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Red

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Yellow

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Green

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Purple

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Pink

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According to The Mainichi and Asahi News, Yasuda passed away on October 5 due to an illness. She retired in 2008, but returned to work on 2013's The Wind Rises, her last film. 

At the bottom of this old Japanese magazine scan, it says that staffers said she was “scarier than Miyazaki,” but adds that actually, she was an incredibly kind person. 

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In 2009, Yasuda talked about her process with The Los Angeles Times, saying “When the production starts, I choose the colors for each character. Colors don’t have a specific meaning—I just choose which color fits each character. The reason Ponyo is pink—or red—is because she’s based on a red goldfish. In the scene where Ponyo is running on the waves, the color of the fish that transform into waves, I found that color on my first try. For that, I chose a color that can be both the fish and the sea simultaneously.”

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“What I like best is when I am building up the colors in my head, thinking of how to get the tone worked out,” she says. “Color has a meaning, and it makes the film more easily understood. Colors and pictures can enhance what the situation is on screen.”

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They sure can. And thanks to Yasuda, Studio Ghibli’s films are the better for it.

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