theoceanground

I want to rise in love with pick-me-up hugs and side-splitting laughter.

I want to crawl into bed in love – a little early, sleepy, and gleeful – drunk on every syllable that comes from your lips.

I want to dance in love, my body pressed against yours, my head on your chest, my arms around your neck.

I want to cry in love at 2am when you hold all my broken pieces and kiss them one by one.

I want to skip in love, hand in hand down the sidewalk, covered in chalk and grass stains.

I want to snuggle in love on the couch watching whatever keeps me awake in your arms.

I want to sing in love, harmonizing with your silky smooth voice and my own loud slightly congested one.

I want to die in love with you by my side and let the angels carry our souls to nest in the clouds together.

I don’t want to fall in love.

Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and director of such animated films as Grave of the Fireflies, passed away today in a Tokyo hospital at the age of 82, according to various Japanese news sources.

Takahata’s distinguished career as a producer, director, and animator began in 1959 when he joined Toei Animation as an assistant. There, he met his longtime collaborator and fellow animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, with whom he later founded Studio Ghibli along with Toshio Suzuki.

A number of Studio Ghibli’s most famous anime have benefited from Takahata’s hand as a producer, director or writer. After producing 1984’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and 1986’s Castle in the Sky, Takahata directed Grave of the Fireflies, a brilliant and devastating World War II drama that received universal acclaim.

Between 1991 and 2013, Takahata directed Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and The Tale of Princess Kayuga, the latter of which was nominated for an Academy Award. He continued working through 2016.