Akira Yamaguchi and Francois Lee join to promote digitization of Japanese animation pipelines

Award-winning 2D animation software leader Toon Boom Animation today announced two new leaders heading its Japan office in Tokyo: Akira Yamaguchi joins as brand evangelist, while Francois Lee is director of strategy and branch operations. This is a strategic decision by Toon Boom to continue promoting digital pipelines for the production of anime series and features. Major Japanese productions that have already leveraged its Storyboard Pro and Harmony software include Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name and Weathering With You as well as OLM’s Pokemon.

The husband-wife duo bring years of animation experience and expertise to Toon Boom Japan. Since 2012, Yamaguchi and Lee were respectively the CEO and associate founder of Sun Bridge — a consulting company based in Montreal, Canada, boasting clients from around the world, primarily from within the animation industry.

• Akira Yamaguchi is a former Japan representative for Annecy MIFA, president of the Quebec-Japan Business Forum, licensing and production manager at TOEI Animation Europe and the head of coordination responsible for the office openings of Japanese video game companies CyberConnect2 and Adglobe in Montreal.
• François Lee is a former VP of production and development at Zag Animation, executive producer, first assistant director on multiple animation feature films and TV series in France, Korea, Los Angeles and Canada.

Both Yamaguchi and Lee have participated in the production of many international hits and co-productions from every segment of the animation industry (hand-drawn, digital 2D, full CG, TV series, short films, feature films), including projects such as In This Corner of the World (Jury Prize Award, Annecy 2017), The Little Prince (Cesars 2016), Ballerina, Miraculous Ladybug Power Players, among others.

“Our goal in partnering with Toon Boom is to share our experience with all of the players in Japanese animation. We see Toon Boom’s solutions as catalysts that are and will help resolve many of the challenges anime creators face today,” says Akira.

Yamaguchi and Lee are already actively making strides for Japanese anime creators in their positions with Toon Boom. However, due to the current global circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, they will be operating from Canada until their anticipated relocation to Tokyo in October 2020.

About Toon Boom Animation Inc.

Toon Boom Animation Inc.’s award-winning software is the global standard for animation and storyboarding. Storyboard Pro and Harmony solutions provide everyone from enthusiasts to professionals with the artistic freedom to create in any style and efficiently publish anywhere. Customers who chose Toon Boom animation software for the development and creation of their productions include Disney Television Animation, Amazon, Fox Television Animation, Nelvana, Ubisoft, Toei Animation, The SPA Studios, Xilam and Boulder Media, to name a few. The technology is currently available in Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Spanish. For more information, visit: toonboom.com.

For more information (press only):

Philip Mak
Senior Content Writer
Toon Boom Animation
pmak@toonboom.com