is insane, and the effects are incredibly unique. The rotating light flare effects are not super common in Hayashi’s work, and the sparking electricity is well electric.
Hayashi is fairly simple in impact frames, taking after Shida. It is likely the strongest bit of animation in the fight due to the sense of weight conveyed.

About four months after, Hayashi does another insane fight on the last episode of Mob Psycho 100 Season 2

Hayashi 1:22-1:58
BODY IMPROVEMENT FIGHT ON!!!!! Another masterpiece scene from Hayashi. Borrowing some elements from Yutaka Nakamura (who sadly was not on this season) in terms of framing and effects, Hayashi does possibly one of the most killer portions of this fight. The weight, the impact, the effects, the fate of the entire world is at stake, and Hayashi translates that vibe perfectly. God mode Hayashi

Three months afterwards, we get a more toned down scene with Hayashi animating a car chase scene on Weathering with You his first official film with Makoto Shinkai

In this scene Hodaka and Hina are escaping a pursuit vehicle. Despite having only done vehicle animation one time on Summer Wars Hayashi never gave up here and his able to be extra lenient in his realist tendencies, and with the assistance of some cg cars and backgrounds does not have to do all the heavy lifting. While not one of his cleaner cuts, he still manages to be engaging, and exciting. Sneaking in subtle rotation shots, and plentiful character performances.