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In 2020 Viz published Arias' English translation of the full two-volume edition of Ping Pong, Matsumoto's popular high school table tennis epic.

After two years of working at Dream Quest, Arias returned to the East Coast with the intention of finishing his studies, this time at NYU's Music Technology program. Soon after enrolling though, Arias was contacted by visual effects veteran and fellow Abyss alumnus Susan Sitnek, who invited Arias to join the crew of Universal Studios’ immersive attraction Back To The Future: The Ride (BTTFTR), helmed by visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull. Once relocated to the Berkshires, where pre-production was underway, Arias was drafted by Trumbull to animate the attraction's flight-simulator-style ride vehicles. Of his time working under Trumbull, Arias recalls, "Doug was – IS – such an inspiring figure. For me and the other younger crew, including John Gaeta, now VFX Supervisor on the Matrix films, Doug was so generous with his knowledge; such a very warm and receptive and articulate and creative guy."

Encouraged by colleagues, Arias quickly immersed himself in the Mental Ray rendering API and thereafter began experimenting with techniques for simulating traditional animation imagery using computer graphics tools. This research led to Arias' developing and eventually patenting Softimage's Toon Shaders, rendering software for facilitating integration of computer graphics imagery with cel animation. Newly minted Toon Shaders in hand, Arias worked closely with the staff of DreamWorks Animation and Studio Ghibli to add a distinct visual flavor to the traditional/digital hybrid animation of films Prince Of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫 , Mononoke-hime) and Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し , Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) .

Arias’ angles and compositions are uniformally [sic] inventive and striking, and most impressively, he incorporates a bevy of live action camera techniques: handheld framing, long tracking shots through corridors, rack focusing and shifting depths of field–that generate considerable immediacy and environmental realism (despite the obvious hand-drawn artifice). More than simple technological advances, these elements have long been untapped by feature animation due to their inability to be storyboarded – they’re traditional luxuries of live action spontaneity. For all the accolades bestowed upon Alfonso Cuarón’s digitally-composited tracking shots in Children of Men, Arias’ techniques here are arguably greater achievements.

Arias is also credited with the 2019 English translation and adaptation of Matsumoto's surreal tale of anthropomorphized stray cats Cats Of The Louvre for publisher Viz's Signature collection.

In May 2018 Nippon Television announced a live-action television series adaptation of Keigo Shinzō's manga Tokyo Alien Bros., co-directed by Michael Arias and veteran dorama director Shintaro Sugawara and written by Shō Kataoka. NTV broadcast the series weekly beginning on July 23, 2018, and ending with the tenth and final episode on September 24, 2018. For director Arias Tokyo Alien Bros. marked both a return to live-action filmmaking and a reunion with frequent collaborators Plaid and director of photography Takashi Komatsu.

On November 27, 2014 Japanese broadcaster Fuji Television made public Arias' co-directing (with Takashi Nakamura) the feature-film adaptation of the late Project Itoh's dystopian sci-fi novel Harmony, recipient of a Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation in 2010. At the time of Fuji Television's statement, production was ongoing at Studio 4°C with the film slated for a 2015 theatrical release. Harmony was released in Japan on November 13, 2015, and internationally in the Spring of 2016. The film was praised for its innovative visuals and novel mixture of science fiction action and philosophical rumination, but at the same time criticized for its profusion of cerebral digressions.

Arias' English translation of Taiyō Matsumoto's quasi-autobiographical manga Sunny was included in the Young Adult Library Services Association's Great Graphic Novels list for 2014, and awarded the Best Graphic Novel prize by the Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies.

57th Berlin International Film Festival Generation 14plus and Best First Feature nominations Gertie Award Jury Special Mention—40th Sitges Film Festival Gran Prix—Anima 2008 festival in Brussels, Belgium Golden Prize for Best Animated / Stop Motion Film—2007 Fantasia International Film Festival Animation Unlimited screening—31st Hong Kong International Film Festival Panorama Selection—2007 Deauville Asian Film Festival 2007 Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany 2007 Camera Japan Festival in the Netherlands Nippon Cinema program—2010 Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt, Germany Lancia Platinum Grand Prize Special Mention—2008 Future Film Festival in Bologna, Italy

In defense of Weintraub's screenplay, Arias explained to readers of AniPages Daily, "He really got it right – the story of Treasure Town, the sense of doom, the action in Kiddie Kastle all fit together very seamlessly." Regarding Tekkonkinkreet's evident subversion of (so-called) traditional animation conventions, he added, "I wanted to do things differently.... Ōtomo once said to me and [Lead Animation Supervisor] Nishimi, 'if you're not doing things differently you shouldn't even bother'."

In 2011 Arias documented his experiences providing relief to relatives in Miyagi Prefecture during the days immediately following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Heaven's Door was released in Japanese theaters on February 7, 2009 to mixed press and lukewarm box office, but was praised for its cast, music, cinematography, and sound design. Screen International correspondent Jason Gray concludes, "I think younger audiences will find the tragedy of Heaven´s Door palpable.... For someone like me who devoured American cinema of the early 70s, tearing up at films like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, I might not be the best judge. Who knows, Heaven's Door may become the new Léon for the teen set here and regarded as a minor indie classic overseas."

On June 23, 2009 Japanese pay-per-view broadcaster WOWOW announced the upcoming on-air premiere of Arias' surreal short film Hope, featuring popular actress Juri Ueno as a struggling animator trapped overnight in an elevator.

