Isao Takahata, a highly influential Japanese animator and filmmaker, and a co-founder of Studio Ghibli alongside longtime collaborator Hayao Miyazaki, died Thursday after a brief hospitalization. He was 82.
Takahata died following a battle with lung cancer, according to a statement Studio Ghibli provided to TheWrap.
Takahata directed the animated wartime drama “Grave of the Fireflies,” “Pom Poko,” “My Neighbors the Yamadas” and was nominated for an Oscar for his film “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.”
Born October 29, 1935, Takahata grew up during World War II and the allied occupation that followed. As a child, he endured privation and scarcity, and survived an air raid on his hometown, and as an adult his films often reflected a bleak worldview inspired by those wartime experiences.