and as a parallel narrative to the earlier series. The timing of the project resulted in the pre-production work on The Night is Short, Walk On Girl overlapping with the post-production of Lu Over the Wall. Although Lu Over the Wall was completed first, it was released after The Night is Short, Walk On Girl; this was in part due to a marketing suggestion that it might be preferable for the studio's first film to be based on a pre-existing property familiar to Japanese audiences. Both Lu Over the Wall and The Night is Short, Walk On Girl received immediate critical acclaim. Lu Over the Wall received the Annecy Cristal du long métrage, the Mainichi Film Awards' Ōfuji Noburō Award, and the Japan Media Arts Festival Grand Prize for Animation. The Night is Short, Walk On Girl was awarded the Japan Academy Film Prize for Animation of the Year, the Ottawa International Animation Festival Grand Prize for Best Animated Feature, a Jury Selection Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and has been listed as one of the best Japanese animated films of the decade. International recognition In 2018, Yuasa achieved widespread international recognition following the release of his prior feature film works, as well as the debut of a landmark new series. The beginning of the year saw Mind Game, Lu Over the Wall, and The Night is Short, Walk On Girl licensed for North American release by acclaimed animation distributor GKIDS. However, even more important for Yuasa's international prominence was the release of the Netflix series Devilman crybaby (2018), based on the manga by Go Nagai. Yuasa had been a fan of the original manga since childhood, but had never dreamed he would have the opportunity to adapt it. Among his key creative decisions in adapting the story were to depict the sexual and violent content in an unrestricted way that was not possible when the manga was initially published, and to update the juvenile delinquent characters of the original as young rappers who use music to speak their minds freely. Devilman crybaby was an immediate and massive international hit; with 90% of its viewers outside Japan, the series achieved the largest global audience for both Yuasa and Science SARU to that date. The series inspired internet memes, was profiled by YouTuber PewDiePie, and was widely discussed on Twitter. The series was nominated in 7 categories at the