Which Studio Ghibli film was the last directed by Isao Takahata?

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was the last film directed by Isao Takahata. Released in 2013, it was Takahata’s final feature as director and his first feature-length film in 14 years.

The film adapts The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a 10th-century Japanese narrative often regarded as one of Japan’s oldest surviving prose stories. It follows a mysterious girl discovered inside a bamboo stalk who grows into Princess Kaguya, while struggling against the expectations imposed by courtly society.

Takahata and screenwriter Riko Sakaguchi used an expressive watercolor-and-pencil visual style that made the film look closer to moving illustration than conventional polished animation. Its production was unusually long and expensive, but it received major international recognition, including a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.

The Boy and the Heron was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, not Takahata. Only Yesterday and Grave of the Fireflies are earlier Takahata films, so neither can be his final directorial work.