entrusted with two musical sequences. Yuasa storyboarded the sequences, the first time he'd taken on this responsibility, and was able to animate them in his own characteristic style; he later identified these segments as the first time that appreciation of his work by fellow artists led him to view his own work as good. In 1992, the next major step in Yuasa's animation career occurred when he joined the production team of the long-running and immensely popular series Crayon Shin-chan (1992–present). Consisting of a television series, numerous television specials, and annual theatrical film releases, the Crayon Shin-chan franchise quickly became a massive undertaking with continuous work and production opportunities. Working under the guidance of supervising director Mitsuru Hongo, Yuasa took on a variety of roles within the franchise's many television and film productions, including key animation, storyboarding, set and background design, prop and vehicle design, and contribution of story concepts and ideas. Yuasa quickly became a specialist at imagining, designing, and animating the inventive visual climaxes of the annual Crayon Shin-chan films, a practice he continued for nearly a decade. It was during his work on Crayon Shin-chan that Yuasa at last found enjoyment in his artistic work, as well as his first desire to become a director. That same year, Yuasa had his first chance to direct with an episode of the original video animation (OVA) series Anime Rakugo Kan (1992). Yuasa directed the third episode of the series, entitled The Squash Seller. Stylistically, the episode reflected Yuasa's admiration for the animation created by Kobayashi and Shimoyama earlier in their careers, and thus had a different visual aesthetic than Yuasa's later works. More than just an homage, the episode reflected a continuation of Yuasa's personal artistry; though he initially thought he would develop a completely different style, in the end, he incorporated elements of Kobayashi and Shimoyama's animation into his own. 1994 saw two significant developments in Yuasa's animation career: leaving Ajia-do to become a freelance animator, and participating as an animation director on the fourth episode of the landmark OVA series The Hakkenden: A New Saga (1993–1995). Based on the epic historical novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (1814–1842) and animated in a serious, realistic style, The Hakkenden was a unique challenge to Yuasa, who until that point had worked on comedic works with a loose, free-flowing visual aesthetic. This resulted in initial mistrust of Yuasa by the production team