Kitarō Kōsaka

Revision as of 05:00, 17 May 2021

Template:Infobox personKitarō Kōsaka (高坂希太郎 , Kōsaka Kitarō, born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese animator, animation director and film director. He's nicknamed Monchi (モンチ) by Hayao Miyazaki, the reason being that he resembles the monkey Monchhichi (a popular toy figure). He's an avid cyclist and at one point, held cycling events with fellow Studio Ghibli staff.

In 2003, he made his debut as a film director with the cycling anime film, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia and even directed its sequel, Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase in 2007. In 2014, he was nominated for the 41st Annie Award for character animation for The Wind Rises, due to his role as animation director. He also won the animator award at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival in 2014. In 2018, he directed the television series Okko's Inn, produced by DLE and Madhouse.

He's a big fan of How Do You Like Wednesday (水曜どうでしょう , a variety show produced by Hokkaido Television Broadcasting), and one of the show's performers, Yo Oizumi, was chosen as the lead for Nasu.

History

File:NasuKosaka.jpg

Kōsaka loves cycling (Photo from 2010) which led to him directing Nasu. He's also seen cooking spaghetti for the Studio Ghibli staff (Bottom).

Born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kōsaka graduated from Saitama Institute of Technology Fukaya High School. His interest in animation began after watching Future Boy Conan in high school.

He began his career in 1979 with the studio Oh! Production, a subcontractor of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's works at the time. He received tutelage from key animator Shunji Saida, famous for working on Inspector Gadget (1983) and several works by Takahata including Chie the Brat, Anne of Green Gables and Grave of the Fireflies. Kōsaka left the studio in 1986 to become a freelance, and soon went on to work on numerous projects as a key and supervising animation director for the noted animation Studio Ghibli, and with the famed director Hayao Miyazaki, of whose work he is himself an acknowledged fan.

In 2003, he directed the cycling anime film, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race, adapted from Iō Kuroda's manga Nasu, which Hayao Miyazaki, a fan of cycling, himself recommended to Kōsaka. The film soon went on to become the first Japanese anime film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed its sequel, Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase in 2007.

OkkoInn — Kōsaka directed *Okko's Inn* in 2018.

He has worked on numerous other projects for the studio Madhouse, including adaptations of manga artist Naoki Urasawa's works with the studio, including Yawara, Master Keaton and Monster, and adaptations of two of Clamp's works, including Clover and Double X, both of them being short films.

In 2018, he directed Okko's Inn (若おかみは小学生！, Waka Okami wa Shōgakusei!, transl. The Young Innkeeper Is a Grade Schooler!), produced by DLE and Madhouse. The series is based on a series of children's novels by Hiroko Reijō and illustrated by Asami.

Works

Anne of Green Gables (Animator)
Grave of the Fireflies (Animator)
Gauche the Cellist (Animator)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Animator)
Dagger of Kamui
Sherlock Hound (Animator)
Chie the Brat (Animator)
Angel's Egg (Animator)
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
AKIRA
NEMO
Whisper of the Heart (Animation Director)
Princess Mononoke (Animation Director, Joint)
Master Keaton
Spirited Away (Animation Director, Joint)
Metropolis
Nasu: Summer in Andalusia (Director)
Howl's Moving Castle (Animation Director, Joint)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Animation Director, Joint)
Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase (Director)
From Up on Poppy Hill
The Wind Rises (Animation Director)
Okko's Inn (Director)

External Links

Official

Interviews

Kitaro Kosaka Midnight Eye Interview

V • T • E

Credits

Founders	Hayao Miyazaki (Director) • Isao Takahata (Director) • Toshio Suzuki (Producer) • Yasuyoshi Tokuma (Executive Producer)

