educated_at osamu dazai
Osamu Dazai (   Dazai Osamu , June 19 , 1909 -- June 13 , 1948 ) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th - century Japan . A number of his most popular works , such as Shay and Ningen Shikkaku , are considered modern - day classics in Japan . With a semi - autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life , Dazai ' s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers . His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature , mental illness , social relationships , and postwar Japan . One such literary work , Ningen Shikkaku , has received quite a few adaptations : a film directed by Genjiro Arato , the first four episodes of the anime series Aoi Bungaku , and a manga serialized in Shinchosha ' s Comic Bunch magazine . While Dazai continues to be widely celebrated in Japan , he remains relatively unknown in the United States with only a handful of his novels available in English . Career . In 1980 , Arato produced " Zigeunerweisen " for director Seijun Suzuki . He was unable to secure exhibitors for the film and famously exhibited it himself in a specially - built , inflatable , mobile tent . The film won four Japanese Academy Awards , including Best Picture , and was voted the best Japanese film of the 1980s by Japanese critics . He also produced Tatsushi mori ' s " The Whispering of the Gods " in 2005 . Japan (" Nippon " or " Nihon " ; formally "" or " Nihon - koku ", means " State of Japan ") is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia . Located in the Pacific Ocean , It is lying off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland ( east of China , Korea , Russia ) and stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and near Taiwan in the southwest . Life and career . Takahata was born in Ujiyamada ( now Ise ), Mie prefecture , Japan . On June 29 , 1945 , at just nine years old , he survived a major US air raid on Okayama City . Later on in life , after seeing a French animated cartoon feature called " Le Roi et l ' Oiseau " (" The King and the Mockingbird ") he became intrigued by the animation that was used . He graduated from the ___MASK55___ French literature course in 1959 . While he was job hunting at his university , Takahata was tempted to join Toei Animation by a friend who knew the company wanted an assistant director . He took the company ' s entrance examination , and was hired . The reason he decided to join the company was his thought that " If it was animation , I can be something interesting , too ". Ten people joined the company that same year which made it hard for Takahata competitive wise to later achieve the status of director . Takahata finally directed his first film after he was recommended for the position by his instructor Yasuo tsuka . His directorial debut was "" which unfortunately ended up being a commercial failure resulting in his demotion . The remaining staff members who had not been demoted for the failure of " Hols " went on to work on a different Toei film . Unable to move forward , in 1971 Takahata left Toei Animation along with Yichi Kotabe , and Hayao Miyazaki to make the animated feature " Pippi Longstocking ". To make this happen , he transferred to an animation studio called " A Production " ( now known as Shin - Ei Animation ) which was founded by his former superior . The last thing was to acquire the animation rights and to hunt for locations . Takahata , and Miyazaki travelled to Sweden but were met with a dead end when author Astrid Lindgren turned them away ending their hopes for Pippi . Later in the same year they both requested to direct episodes seven , and onward of the first " Lupin III " TV series anime as at the time it was suffering from low ratings . The offer was accepted by animation director Yasuo tsuka , who was also an old acquaintance . They accepted the offer under the condition that their names were not to be released , and the direction credited to only " A production directors group ". Although his directing in the original was well received , he did not participate in the second series leaving Miyazaki to go ahead with the work . ___MASK48___ , officially the Commonwealth of ___MASK48___ , is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands . It is the world ' s sixth - largest country by total area . The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea , Indonesia and East Timor to the north ; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north - east ; and New Zealand to the south - east . ___MASK48___ ' s capital is Canberra , and its largest urban area is Sydney . , born on 24 May 1923 , is a Japanese filmmaker , ___MASK35___ , and screenwriter . His films are known for their jarring visual style , irreverent humour , nihilistic cool and entertainment - over - logic sensibility . He made 40 predominately B - movies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967 , working most prolifically in the yakuza genre . His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus , " Branded to Kill " ( 1967 ), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido . Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal , but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that . As an independent filmmaker , he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his Taish Trilogy , " Zigeunerweisen " ( 1980 ), " Kagero - za " ( 1981 ) and " Yumeji " ( 1991 ). The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth ' s oceanic divisions . It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean ( or , depending on definition , to Antarctica ) in the south and is bounded by Asia and ___MASK48___ in the west and the Americas in the east . New Zealand is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean . The country geographically comprises two main landmasses  that of the North Island , or Te Ika - a - Mui , and the South Island , or Te Waipounamu  and numerous smaller islands . New Zealand is situated some east of ___MASK48___ across the Tasman Sea and roughly south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia , Fiji , and Tonga . Because of its remoteness , it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans . During its long period of isolation , New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal , fungal and plant life . The country ' s varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks , such as the Southern Alps , owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions . New Zealand ' s capital city is Wellington , while its most populous city is Auckland . Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes Australian and foreign films as well as Japanese anime and manga in ___MASK48___ , New Zealand , and Papua New Guinea . Madman is one of the major entertainment companies in ___MASK48___ . It employs approx 100 people and has an annual turnover of around A $ 50 million . Its headquarters is in Richmond , Victoria . Shinchosha 1988 . In 1967 , Shinchosha published a short story named " Grave of the Fireflies " as a novel written by Akiyuki Nosaka . 21 years later , " Grave of the Fireflies " was turned into a film by director Isao Takahata , animated by Studio Ghibli and co - distributed by Bandai Visual under their Emotion label and Toho . In turn , Shinchosha produced that film as Shinchosha 1988 . The film was released in Japanese theaters on April 16 , 1988 . It was then licensed and released in North America as a subtitled VHS by Central Park Media on June 2 , 1993 , and later a 2 - disc DVD by the same company in the same region , with the 1st disc featuring an English dub produced by Skypilot Entertainment and the original Japanese with English subtitles . The 2nd disc contained a retrospective on the author of the original book , an interview with the director , and an interview with critic Roger Ebert , who had expressed his admiration for the film on several occasions and ranked the film as one of the greatest of all time . Following the April 27 , 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media , ADV Films acquired the North American rights and re - released it on DVD on July 7 , 2009 , followed by former CPM titles such as " MD Geist ", " Now and Then , Here and There " and " The World of Narue ". Following the September 1 , 2009 shutdown and rebranding of ADV Films , their successor , Sentai Filmworks , rescued the film and re - released it a remastered DVD on March 6 , 2012 and plans on releasing the film on digital outlets . A Blu - ray edition was released on November 20 , 2012 , featuring an all - new English dub produced by Seraphim Digital . StudioCanal released a Blu - ray in the United Kingdom on July 1 , 2013 , followed by a " Kiki ' s Delivery Service " release on that same format . with Madman Entertainment releasing the film in ___MASK48___ and New Zealand . Central Park Media was an American multimedia entertainment company based in ___MASK51___ City , ___MASK51___ , that was active in the distribution of East Asian cinema , television series , anime , manga and manhwa titles in North America prior to its bankruptcy in 2009 . It was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan , ___MASK51___ City .