The Sprawling Legacy of Isao Takahata, Co-Founder of Studio Ghibli www.smithsonianmag.com

posted by  banzaitokyo | 6 years ago in Art & Culture

Isao Takahata, a master of Japanese animation who co-founded the beloved animation house Studio Ghibli with fellow titan Hayao Miyazaki, died following a battle with lung cancer at the Teikyo University Hospital on April 5. He was 82.

Takahata’s beautiful, often very personal animated films include some of the field’s greatest, such as Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). Here are five things to know about the director who helped shape the field of Japanese animation: