Kitaro Kosaka

Kitarō Kōsaka 高坂 希太郎 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 In 2003 he directed the cycling anime film Nasu Summer in Andalusia set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race adapted from Iō Kurodas 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 has worked on numerous other projects for the studio Madhouse including adaptations of manga artist Naoki Urasawas works with the studio including Yawara Master Keaton and Monster and adaptations of two of Clamps works including Clover and Double X both of them being short films Description above from the Wikipedia article Kitarō Kōsaka licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia