Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata has sadly passed away at the age of 82. Takahata, who directed the stunning Grave of the Fireflies (above) in 1988, died at a Tokyo hospital after a recent bout of ill health.
“[His death] is true, but we can’t comment further as we are trying to confirm some facts around it,” a Studio Ghibli spokeswoman said in a statement.
Takahata co-founded Studio Ghibli in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan in 1985 with Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. In the years that followed, Takahata made films like Only Yesterday (1991), Pom Poko (1994) and the more recent The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which earned him an Academy award nomination in 2014.
His most recent work was as an artistic producer on the superb The Red Turtle, which debuted at the Cannes Film festival in 2016.
