Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies at 82

The Oscar-nominated anime legend Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli alongside Hayao Miyazaki, died while in Japan on Thursday, April 4. He was 82 years old.

Takahata had been in a Tokyo hospital after a long illness, local media stations reported. He had been in and out of hospitals since last summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Takahata was born on October 29, 1935, in Ise, Mie, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in French literature. He got a job at Toei Animation, which is where he met Miyazaki. In 1985, the two decided to team up to launch Studio Ghibli.

Now, Isao Takahata will be best known for the critically acclaimed masterpiece he both wrote and directed, Grave of the Fireflies, released in 1988.

Grave of the Fireflies is based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s novel of the same name and tells the story of a young boy and his sister struggling to survive the end of World War II.

He later went on to direct Only Yesterday in 1991, Pom Poko in 1994, My Neighbors the Yamadas in 1999, Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables in 2010 and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya in 2013.

Takahata also had a hand in producing various films under the Studio Ghibli label, including 1986’s Castle in the Sky and 2016’s The Red Turtle.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was the film to earn Takahata an Academy Award nomination in 2014 for Best Animated Feature. The film was also entered into the Cannes Film Festival.

“(Before computer graphics), animation was only flat and two-dimensional,” Takahata said in a 2015 interview via Japan Times. “It could never be truly real. But that was the point: By keeping everything flat, animation allows viewers to imagine what is behind the images.”