Friends and rivals

Born in 1935 in Mie prefecture in central Japan, his early life was marked with violence when US forces bombed his hometown in June 1945 as World War II was coming to a close.

In an interview with the Japan Times, he described fleeing with his sister barefoot and still in his pyjamas.

On his way back to the family house, he recalled seeing piles of bodies in the street. “We were lucky to get out alive,” he told the newspaper.

Takahata started his career in animation at the Toei studio in 1959, where he eventually met long-term collaborator and rival Miyazaki.

With Miyazaki, he co-founded in 1985 the Japanese animation Studio