Isao Takahata’s animated characters have ordinary needs, distractions and failings. We rate him highly for his attention to how people behave under pressure, and for his willingness to find different ways of drawing them.
Fi1m perspective
In Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Seita and Setsuko still find things to enjoy while trying to survive. Takahata gives their distractions the same care as their distress, allowing them to remain recognisably children. Their drawn bodies look vulnerable, and the moments of natural beauty do nothing to make their circumstances safer. We were harrowed by the film because its small pleasures make the suffering harder to bear. It is the clearest reason we rate him so highly: he takes an ordinary hour in someone’s life seriously.
His screenplay is equally exact about the people around the children, whose own needs make generosity harder. Scarcity encourages selfishness, and pride gets in the way of decent behaviour without turning anyone into a theatrical villain. Tsutomu Tatsumi, voicing Seita, and Ayano Shiraishi, voicing Setsuko, help make the children convincing company. Their performances support the drawing’s attention to ordinary responses, preventing the children from existing only to be pitied. The film asks a great deal of us, but it gives us a reason to keep watching.
The ambition was already there in his first feature, Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968), which attempted more adult-oriented animation. He co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki in 1985, with Grave of the Fireflies his first feature there. Only Yesterday (1991) then took up memory and everyday adult life through a woman’s recollections of childhood.
He did not draw animation himself, but the films he directed changed their appearance radically from project to project. My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) used a vignette structure; his final feature, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013), adopted an ink-wash style. His working methods could be difficult for teams, with Yamadas among the productions troubled by delays. We recommend beginning with Grave of the Fireflies, though not when you need a comforting evening.
Biography
Isao Takahata (29 October 1935 – 5 April 2018) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter and producer. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in French literature in 1959 and joined Toei Animation the same year. He directed numerous television series in the 1970s, including Heidi: Girl of the Alps (1974) and Future Boy Conan (1978).
In 1985 Takahata co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. He directed five feature films for the studio: Grave of the Fireflies (1988), for which he also wrote the screenplay; Only Yesterday (1991); Pom Poko (1994); My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999); and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). He died in Tokyo aged 82.
