Takahata Isao Biography

Probably, first of all, acts can say a lot about the individual, and in the case of the artist - his work. When it comes to employees of the Japanese animation studio GHIBLI, most immediately has an association with the name of Hayao Miyazaki. But she also had another co -founder, without which the creation of a forge of multi -sabotage would be impossible. The name of this man of Isao Takahata and, looking at the results of his labors, we can without any doubt say that he was an outstanding animator, creative creator, a citizen with a clear position, a little pessimist and, in addition, very kindly.

The boy was the youngest of the seven children born in the family of Asisiro Takahata, the director of high school, and later - the head of the education department of the Okayama Prefecture. Since the Isao’s childhood was in the war years, he and his family experienced hardships when the city of Okayama survived a large air raid of the United States on June 29. Incendiary bombs rained down and fires took up everywhere.

We sprayed our heads with water to go through the fire. By that time, the whole city had already burned. I was lucky to survive. My sister was injured, she had scars. But the spiritual scars remained with the future director - he would remember them in his genuine masterpiece, the film adaptation of the work of Akiyuki Nosaki “The Grave of Fireflies”. But we will not run ahead.

Many researchers of his work note the significant difference between the works of Takahata and other animated hits Studio Ghibli and associate this with the fact that Isao never studied an animator artist. He graduated from Tokyo University in the year with a degree in French literature and, having seen the French animated film “King and Bird” while studying, realized that he wanted to connect his future with animation.

Oddly enough, he was not at all attracted by the idea of ​​drawing himself, he found his calling in directing and scenario art, at the same time wanting to create things that spurred the imagination of the viewer, will make him think of what he saw on the screen. It is not surprising that Isao did not even ponder the proposal of his friend, who threw him the idea of ​​sending an application to the post of assistant director of animation in the recently opened TEI DOGA studio.

Since ten more people came there together with Takahata, the novice director had to work hard in order to go around competitors. The mentor of Takahata at the studio became Yasuo Otsuka, and he, being impressed by the talents of his ward without any ability to draw, entrusted him with the full-length project “Prince of the North” as a beginner director. Since Takahata considered Otsuka one of his best teachers, he did not want to lead him and therefore reacted to the matter with unprecedented perfectionism.

During this time, Takahata met one animator who came to Toei's studio four years after him. It was in him that Isao saw his right hand, an ideal addition to himself, a person who was able to express the language of animation what Takahata could not personally call this artist Hayao Miyazaki. We talked about everything in the world, starting from the cartoons that we want to create, and ending with life in general.

And when we started working together, I realized how talented this person is. While working on the Prince of the North, Takahata immediately showed a creative talent and a desire to give history new meanings. Since the film was based on the plot of the puppet play “The Sun over Tikisani”, in turn, the Ainov’s epic, representatives of the ancient population of the Hokkaido Island, Takahata decided to change the place of action to Scandinavia in order to avoid any disagreements when depicting this people.

The cinema also appealed more to an adult audience, as it raised a number of serious and pressing problems like social changes in modern Japan, the struggle against oppressors, socialist ideals in the spirit of “Happiness in Labor” and other aspects of life, not very close to small spectators. As a result, the “Prince of the North” turned out to be the most expensive anime at the time of the release, whose production budget amounted to the order of dollars, equivalent to 2.2 million dollars at the rate of the year, but crashed at the rental.

The audience did not appreciate the pioneering zeal of Takahata and, of course, the Studio's trust in him was undermined. At that time, no one yet knew that even the mistakes and shortcomings made by the director would later turn into revolutionary changes that could turn the viewers' opinion about the anime. In the year, Takahata, along with Hayao Miyazaki and Yuichi Kataba, leaves the Toei Studio, which gave him a ticket to life, but did not believe in his future.

Isao and Hayao really wanted to put the Peppy Long -Chop anime according to the famous fairy tale Astrid Lindgren, for which they went to Sweden in order to explore the locations as best as possible and at the same time agree on the acquisition of copyright. They managed to study the area and make a large number of sketches, but it was not possible to get the rights to film adaptation.

However, even abandoning the project, they managed to use ready -made sketches in their other works.They also took the practice regularly traveling around the world in order to capture the variety of its details for the sake of new ones that affect the imagination of the settings with their realism - to notice the eye that the photograph was incapable of. After leaving TEEI, the life of Takahata and Miyazaki resembled a rolling floor: they managed to work on TMS Entertainment, where they took up the production of the series Lupine III and the Panda Big and Small, then put the series “Heidi, Alp Girl” for Zuiyo EnterPrise, and after a subsidiary Zuiyo Eizo studios was renamed Nippon Animation, Takahata lingered on it and worked for a total of about ten years.

