Toru Hara

Toru Hara was a Japanese animation producer and the founder of the studio Topcraft. A former staff member of Toei Animation, he was among the former Toei staff who established Topcraft in Tokyo on 1 February 1972. In its early years the studio served as the primary animation studio for the hand-drawn productions of the American company Rankin/Bass, including The Hobbit in 1977, The Return of the King in 1980 and The Last Unicorn in 1982, and it later produced Hayao Miyazaki's film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984. Topcraft filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved on 15 June 1985. Its assets were taken over by Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata, who formed Studio Ghibli, and Hara became Studio Ghibli's first manager. He died on 14 December 2021, at the age of 85.