Kitarou Kousaka

Kousaka began his career in 1979 at Oh! Production, debuting as an in-betweener on [Moero Arthur: Hakuba no Ouji](https://anilist.co/anime/4614/), and as a key animator on [Minami no Niji no Lucy](https://anilist.co/anime/2573/) in 1982, and got instructed by animators like [Toshitsugu Saida](https://anilist.co/staff/186591/) and [Kouichi Murata](https://anilist.co/staff/191548/). Before having gone freelance in 1986, he had partaken in [Nausicaä](https://anilist.co/anime/572/) as an animator, working alongide famed director [Hayao Miyazaki](https://anilist.co/staff/96870/), whose work he himself is an admitted fan. He has since worked on numerous of Miyazaki's and [Ghibli](https://anilist.co/studio/21/)'s films as both an animator and an animation director. In 2003, he directed the cycling anime film, [Nasu: Summer in Andalusia](https://anilist.co/anime/1209/), set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race, adapted from [Iou Kuroda](https://anilist.co/staff/97910/)'s manga [Nasu](https://anilist.co/manga/31245/), which Miyazaki, a fan of cycling, had recommended to Kousaka. The film soon went on to become the first Japanese anime film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.