35 She started out in the Toei finishing department, in the ink and paint section, where she worked on TV series and commercials as a tracer.
Through her work and union activities at the company she made the acquaintance of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki whose careers also began at Toei, joining in 1959 and 1963 respectively.
[1] On the animated TV series Future Boy Conan, aired in Japan in 1978, she was in charge of colour selection for an entire project for the first time.
[3] In 1983 she worked for Top Craft in charge of colour design on the adaptation of Miyazaki's manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind into the animated feature film of the same title.
She last worked on the feature films Ponyo and The Wind Rises and in between on the short Pandane to tamago hime for the Ghibli Museum.
At Studio Ghibli, Yasuda decided colours in consultation with Miyazaki and let the depicted objects guide her choices, based on the availability of materials and dyes in the time period portrayed.
In the Los Angeles Times Cristy Lytal observed: "For Yasuda, color is a storytelling tool that is every bit as powerful as words".
"[2][4][5][6] In their book Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Camp and Julie Davis made note of Yasuda as a "mainstay of Studio Ghibli’s extraordinary design and production team".