How 'Heidi' sparked an anime revolution in Japan
Heidi and Super Mario may not seem to have much in common but anime and video game aficionados will detect the signature style of Japanese character designer Yoichi Kotabe in both. Far from the Swiss Alps, the cherished 19th-century storybook character Heidi played an unlikely ...
Hayao Miyazaki: Universally acclaimed weaver of unforgettable anime worlds
Animators and live-action filmmakers around the world acknowledge his influence. His talents have even been described by fans as “godlike.”
'Mixing Work with Pleasure': a candid reflection of a life at Studio Ghibli
Toshio Suzuki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, recounts his collaborative partnerships and lifelong bonds with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, the third of Ghibli's founders.
Isao Takahata's gentle spirit enriched the world of Japanese animation
Isao Takahata, who died on Thursday at age 82, was long overshadowed by Studio Ghibli colleague Hayao Miyazaki, even though he was Miyazaki's senior when they both worked together at Toei Animation in the 1960s, as well as a co-founder, together with Miyazaki and ...
Japanese animation master and Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies at 82
Isao Takahata, the animated film director who co-founded Studio Ghibli and is known for his award-winning "Grave of the Fireflies," died of lung cancer Thursday at a Tokyo hospital, Studio Ghibli announced Friday. He was 82. Takahata, who was born in Mie Prefecture, co-founded Ghibli ...
Isao Takahata's stark world of reality
Having survived a devastating U.S. air raid on his hometown in World War II, film director Isao Takahata has firsthand experience of the horrors of war. It's perhaps not surprising, therefore, that he staunchly opposes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempt to push controversial security ...
Culture clash: Entertainers add weight to government protests
Judging from recent comments posted on Twitter and websites such as abe-no.net, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't appear to have endeared himself to a number of celebrities who hold plenty of sway over public opinion with regards to his moves to change the nation's ...
Anime industry reunified at expo, satellite events
AnimeJapan 2014, the rebranded and reunified annual industry trade show, exceeded organizers' expectations last month, hosting 110,000 producers, publishers, journalists, cosplayers and public visitors. What a relief. Since 2010, the anime industry's political divisions meant two separate shows: one in Chiba called the Anime Contents ...
Mark Schilling's 2013 Top 10: Farewell to Ghibli's anime masters
Japanese films did quite well both commercially and critically in 2013, with Hayao Miyazaki's final feature animation, "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)," thumping the Hollywood competition at the local box office. But the industry's over-reliance on sure-thing manga, TV shows and novels for source ...
Second opinion: Our Top 3 films in cross-review
Regular JT film critics Mark Schilling, Kaori Shoji and Giovanni Fazio got together at the Uplink theater/restaurant in Shibuya to talk about each other's No. 1 films for 2013: "Cloud Atlas" (Fazio), "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (Shoji) and "Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The ...
'Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya)'
Isao Takahata has long been overshadowed by longtime colleague and Studio Ghibli cofounder Hayao Miyazaki. The younger man (Takahata is 78, Miyazaki 72) has had more and bigger hits, including his latest, the World War II-themed "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)," while Takahata's last ...
