Isao Takahata was born in Ujiyamada, Mie prefecture, Japan and has been a longtime colleague with Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli. He directed five anime films that spanned various genres such as war-film (Hotaru no Haka), romantic drama (Omoide Poroporo), comedy (Tonari no Yamada-kun), ecological adventure (Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko), and historical fantasy (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari). Out of these, Hotaru no Haka is widely recognized as one of the greatest animated films ever made.