Yasuo Otsuka, mentor of Hayao Miyazaki and monument to Japanese animation, He died at the age of 89 for reasons unknownas the studio Ghibli producer revealed at the 2021 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival. A black time for the Japanese studio, which was forced to say goodbye to the great Shuichiro Moriyama a month ago.
Otsuka was born on July 11, 1931 in the Japanese prefecture of Shimane. At the age of 25, he moved to Toei Animation and began working on works of the caliber of The legend of the white snake is The little prince and the eight-headed dragon, two films that should become Japanese animation classics known all over the world. His great talent convinced the studio to put part of the project in their hands Lupine III, for whom he designed the characters and supervised the animations.
After years of working on the highest quality work, Otsuka partnered with Hayao Miyazaki and became his de facto mentor. In 2004 Miyazaki himself and director Toshiro Uratani dedicated the documentary to him Ootsuka Yasuo no ugokasu yorokobi (lit. The joy of animating by Yasuo Otsuka), published by Ghibli with the aim of paying homage to Otsuka’s great talent. In the early 2000s, the animator began teaching at the Yoyogi Animation Academy in Tokyo and even won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 42nd Japan Academy Prizes.
Toshio Suzuki, producer of Ghibli, did not disclose the cause of death or whether the funeral will be private or not. In any case, Miyazaki can pay a final tribute to the new film How Do You Live? Expect to be out in the next three years.
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