Yoshifumi Kondou

Yoshifumi Kondou was a Japanese animator who worked for Studio Ghiblihttps://anilist.co/studio/21/ in his last years and was most known for directing the film Whisper of the Hearthttps://anilist.co/anime/585/. He was expected to become one of the top directors at Studio Ghibli alongside Hayao Miyazakihttps://anilist.co/staff/96870/ and Isao Takahatahttps://anilist.co/staff/100579/ and to become their eventual successor. Kondou entered Niigata Prefectural Muramatsu High School in April 1965 where he was a member of the art club. In the school one of his seniors was the future manga artist Kimio Yanagisawahttps://anilist.co/staff/100609/. In April 1968 he moved to Tokyo after graduating from high school where he entered Tokyo Design Colleges animation department. In October 1968 he began working at ShinEi Animationhttps://anilist.co/studio/247/ then A Production. There he took part in the production of shows like Kyojin no Hoshihttps://anilist.co/anime/5834/ and Lupin IIIhttps://anilist.co/anime/1412/. In 1978 Kondou moved to Nippon Animationhttps://anilist.co/studio/22/ where he worked on shows such as Future Boy Conanhttps://anilist.co/anime/302/ and Anne of Green Gableshttps://anilist.co/anime/283/ making his proper character designing debut in the latter. In December 1980 Kondou moved to Telecom Animation Filmhttps://anilist.co/studio/94/ where he served as the character designer for Sherlock Houndhttps://anilist.co/anime/1972/. Kondou resigned from his position at Telecom in March of 1985 and was hospitalized from June through August for a type of pneumonia. He became a contract worker for Nippon Animation afterwards and moved to Studio Ghibli in January 1987. In 1995 he made his directorial debut with the renown Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart. Kondou suddenly passed away from an aortic dissection on January 21 1998 which according to doctors had been brought on by overwork. Kondous death is also believed to be the reason for Miyazakis initial announcement of retirement. Source: Wikipedia