Isao Takahata’s importance in the foundation of Studio Ghibli, and the history of anime as a whole, really can’t be underestimated. Having broken into the industry in the 1960s, when he joined Toei Animation, the studio where he first met a young Hayao Miyazaki.

Takahata gradually climbed the ranks at Toei through the mid-1960s, directing TV episodes of Wolf Boy Ken before making his feature debut with Horus, Prince Of The Sun. It was here that Takahata first collaborated with Miyazaki, who was then working as a key frame animator but also contributed many of the ideas for the film’s major set-pieces.

Prince Of The Sun wasn’t a hit – Takahata was even demoted following its financial failure – but it was a vital step in the director’s career as an filmmaker. By the 1970s, Takahata and Miyazaki had left Toei and begun working on such projects as Lupin III, Heidi, Girl Of The Alps, and Panda! Go Panda!

Takahata continued to direct through the 1970s and early 80s; his adaptation of 3000 Leagues In Search Of Mother and Anne Of Green Gableswere successes on television, yet his time on the big-screen film Little Nemo in 1982 sadly came to nothing. (The disappointingLittle Nemo: Adventures In Slumberlandfinally emerged in 1989; we can only wonder, based on animation excerpts, what Takahata and Miyazaki’s version might have been like.)