Line #43 Creator/IsaoTakahata


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13	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isao_takahata.jpeg]]
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15	Isao Takahata (October 29, 1935 - April 5, 2018) was a Japanese animation director and producer.
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17	After cutting his teeth working for Creator/ToeiAnimation, Creator/TMSEntertainment, and Creator/NipponAnimation before going freelance in 1979, Takahata went on to co-found Creator/StudioGhibli with Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, and today is regarded as one of the greatest anime directors of all time. More infamously, he's also regarded as one of the strictest, to the point where it's rumored that his perfectionist attitudes towards his staff was a factor in both Ghibli's lack of new blood and Yoshifumi Kondo's death of a brain aneurysm in 1998, something Takahata himself was willing to believe. Nonetheless, his films are regarded as some of the best to ever come out of Japan, and no one will argue that his legacy and acclaim is undeserved. In that sense, one could consider Takahata [[TransatlanticEquivalent the anime industry's equivalent]] of Creator/StanleyKubrick.
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20	!!His directorial work included:
21	[[index]]
22	* ''Anime/HorusPrinceOfTheSun'', also released as ''Little Norse Prince Valiant'' (1968)
23	* ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'' (1971, episodes 8-23; co-directed with Creator/HayaoMiyazaki)
24	* ''Anime/PandaGoPanda'' (1972, 1973)
25	* ''Anime/HeidiGirlOfTheAlps'' (1974)
26	* ''Anime/ThreeThousandLeaguesInSearchOfMother'' (1976)
27	* ''Anime/AkageNoAnne'' (1979)
28	* ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' (1988)
29	* ''Anime/OnlyYesterday'' (1991)
30	* ''Anime/PomPoko'' (1994)
31	* ''Anime/MyNeighborsTheYamadas'' (1999)
32	* ''Anime/WinterDays'' (2003, director and animator for the 28th segment)
33	* ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' (2013)
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35	[[/index]]
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37	!! Isao Takahata's works provide examples of:
38	%%As with all Creator/ pages, trivia tropes about the creator specifically are to be posted here, not a Trivia/ page, as they technically are InUniverse in the case of the person's career.
39	* ChildrenAreInnocent: A theme frequently [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] in his films, which devote at least some time to examining how flawed childhood innocence is and how it inevitably gets broken down by both time and experience.
40	* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the works of Creator/HayaoMiyazaki, Takahata's films leaned more towards bittersweet at best; the most extreme case of this was with ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'', an infamously depressing film about two children trying to survive in the midst of the American military's devastation of Japan in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, sandwiched directly between the adventurous ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' and the whimsical ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.
41	* DoingItForTheArt: Takahata's films always emphasized artistry over marketability, though this inevitably didn't translate to commercial success in a few cases.
42	* GenreRoulette: Compared to Miyazaki, who specialized in fantasy-inspired films driven by a sense of adventure, Takahata focused on a much more varied palette of genres, with the main glue between them being a dramatic tone. Going from his work with Studio Ghibli alone, he's produced a depressing war drama, a coming-of-age-meets-adult-drama film with MagicRealism elements, a GreenAesop fantasy dramedy, a SliceOfLife vignette film, and a medieval fantasy-drama.
43	* GrandFinale: ''Anime/TheTaleOfThePrincessKaguya'' was created with the intention of being this for Takahata's career; he had already resigned from directing after ''Anime/MyNeighborsTheYamadas'', but decided to return for one last project to end things off on a high note.
44	* HumansAreFlawed: A common theme in his works, with said flaws ranging from comical to dead-serious.
45	* OddFriendship: Given the radically different types of movies they make, one can get thrown off-guard at first upon learning that Takahata was one of Hayao Miyazaki's closest friends.
46	* ShortLivedBigImpact: He was definitely the less prolific of Ghibli's two big directors (he actually directed the same number of films as Miyazaki, but far less of his own works were made under Ghibli's roof, with his earlier films much less known, and the gaps between his Ghibli films were far greater), but his films remain massively influential to this day; even today, a depressing animated film will always see at least one comparison to ''Grave of the Fireflies''.
47	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: His films range all over the spectrum, sometimes shifting place from scene-to-scene.
48	** ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' is definitely at the very tip of the "cynical" end.
49	** ''Anime/MyNeighborsTheYamadas'' and ''Anime/PandaGoPanda'' are more idealistic.
50	** His other films like ''Anime/OnlyYesterday'', ''Anime/PomPoko'', and ''Anime/TheTaleOfPrincessKaguya'' lie somewhere in the middle.
51	* SignatureStyle: Introspective drama films with particular focus on the flaws of human nature and the difficulty characters face in handling uncontrollable misfortunes.
52	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Takahata was planning to work on an animated short for ''Modest Heroes'', but his death nixed that.

Context Creator / IsaoTakahata