Ryo Yasumura 安村 良 · やすむら りょう

Biography

Ryo Yasumura was born in Gifu Prefecture on 17 February 1956. He studied at the Open University of Japan, completing a master's programme in Cultural Studies, and worked his way through Tiger Production and Studio Cockpit before moving into the wider TV-anime mecha-era of the early 1980s.

Yasumura's 80s storyboard credits are core mecha-anime canon: Super Dimension Fortress Macross (5 episodes), Genesis Climber Mospeada (2 episodes), and Armored Trooper VOTOMS (2 episodes). He joined Pacific Animation's ThunderCats production for the late-Season-2 special episodes 067 and 068, the ThunderCats. Ho! parts 2 and 3 with the differently-structured credit, and stayed for Seasons 3 and 4.

Post-ThunderCats he spent decades at the chief-director / episode-director level on a long list of TV anime. In 2012 he became president and representative director of Seven Arcs Pictures, the animation arm of the Seven Arcs group, and ran it until his resignation in March 2019. He directed Trinity Seven and Raven of the Inner Palace among others, and has used the pseudonyms Shoichi Yasumura and Ryo Saga over the years.

He is a member of the Directors Guild of Japan.

Selected works around and after ThunderCats

• Super Dimension Fortress Macross 1982-83 (storyboard)

  Five episodes.

• Genesis Climber Mospeada 1983-84 (storyboard)

  Two episodes.

• Armored Trooper VOTOMS 1983-84 (storyboard)

  Two episodes.

• Disney TV Animation 1990s

  Worked at The Walt Disney Company during the WDAJ era.

• Seven Arcs Pictures (president) 2012-2019

  Ran the studio for seven years.

• Trinity Seven 2014

  Director.

• Raven of the Inner Palace 2022

  Director.