Notable Staff	Steve Alpert (Overseas Promotion Manager) • Hideaki Anno (Director) • Masashi Ando (Animator) • Makiko Futaki (Animator) • Hitomi Tateno (Animation Check) • Toru Hara (Producer) • Takeshi Inamura (Animator) • Katsuya Kondō (Animation Director) • Yoshifumi Kondō (Animation Director) • Koji Hoshino (President) • Megumi Kagawa (Animator) • Yoshinori Kanada (Animator) • Kitarō Kōsaka (Director) • Kazuo Komatsubara (Art Director) • Goro Miyazaki (Director) • Tomomi Mochizuki (Director) • Hiroyuki Morita (Director) • Yoshiyuki Momose (Animation Director) • Yoshiaki Nishimura (Producer) • Atsushi Okui (Director of Photography) • Kazuo Oga (Background Artist) • Shinsuke Nonaka (Production Affairs Manager) • Kaoru Mano (Titles) • Keiko Niwa (Screenwriter) • Reiko Okuyama (Animator) • Seiji Okuda (Director) • Takeshi Seyama (Director) • Masako Shinohara (Animator) • Atsushi Takahashi (Storyboard) • Yohei Takamatsu (Art Director) • Atsuko Tanaka (Key Animator) • Yôji Takeshige (Art Director) Kazuhide Tomonaga (Animator) • Yasuo Uragami (Sound Director) • Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (Sound Director) • Akihiko Yamashita (Animator Director) • Michiyo Yasuda (Color Designer) • Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Director) • Nizô Yamamoto (Background Artist) • Kenichi Yoshida (Animator) • Noboru Yoshida (Art Director) • Ushiko (Cat)

Music	Joe Hisaishi • Michio Mamiya • Yuji Nomi

Association	Eiko Kadono (Author) • Tokiko Kato (Singer) • John Lasseter (Director) • Rieko Nakagawa (Author) • Tatsuo Hori (Author) • Mamoru Hosoda (Director) • Yoshie Hotta (Author) • Yōichi Kotabe (Senior Animator) • Naohisa Inoue (Artist) • Keisuke Miyazaki (Son) • Kenji Miyazawa (Author) • Yasuji Mori (Animation Director) • Hideo Ogata (Animage Editor) • Osamu Sagawa (Friend) • Ryōtarō Shiba (Author) • Mamiko Suzuki (Toshio Suzuki's Daughter) • Mamoru Oshii (Director) • Yasuo Ōtsuka (Director)

Affiliated Companies	Anime Torotoro • NHK • Nippon Animation • Pony Canyon • Tokuma Shoten • Tokuma International • Studio Kajino • Studio Ponoc • Streamline Pictures • Toei Animation • Toei Company • TopCraft • Shochiku • The Walt Disney Company

V • T • E

Studio Ghibli

Animated features

Feature films	Castle in the Sky (1986) • Grave of the Fireflies (1988) • My Neighbor Totoro (1988) • Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) • Only Yesterday (1991) • Porco Rosso (1992) • Ocean Waves (1993) • Pom Poko (1994) • Whisper of the Heart (1995) • Princess Mononoke (1997) • My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) • Spirited Away (2001) • The Cat Returns (2002) • Howl's Moving Castle (2004) • Tales from Earthsea (2006) • Ponyo (2008) • The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) • From Up on Poppy Hill (2011) • The Wind Rises (2013) • The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) • When Marnie Was There (2014) • Earwig and the Witch (2020) • The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Short films	Nandarō • On Your Mark • Ghiblies • Film Guru Guru • Ghiblies Episode 2 • Imaginary Flying Machines • The Invention of Imaginary Machines of Destruction • The Whale Hunt • Koro's Big Day Out • Mei and the Kittenbus • Looking for a Home • The Day I Bought a Star • The Night of Taneyamagahara • Water Spider Monmon • Iblard Jikan • A Sumo Wrestler's Tail • Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess • Treasure Hunting • Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo • Boro the Caterpillar

Documentaries

The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (1987) • Miyazaki and Kurosawa Fireside Chat (1993) • Ghibli Was Born This Way: A Birth Story Spelled Out With Reproduced Images (1998) • World Journey of My Memory / Journey of the Heart (1998) • How Princess Mononoke Was Born (2001) • Lasseter-San, Arigato! (2003) • Hayao Miyazaki Produces a CD (2004) • Yasuo Otsuka's Joy of Motion (2004) • Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum (2005) • Ghibli: The Miyazaki Temple (2005) • The Work of Toshio Suzuki (2006) • Scenery of Ghibli (2006) • A Ghibli Artisan – Kazuo Oga Exhibition – The Man Who Painted Totoro's Forest (2007) • How Ponyo Was Born (2009) • Poppy Hill - 300 Days of War Between Father and Son (2011) • Ghibli's Bookshelf (2011) • The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013) • Until The End of The Creation of When Marnie Was There (2015) • Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2016) • NHK Image File: I Want To Meet This Person - Isao Takahata, Animation Film Director (2018) • 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019)

Television series

The Blue Seed (1992) • Ronja, the Robber's Daughter (2014)

