Trivia / Takashi Yanase

• Adaptation First: Sanrio's movie adaptation of his book Chirin no Suzu was able to gain an English Dub in 1983 with Barbara Goodson voicing the title character. However, the original book never gained a release outside of Japan.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: The main protagonists for the animated versions of Chirin no Suzu (Baby Chirin), Bara no Hana to Joe (Joe), and Yasashii Lion (Buru-Buru as a cub) were all voiced by Minori Matsushima.
• Creator Break Down: Due to developing PTSD, some of his experiences in World War II managed to bleed into some of his children's stories between the mid 1960s and 1970s. Which explains why The Kindly Lion and Chirin no Suzu have a very melancholy tone and both protagonists die by the end of their stories.
• No Export for You: All of his children's books and animated adaptations never gained an international release. For the longest time, Sanrio Animation's adaptation of Chirin no Suzu was his only work that was able to gain an international release. Until the Anpanman series finally hit the Western market in 2020.
• Production Posse: Throughout the 1970s, Minori Matsushima used to be a frequent voice actor for a couple animated adaptations of his works. She voiced an off-screen child interacting with the narrator and Young Buru-Buru for Yasashii Lion (The Kindly Lion), voiced Joe the Dog in Bara no Hana to Joe (The Rose Flower and Joe), and provided the voice of Young Chirin for the 1978 feature film Chirin no Suzu.
• Self-Adaptation:
  • He was the director for the 1977 animated short The Rose Flower and Joe (バラの花とジョー, Bara no Hana to Joe) by Sanrio Animation alongside writing lyrics for the short's theme song. He even made illustrations for Joe's imagination sequence in the short. Yanase also directed the 1970 adaptation of Yasashii Lion (The Kindly Lion) where he worked on the artwork for the short and writing lyrics for every song in the film.
  • Similar to The Rose Flower and Joe, Yanase also written lyrics for Yasashii Lion by Mushi Productions from 1970.
• What Could Have Been: Originally the animated version of Yasashii Lion was planned as an Animated Musical. However Tezuka decided to only include a couple songs in order to be respectful to the source material.

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