Megumi Kagawa

Megumi Kagawa (賀川愛 , Kagawa Megumi, born June 14, 1959) is a Japanese animation director and animator. Although her given name is “Megumi”, the kanji used for her name 「愛」is most commonly pronounced “ai” which means “love”. As a result, at Studio Ghibli she is known by the nickname Ai-chan.

She is one of Studio Ghibli's senior animators, having worked with Hayao Miyazaki since he directed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. She was the animation director for Porco Rosso, The Day I Bought a Star for the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.^[1]

History[]

Born on June 14, 1959, in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Kagawa moved to Tokyo to study animation at Tokyo Designer Gakuin College. After graduating in 1981, she worked at Doga Kobo, an animation production studio formed by former Toei employees. She found herself working on the popular "Toei Animation Magical Girl" such as Lalabel, the Magical Girl (1980) and Hello! Sandybell (1981) for several years before joining Hayao Miyazaki after hearing he would be working on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind at TopCraft.

When TopCraft was dissolved, Kagawa went on to join the newly formed Studio Ghibli as senior animator, working on films such as Castle in the Sky, Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday and Kiki's Delivery Service. She was appointed animation director for Porco Rosso and later, Spirited Away.

She is said to be the model for Fio Piccolo, one of the heroines of Porco Rosso. Porco Rosso also saw Hitomi Tateno performing animation check duties. While never fully confirmed by Miyazaki, there was a tacit understanding that Fio was indeed modeled after Kagawa. Tateno seemingly confirms this, stating her personality seemed "sedate", however upon seeing the final film, she remarks that "it was more girlish than I expected. Ai-chan is a little too different to be the model."

Works[]

Television Animation[]

Ikkyū-san (1975-1982)
Lalabel, the Magical Girl (1980)
Hello! Sandy Bell (1981)
I Am a Cat (1982)
The Kabocha Wine (1982-1984)
Stop!! Hibari-kun! (1983-1984)
Adventures of the Little Koala (1984-1985)
Gu-Gu Ganmo (1984-1985)
Sangokushi (1985)
Uchūsen Sagittarius (1986-1987)
Tales of Little Women (1987)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1988)
Peter Pan: The Animated Adventure (1989)
My Daddy Long Legs (1990)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996)
The New Batman Adventures (1997-1998)
Now and Then, Here and There (1999-2000)
Platinumhugen Ordian (2000)
Petite Princess Yucie (2002-2003)
Otogi Zoshi (2004-2005)
Little Witch Academia (2017)

Movies[]

World Masterpiece Children's Story Swan Lake (1981)
Unico in the Island of Magic (1983)
The Kabocha Wine My Honeymoon!? (1984)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Penguin's Memory Happiness Story (1985)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Pom Poko (1994)
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
Mei and the Kittenbus (2002)
Imaginary Flying Machines (2002)
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Hoshi o Katta Hi (2006)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Ponyo (2008)
The Secret World of Arrietty
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
The Wind Rises (2013)
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
When Marnie Was There (2014)
Miss Hokusai (2015)
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Your Name. (2016)
Okko's Inn (2018)
The Wonderland (2019)

Game[]

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (2010)

References[]

↑ The Secret World of Arriety Staff Official Site

External links[]

Megumi Kagawa on Anime News Network
Megumi Kagawa on Wikipedia

Navigation[]

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 • Tokyo Movie Shinsha • Fuji TV • Oh! Production • Pony Canyon • Tokuma Shoten • Tokuma International • Shinchosha Publishing • Dentsu • Tohokushinsha Film Corporation • Mitsubishi • Studio Kajino • Studio Ponoc • Streamline Pictures • Toei Animation • Toei Company • TopCraft • Shochiku • Toho • The Walt Disney Company • Central Park Media • Sentai Filmworks • GKIDS • Madman Entertainment

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) • Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron (2023)

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