With his adaptation of Tekkonkinkreet Arias, with Production Designer Shinji Kimura, had re-imagined the manga's Treasure Town as a chaotic pan-Asian hybrid, part Hong Kong, part Bombay, with futuristic and industrial elements densely layered over a foundation that borrowed much from images of Shōwa-era Tokyo. New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, in her review of Tekkonkinkreet, describes Treasure Town as "a surreal explosion of skewed angles, leaning towers, hanging wires, narrow alleys and gaudily cute flourishes that bring to mind a yakuza cityscape by way of a Hello Kitty theme park." Indeed, Tekkon's sumptuous art direction was widely praised, with Production Designer Kimura receiving the Best Art Direction award at the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair. Tekkon was further lauded, not only for Arias' innovative use of computer graphics techniques and seamless integration of digital and traditional animation, but also for the film's handmade, documentary-style approach to storytelling. After an early Tekkon screening at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, filmjourney.org editor Doug Cummings elaborated:

In the final analysis, Tekkonkinkreet remains a milestone in Japanese animation. It was awarded Japan's prestigious Ōfuji Noburō Award at home, and continued on to compete for two awards at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival and later win the 2008 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. The Guardian listed Tekkonkinkreet third in its roundup of the ten most underrated movies of the decade.

Summer 2007 was marked by the formalization of the long-standing relationship between Arias and the Japanese film distribution and production company Asmik Ace Entertainment. Arias is the first to join the roster of Asmik's artist management division.

In 2007 Arias began work on Heaven's Door, a Japanese live-action feature film loosely based on the German hit Knockin' on Heaven's Door directed by Thomas Jahn and written by Jahn and actor Til Schweiger. Arias' adaptation features J-Pop heartthrob Tomoya Nagase and ingenue Mayuko Fukuda as unlikely comrades who flee the hospital where they first meet, and embark on a road-trip to reach the ocean and watch the sun set there in the short time they have left.

The film was completed in August 2006 and premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival soon thereafter.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) curator Barbara London named Tekkonkinkreet "Best Film of 2006" in her Art Forum roundup, and subsequently arranged for the film's North American premiere to be held at MoMA.

The Animatrix was a commercial success and went on garner the 2004 ASIFA Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Entertainment Production.

In 2003, while working on The Animatrix, Arias picked up Tekkonkinkreet again. Armed with an English-language screenplay penned by screenwriter Anthony Weintraub, and encouraged by mentor Morimoto, Arias moved forward with plans to revive Tekkon at Studio 4°C, with Animatrix collaborator and 4 °C president Eiko Tanaka producing and Arias directing.

Then, in 2000, while still under contract to Softimage, Michael accepted an invitation from Joel Silver and Lilly and Lana Wachowski (the Wachowskis) to produce Warner Bros’ Matrix-inspired animation anthology The Animatrix, a project that consumed him for over three years. On being pegged to produce The Animatrix, despite his lack of experience producing, Arias recounts, "I really had to draw on a great deal of experience that had sat unused in the background while I’d been pursuing software development. Everything I’d learned until this point: a brief career in recording studios, composing music and doing sound effects for short films in college, having my own company, working in special effects. It was a great chance to exercise some dormant (or damaged) brain cells."

In November 1997, a conversation with animation auteur Kōji Morimoto, who had shown interest in Arias' software projects, led to Arias' introduction to manga artist Taiyō Matsumoto. From there, what had begun as a simple software demo for Morimoto rapidly escalated to a full-fledged all-CG feature-film project, helmed by Morimoto, with computer graphics efforts directed by Arias himself.

In 1995, after establishing himself definitively in Tokyo, Arias was introduced by a friend to Taiyō Matsumoto's manga Tekkonkinkreet (鉄コン筋クリート , Tekkon Kinkurīto) , a work that profoundly affected him. Tekkonkinkreet (Tekkon) is a metaphysical coming-of-age story concerning two orphans, Black (クロ , Kuro) and White (シロ , Shiro) and their struggle to survive in a pan-Asian metropolis, Treasure Town (宝町 , Takara-machi) , beset by evil. Of first discovering Tekkon, Arias recalls that a friend loaned him Tekkon to read, "And that was it. Hooked. ...I cried many times reading it, also a new experience for me to be moved to tears by a manga."

In 1993 Arias returned to the US and teamed up with renowned New York City title designers Randall Balsmeyer & Mimi Everett, with whom he co-founded CG design boutique Syzygy Digital Cinema, creators of digital sequences for David Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly, Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy, Robert Altman’s Prêt-à-Porter, and Spike Lee’s Crooklyn and Clockers. Their title sequence for M. Butterfly was honored by inclusion in the SIGGRAPH 1994 Screening Room and Montreal's Cinéma Du Futur festival of the same year.

In 1991 Arias accepted an offer to work as a motion-control camera operator in Imagica's Special Effects department, and moved to Tokyo. Then, after less than a year at Imagica, he was invited by up-and-coming game producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi to join a newly formed computer graphics unit at Sega Enterprises Amusement Research and Development facility. At Sega, Arias co-directed and animated the ridefilm Megalopolice: Tokyo City Battle (featured in SIGGRAPH 1993’s Electronic Theater).

Michael Arias began his film career in 1987 at nascent visual effects powerhouse Dream Quest Images (DQ), first as an unpaid intern and then as a full-time employee and IATSE member. The bulk of his time at DQ was spent as a camera assistant on the motion control stages, working on such effects-heavy Hollywood films as The Abyss, Total Recall, and Fat Man and Little Boy.

Michael Arias (born 1968) is an American-born filmmaker active primarily in Japan.

Michael Arias was born in Los Angeles, California. His father, Ron Arias (born 1941) is a former senior writer and correspondent for People magazine and a highly regarded Chicano writer. Michael Arias' mother, Dr. Joan Arias, was a professor of Spanish and IBM Software Sales Specialist.