Concerts

Joe Hisaishi in Budokan • Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert: The Music of Studio Ghibli

Video games

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Video Game) • Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu • Jade Cocoon 2 • Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color • Ni no Kuni (Series) • Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn • Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch • Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Printed works

Animage • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (manga) • Starting Point: 1979-1996 • Turning Point: 1997-2008 • Kaze no Kaerubasho • People of the Desert • The Age of the Flying Boat • Hayao Miyazaki's Daydream Data Notes • To My Sister • The Journey of Shuna • Studio Ghibli's Trajectory as Seen on Animage (1984-2011) • The Art of My Neighbor Totoro • The Art of Castle in the Sky • The Art of Kiki's Delivery Service • The Art of Porco Rosso • Princess Mononoke: The First Story • The Place Where Totoro Was Born • The Bountiful Food of Studio Ghibli • Children's Picture Book Ghibli's Dining Table Earwig and the Witch

Co-Productions

Flying City Plan • Shiki-Jitsu (Studio Kajino) • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence • Nasu: Summer in Andalusia • Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase • Portable Airport • Red Crow and the Ghost Ship • Space Station No. 9 • The Red Turtle

Pre-Ghibli works

Hustle Punch (1965) • Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968) • Animal Treasure Island (1971) • Lupin the Third Part I (1971) • Panda! Go, Panda! (1972) • Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974) • Dog of Flanders (1975) • Future Boy Conan (1978) • Anne of Green Gables (1979) Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) • Chie the Brat (1981) • 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1981) • Gauche the Cellist (1982) • Sherlock Hound (1984) • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Ghibli-related labels

Animage • Animage Home Video • Ghibli ga Ippai Collection • Ghibli Museum • Ghibli Museum Library • Ghibli Park • Totoro no Furusato Foundation • Totoro no Mori

Unproduced projects

Border 1939

Related productions

Like the Clouds, Like the Wind • Mary and the Witch's Flower • Modest Heroes • Natsuzora • World Masterpiece Theater

