Interest

Future Boy Conan Composer Listed on Isao Takahata's New Ghibli Film

In the official web page that it created for composer Shinichiro Ikebe, the music management company Tokyo Concerts reports that Ikebe is working on the music in Studio Ghibli's feature-length animated film Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) by director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko). Ikebe collaborated with Takahata and another future Studio Ghibli co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki, on the Future Boy Conan television series.

The famous Japanese folktale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) centers on princess named Kaguya who was discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. Taketori Monogatari has inspired dozens of manga and anime stories, such as Reiko Shimizu's Kaguya Hime and Arina Tanemura's Sakura-Hime Kaden. Takahata revealed in 2009 that his next film will be based on the folktale.

Takahata added in September of 2011 that his new work may be about two more years from being close to completion. Last November, Studio Ghibli posted listings for contract staff positions for "director Isao Takahata's animation feature film" that is "slated to be completed in Summer of 2013." The film distributor TOHO registered the domain name kaguyahime-monogatari.jp (and kazetachinu.jp) last week.

It has been over 13 years since Takahata's last feature film, 1999's My Neighbors the Yamadas.

[Via purplepig01, Tsk06]

Update: Ikebe's other film scores include four Akira Kurosawa films: Kagemusha, Kurosawa's Dreams, Rhapsody in August, and Madadayo.