Animation Legend Isao Takahata, Co-founder of Studio Ghibli, Dies at 82 (nbcnews.com) 27
Isao Takahata, co-founder of the prestigious Japanese animator Studio Ghibli, which stuck to a hand-drawn "manga" look in the face of digital filmmaking, has died. He was 82. From a report: Takahata started Ghibli with Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki in 1985, hoping to create Japan's Disney. He directed "Grave of the Fireflies," a tragic tale about wartime childhood, and produced some of the studio's films, including Miyazaki's 1984 "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind," which tells the horror of environmental disaster through a story about a princess. Takahata died Thursday of lung cancer at a Tokyo hospital, the studio said in a statement Friday.
He was fully aware of how the floating sumie-brush sketches of faint pastel in his works stood as a stylistic challenge to Hollywood's computer-graphics cartoons. In a 2015 interview with The Associated Press, Takahata talked about how Edo-era woodblock-print artists like Hokusai had the understanding of Western-style perspective and the use of light, but they purposely chose to depict reality with lines, and in a flat way, with minimal shading. "Pom Poko", a movie released in 1994, is often considered the best work of Takahata. The New York Times described it as, "a comic allegory about battling packs of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) joining forces to fight human real estate developers. It's earthy and rollicking in a way that his co-founder's films aren't." In an interview with Wired in 2015, when Takahata was asked what he felt about people regarding him as the heart of Studio Ghibli. "Now you've both finished your final films, what are your feelings on Ghibli's legacy and reputation?, the interviewer asked. Takahata said, "I'm not sure I can respond in any meaningful way. What Hayao Miyazaki has built up is the greatest contribution. The existence of that thick trunk has allowed leaves to unfurl and flowers to bloom to become the fruitful tree that is Studio Ghibli."
Further reading: Isao Takahata's stark world of reality (The Japan Times).
He was fully aware of how the floating sumie-brush sketches of faint pastel in his works stood as a stylistic challenge to Hollywood's computer-graphics cartoons. In a 2015 interview with The Associated Press, Takahata talked about how Edo-era woodblock-print artists like Hokusai had the understanding of Western-style perspective and the use of light, but they purposely chose to depict reality with lines, and in a flat way, with minimal shading. "Pom Poko", a movie released in 1994, is often considered the best work of Takahata. The New York Times described it as, "a comic allegory about battling packs of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) joining forces to fight human real estate developers. It's earthy and rollicking in a way that his co-founder's films aren't." In an interview with Wired in 2015, when Takahata was asked what he felt about people regarding him as the heart of Studio Ghibli. "Now you've both finished your final films, what are your feelings on Ghibli's legacy and reputation?, the interviewer asked. Takahata said, "I'm not sure I can respond in any meaningful way. What Hayao Miyazaki has built up is the greatest contribution. The existence of that thick trunk has allowed leaves to unfurl and flowers to bloom to become the fruitful tree that is Studio Ghibli."
Further reading: Isao Takahata's stark world of reality (The Japan Times).
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Actually, no, it's not enough said; you need to add "Castle of Cagliostro", the movie in which Miyazaki made Lupin III his own. The other Lupin III works are, well, considerably different. Monkey Punch (the actual creator of Lupin III) has a rather crude sense of humor.
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Yes, Monkey Punch wrote the original manga. The first TV season may have been directed by Miyazaki, but it stayed pretty close to Monkey Punch's vision. I won't say Miyazaki had no influence, but it was only in Castle that Miyazaki got to do what he really wanted to do.
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The Nightmare Fuel [tvtropes.org] (in Spirited Away) is pretty weird too.
Maybe Hayao Miyazaki was on drugs at the time. Who knows? Either way, pretty crazy shit and I'm saying that as a fan. Beautiful movie.
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Believe it or not, some artists don't need mind-altering substances to create fantastical, highly imaginative works. I'd guess their minds work just a bit differently than most people's from the get-go.
Re:If you haven't seen... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. "My Neighbor Totoro" should be on your list. But if you really want to watch something and be completely moved, "Grave of the Fireflies." By far his best work in my option. To bad you can only watch it once.
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Don't sweet it. It took me 2 or 3 times to actually make it all the way through it. That was 10 years ago. I've not been able to bring myself to watch it again. There is no way you can make it through that movie with out being affected by it emotionally.
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Had to have an alternative --there must be balance (Score:4, Insightful)
I am glad that they did not become Disney. There has to be a yin to that yang influence.
Grave of the Fireflies (Score:1)
An amazing movie, a pity he did focus in production and not that much in direction.
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best Studio Ghibli stuff is on Amazon in bluray (Score:1)
discs are about $16 are everything is well done and of excellent quality. Stories have deep meaning and most definitely are not like typical American cartoons.
Studio Ghibli was formed from Topcraft (Score:2)
The Last Unicorn was animated in Japan by a studio named Topcraft. Rankin-Bass had used Topcraft for their earlier television productions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King, and this was their most ambitious collaboration. In 1985, Topcraft went into bankruptcy, at which point a team of its animators bought the studio and began a new one, including many of the same Topcraft employees. That team was made up of Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki, and the new company was Studio Ghibli.
A Ghi