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Infobox person
-[[File:Kitaro Kosaka.jpg|thumb]]
+| name             = Kitarō Kōsaka
-'''Kitarō Kōsaka''' (高坂 希太郎 Kōsaka Kitarō, born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese animator and film director. He began his career in 1979 with the studio Oh! Production. He left the studio in 1986 to become a freelance, and soon went on to work on numerous projects as a key and supervising animation director for the noted animation studio Studio Ghibli, and with the famed director Hayao Miyazaki, of whose work he is himself an acknowledged fan.
+| image            = Kitaro Kosaka.jpg
+| caption          =
+| native name      = 高坂 希太郎
+| born             = February 28, 1962<br>Kanagawa, Japan
+| nationality      = Japanese
+| alma mater       =
+| occupation       = Director {{*}} animator
+| years active     =
+| employer         =
+| spouse           =
+| children         =
+| parents          =
+| awards           =
+}}'''Kitarō Kōsaka''' (高坂 希太郎 , Kōsaka Kitarō, born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese animator, animation director and film director. He's nicknamed '''Monchi''' (モンチ) by [[Hayao Miyazaki]], the reason being that he resembles the monkey Monchhichi (a popular toy figure). He's an avid cyclist and at one point, held cycling events with fellow [[Studio Ghibli]] staff.
-In 2003, he directed the cycling anime film, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race, adapted from Iō Kuroda's manga Nasu, which Hayao Miyazaki, a fan of cycling, himself recommended to Kōsaka. The film soon went on to become the first Japanese anime film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
+In 2003, he made his debut as a film director with the cycling anime film, ''[[Nasu: Summer in Andalusia]]'' and even directed its sequel, ''[[Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase]]'' in 2007. In 2014, he was nominated for the 41st Annie Award for character animation for ''[[The Wind Rises]]'', due to his role as animation director. He also won the animator award at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival in 2014. In 2018, he directed the television series ''Okko's Inn'', produced by DLE and Madhouse.
+He's a big fan of ''How Do You Like Wednesday'' (水曜どうでしょう , a variety show produced by Hokkaido Television Broadcasting), and one of the show's performers, Yo Oizumi, was chosen as the lead for ''Nasu''.
-He has worked on numerous other projects for the studio Madhouse, including adaptations of manga artist Naoki Urasawa's works with the studio, including Yawara, Master Keaton and Monster, and adaptations of two of Clamp's works, including Clover and Double X, both of them being short films.
+==History==
-{{wikipedia|{{PAGENAME}}}}
+[[File:NasuKosaka.jpg|thumb|right|Kōsaka loves cycling (Photo from 2010) which led to him directing ''[[Nasu: Summer in Andalusia|Nasu]]''. He's also seen cooking spaghetti for the [[Studio Ghibli]] staff (Bottom).]]Born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kōsaka graduated from Saitama Institute of Technology Fukaya High School. His interest in animation began after watching ''[[Future Boy Conan]]'' in high school.
+He began his career in 1979 with the studio Oh! Production, a subcontractor of [[Hayao Miyazaki]] and [[Isao Takahata|Isao Takahata]]'s works at the time. He received tutelage from key animator Shunji Saida, famous for working on ''Inspector Gadget'' (1983) and several works by Takahata including ''[[Chie the Brat]]'', ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' and ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]''. Kōsaka left the studio in 1986 to become a freelance, and soon went on to work on numerous projects as a key and supervising animation director for the noted animation [[Studio Ghibli]], and with the famed director [[Hayao Miyazaki]], of whose work he is himself an acknowledged fan.
+In 2003, he directed the cycling anime film, ''[[Nasu: Summer in Andalusia]]'', set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race, adapted from Iō Kuroda's manga ''Nasu'', which Hayao Miyazaki, a fan of cycling, himself recommended to Kōsaka. The film soon went on to become the first Japanese anime film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed its sequel, ''[[Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase]]'' in 2007.
-==Filmography==
-*''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' - Animator
+[[File:OkkoInn.jpg|thumb|left|Kōsaka directed ''Okko's Inn'' in 2018.]]He has worked on numerous other projects for the studio Madhouse, including adaptations of manga artist Naoki Urasawa's works with the studio, including ''Yawara'', ''Master Keaton'' and ''Monster'', and adaptations of two of Clamp's works, including ''Clover'' and ''Double X'', both of them being short films.
+In 2018, he directed ''Okko's Inn'' (若おかみは小学生！, ''Waka Okami wa Shōgakusei!'', <abbr>transl.</abbr> The Young Innkeeper Is a Grade Schooler!), produced by DLE and Madhouse. The series is based on a series of children's novels by Hiroko Reijō and illustrated by Asami.
-==External Links==
-*[[Wikipedia:Kitarō Kōsaka|Kitarō Kōsaka]] on ''Wikipedia''
-*{{ANN|id=2785}}
-*{{IMDb|id=0466901}}
-*[http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kitaro-kosaka/ Kitaro Kosaka] Midnight Eye Interview
+==Works==
-{{People}}
+*''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' (Animator)
+*''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' (Animator)
+*''[[Gauche the Cellist]]'' (Animator)
+*''[[Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind]]'' (Animator)
+*''Dagger of Kamui''
+*''[[Sherlock Hound]]'' (Animator)
+*''[[Chie the Brat]]'' (Animator)
+*''Angel's Egg'' (Animator)
+*''Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise''
+*''AKIRA''
+*''NEMO''
+*''[[Whisper of the Heart]]'' (Animation Director)
+*''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' (Animation Director, Joint)
+*''Master Keaton''
+*''[[Spirited Away]]'' (Animation Director, Joint)
+*''Metropolis''
+*''[[Nasu: Summer in Andalusia]]'' (Director)
+*''[[Howl's Moving Castle]]'' (Animation Director, Joint)
+*''[[Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea]]'' (Animation Director, Joint)
+*''[[Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase]]'' (Director)
+*''[[From Up on Poppy Hill]]''
+*''[[The Wind Rises]]'' (Animation Director)
+*''Okko's Inn'' (Director)
+==External Links==
+===Official===
+*{{Imdb|name/nm0466901/}}
+*{{ANN2|url=encyclopedia/people.php?id=2785}}
+*{{WP2|Kitarō Kōsaka}}
+===Interviews===
+*[http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kitaro-kosaka/ Kitaro Kosaka] Midnight Eye Interview
+{{Credits|collapsed}}
+{{Studio Ghibli|collapsed}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kosaka, Kitaro}}
 [[Category:Grave of the Fireflies Credits]]
 [[Category:Male voice actors]]
 [[Category:Credits]]
+[[Category:People]]
+[[Category:Animators]]

Ghibli Wiki

Changes: Kitarō Kōsaka