Kitarō Kōsaka (高坂 希太郎, Kōsaka Kitarō, born February 28, 1962 in Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Japanese animator and film director. He began his career in 1979 with the studio Oh! Production. He left the studio in 1986 to become a freelance animator, working on numerous projects as a key and supervising animation director for Studio Ghibli, including on Castle in the Sky, Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, From up on Poppy Hill, and The Wind Rises. He has stated that he is a fan of the works of Hayao Miyazaki.

In 2003, he directed the cycling anime film, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia, set on the Vuelta a España road bicycle race, adapted from Iō Kuroda's manga Nasu, which Miyazaki recommended to Kōsaka. The film soon went on to become the first Japanese anime film ever to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

He has worked on numerous other projects for the studio Madhouse, including adaptations of Naoki Urasawa's Yawara!, Master Keaton and Monster, and short film adaptations of two of Clamp's works: Clover and Double X.

The film is set in the late Muromachi period (approximately 1337 to 1573) of Japan, with fantasy elements. The story follows the young Emishi warrior Ashitaka's involvement in a struggle between forest gods and the humans who consume its resources. The term " Mononoke" (物の怪 or もののけ) is not a name, but a Japanese word for a spirit or monster.

Princess Mononoke was released in Japan on July 12, 1997, and in the United States on October 29, 1999. It was a critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and the highest-grossing there of all time until Titanic was released later that year. It was translated and distributed in North America by Miramax Films, and despite a poor box office performance there, it sold well on DVD and video, bringing Ghibli attention in the West for the first time.

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (母をたずねて三千里, Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri) is a Japanese anime television series directed by Isao Takahata and aired in 1976. It is loosely based on a small part of the novel Heart (Cuore) by Edmondo De Amicis and expanded into a 52-episode epic. The series was broadcast on the World Masterpiece Theater, an animation staple that showcased each year an animated version of a different classic book or story, and was originally titled "From the Apennines to the Andes". Nippon Animation, producers of the World Masterpiece Theater, would adapt Cuore into a second TV anime series in 1981, although this second series was not part of the WMT.

A summarization movie was released in the 1980s using edited footage from the TV run. Nippon Animation also re-animated 3000 Leagues as a feature-length film in 1999, with a theme song performed by Scottish pop superstar Sheena Easton ("Carry a Dream", which was included in her 1999 album called Home that was only released in Japan).

The series was dubbed into several languages and became an instant success in some countries, such as Portugal, Brazil, Peru, Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Germany, Chile, Turkey, Malaysia, the Arab world and Israel.