Before the birth of the legendary Studio Ghibli, there was very little. The invaluable experience gained by Miyazaki and Takahatya in various studios allowed them to think about creating their own. A restrained success, in the year, Miyazaki decides to start work on a new project, the picture “Noncishing from the Valley of Winds” - a film adaptation of the own manga of the same name.

As a producer and assistant Hayao, he did not see anyone else but his friend. As a result of their joint efforts, one of the best works by the director, telling about the young princess Nasikai, a princess from the Vuli Valley, designed to save people from aggressively tuned forest and invaders from other states. In this beautiful, smart and skillfully painted thing, Miyazaki demonstrated the most important and interesting ideas for him: the problem of ecology, the clash of nature and civilization, pacifism, as well as the exceptional importance of humanism and moral purity.

It is not surprising that “Nonskik” was waiting for a great success among critics and spectators. In the imminent birth of a new film studio there was not the slightest doubt. Known as Ghibli, the studio was founded on June 15, because by that time the main creative backbone had already developed: it included not only Miyazaki and Takahata, but also employees of the Topcraft studio, who worked on Nasikai, as well as producer Tosio Suzuki.

The name was invented by Miyazaki himself: since childhood, he was obsessed with the dream of heaven, and therefore the studio owes its name to the Italian aircraft Caproni Ca. The word GHIBLI has Libyan origin and means the wind of Siro, blowing from the southeast. And although fans most often associate this name with the name Miyazaki, Isao Takahat had an incredible influence on many of the work of the team, personally putting several truly outstanding anime, the first of which was the heartbreaking “grave of fireflies” in the year, director Mori Masaki released the film adaptation of the manga “barefoot Gen The bombing of Hiroshima through the eyes of the little boy Gen and his family.

The authors and the viewer did not ceremony - despite the fact that history was told by means of animation, it contained a number of extremely frank and cruel scenes, imprinting death, pain and suffering without any embellishment. Takahat also wanted to express his anti -war position and make a pacifist contribution, choosing as a debut a film adaptation of the book by Akiyuki Nosaki “The Grave of Fireflies”, which the writer created on the basis of personal grief: closer to the end of the war, Akiyuki’s little sister died of malnutrition, and for the rest of his life he blamed himself in her death.

The only way to get out of this pain was the opportunity to arrange thoughts in words-this is how the story of the teenage boy Sete and his little sister Setsuko, whose childhood, was in the middle of the 19ths, was born. This tragic time brought continuous trials to the children: they lost their parents, lost their support from the surviving relatives and encountered hunger, diseases and deprivations.

Nosaka received many proposals regarding the film adaptation, but for the first time he heard about the desire to transfer the story to the large screen by animation. The writer was not jokingly surprised such an approach, however, having seen the tachats of the Takahata, which included surprisingly accurate images of city landscapes and rice fields, he realized that the animation language was the only possible for the implementation of this story, moreover, he was sure that none of the modern children-actors were able to reliably convey the tragedy of the saats and Setsuko.

That was what seemed interesting to me. I thought that the boys at that time had an iron will to life that they had to develop stoicism in themselves to survive. And I thought that since the war and post -war recovery, including subsequent economic growth, this feature has not changed. But Sate is different. When the aunt offends him, he does not want to endure it, he pulls away and leaves the house to go about his business.

He does not tolerate this. I think that these feelings of saats will best understand modern children. This is my generation is sure that he had to endure all this.As the director of Takahata, he showed particular sensitivity in understanding juvenile psychology, noting many details like childish impulsive, rash acts, wanting to emphasize the inexperience and immaturity of a young creature, whose share suddenly falls too hard trials.

Because the story is simple. She tells about two children who undoubtedly die. There is nothing more there. From the very first frames, the “grave of fireflies” does not promise the viewer of any optimistic outcome: the film begins with the fact that we see the boy who died at the station and watching him from his own “ghost”, which is why Seito and Sadsuko are doomed. These guys managed to survive the fierce bombing of their hometown of Kobe, the death of their mother and the war itself, but they could not cope with human indifference.

It would be unfair to the accusation of pressure on a tear, since Takahata in no case sought to manipulate the emotions of the audience. First of all, his goal was to expose the crimes of war against mankind and the fragility of life, capable of fading in an instant, like a firefly. Avoiding the plaster in the narrative and lubricating the horrors of wartime, as in the “Bosomonom Gene”, Takahata saw the paramount task to the spectators of the drama of the Seit and Setsuko - the most ordinary children who simultaneously fight for survival and show a naive spontaneity characteristic of their age.

