The master Japanese animation filmmaker, Isao Takahata, died on April 5th at the age of eighty-two after a long run of poor health.
Takahata’s career really took off after he collaborated with Hayao Miyazaki to create The Great Adventures of Horus, Prince of the Sun in 1968. The two minds continued to produce excellent works of cinematic art, and eventually co-founded Studio Ghibli together in 1985, their new workspace.
What’s funny about the two pairing up is that they previously were rivals in the world of animated film—that is, before they completed The Great Adventures of Horus. The two men were hoping to generate a renaissance in Japanese culture, bringing film back to the forefront.
Takahata is also known for adapting the Akiyuki Nosaka story Grave of the Fireflies in 1988, and his final contribution to the animated film scene, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) which received an Oscar nomination in 2015.
Takahata was actually quite optimistic about the topic of death, and was quoted as saying, “All must come to an end in death. But in a cycle, repeated over and over, there will always be those who come after us.”
A brilliant man who did Japanese culture a service by displaying such colorful and moving films onto the screen.
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