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Studio Ghibli Animator Makiko Futaki Passes Away at 58
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Studio Ghibli animator Makiko Futaki passed away last Friday, May 13, while being treated for an illness. She was 58. Her close relatives held a private funeral for her.
Futaki began her professional career as an in-between animator in Telecom Animation Film, working on episode #153 of Lupin III: Part II. Before this, she had already been making amateur animation and showing them at the Private Animation Festival (PAF). She first worked with Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata on Jarinko Chie in 1981, and then with Hayao Miyazaki in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. She has since worked on the majority of Studio Ghibli's films as a freelance key animator, and served as assistant animation director for Tales from Earthsea. She last worked on When Marnie Was There as a key animator.
Apart from Studio Ghibli films, she has also worked as an animator on Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Akira, and Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!. She also illustrated the covers of Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito novels.
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