The destroyed cities and dead bodies appear in the picture in a dose manner, since the anti -war message of Takahata is concluded in a completely different way - people should see what exactly destroys and ruthlessly destroys the war. He is intently studying pastoral beauties and rustic landscapes, watches carelessly playing guys who find the strength to forget about grief, and admires the affectionate sea, whose warm waves seem to be able to wash away any hardships.

In this approach to the image of young heroes, the deep longing of Takahata himself is hidden, since the concept of bright and peaceful childhood for the director always remained unattainable. In his directorial handwriting, not only sensitivity and the wise, philosophical look in half with undisguised hatred of war, but also an amazing combination of pessimistic realism with affectionate kindness are noticeable.

As well as the confidence that someday humanity will certainly learn bitter lessons. No wonder the outstanding American film critic Roger Ebert called the “Svetlyachkov grave” one of the best films about the war - such a paradoxically beautiful, tender and at the same time brutal picture in his pacifist parcel should sometimes act precisely with the same techniques as a blow to the face, designed to bring the militarists out of oblivion.

And, probably, there is no sadder of the final scene than a frame, where they finally become free souls of the suffering children quietly observe the serenely sleeping modern Kobe, to see a peaceful sky over which they did not have time, as well as live a long life in this world. However, he did not want to rest on his laurels for a long time, because he understood that he still had something to say to his viewer.

The next work of Takahata was a much more positive, but no less strong picture - the film adaptation of the manga Hotar Okamoto and Yuko Tonse “droplets of memoirs”, known in the box office of many countries under the name “DAY” in the center of the plot lies the story of the summer Taeko Okadzima, an unmarried girl from Tokyo, who decides to go to a distant village to relatives to help them with gathering with gathering Sharfran.

There she will be overwhelmed by the memories of childhood, from the fragments of which we learn about the relationship of the girl with parents, friends and classmates, and we will understand how this ultimately influenced the formation of the character of Taeko, who finally wants to understand himself and his heart. Among the anime, such a background is very common as “everyday life”, whose uniqueness lies in a special atmosphere of comfort, calm and contemplation, lying from the screen with an almost complete absence of dynamics in its traditional sense.

The fact is that the Japanese feel excellently, they know how to capture it and transmit it in the frame, like the unforgettable Amelie Pulen, having a rare ability to enjoy ordinary and, at first glance, meaningless things. It is such a thorough approach to the recreation of situations, life and characters in half with rare sincerity and charming slowness that helps to make heroes as lively and natural as possible, and their problems are clear to everyone.

Here, Takahata begins to play with the visual style: if the events unfolding in real time are drawn as carefully as possible, then the backgrounds of the flashbacks are already blurred, and their color palette is soft and discreet, which perfectly reflects the difference between children's perception of the heroine of the past and its real life. Due to the fact that this picture is essentially a serious and thoughtful psychological story for a rather adult audience, its graphics were more thoughtful and less “cartoony”.

For example, the faces and facial expressions of the heroes were drawn in more detail, which is uncharacteristic for Japanese animation. In order to achieve the most natural effect, the actors were first recorded, and after the articulation of the drawn characters, she was driven to the voiced dialogs. In addition to the graphic differences between the past and the present, Takahata in every possible way sought to show the difference between urban life and rural life.

Like other employees of Studio Ghibli, Takahata paid great attention to the credibility of the setting in the frame and important trifles working to recreate the spirit of the terrain and era. Since the locations depicted in the anime often represent quite real places, “yesterday” was no exception. The action takes place in the Yamagate Prefecture, the Takasea area, and in the film the stations of Takase and the Jamaader of the Senzan line are especially distinguished, which, although they have been rebuilt since then, the landscape surrounding them has remained practically unchanged.

The characters also visit the resort of Za-San, located on the border of the prefectures of the Yamagat and Miyaga, where the volcano with a crater lake called the Okam “Cup” is located. The joy and excitement with which the little Taeko and her loved ones try real pineapple are accentuated not just like that: in the year, Japan almost did not import fresh exotic fruits that were rare and cost expensive, so that the majority of the country of the rising sun of that time saw pineapples only in canned form.

Through the cartoon, Takahata is not only trying to consider the situation in Japanese society of a woman who requires respect, humility and humility, but also achieves a feeling of complete involvement in the viewer, when you observe the touching, funny or sad moments from the life of a little Taeko, enjoy the pacifying atmosphere of rural life and natural beauties. It is during the viewing of such things that you begin to feel the very healing power of harmony and peace, with which Takahata approaches the wise solution of the heroine's problems.

And at the same time, you remember your own moments of joy, happiness and sadness, grandmother’s summer holidays, a misunderstanding of parents, complex moments of growing up - in a word, all that has made you the way you are now.