Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki

Isao Takahata (b.1935) had been an assistant director and manager at Toei Animation for four years when a young Hayao Miyazaki (b.1941) arrived straight from university. Miyazaki served on work-groups for Wolf Boy Ken (1963-1965), on which Takahata worked as director. After collaborating on Takahata's feature directorial debut Little Norse Prince (1968), they left Toei for A Production in 1971, where they stayed until 1973. That year they both moved to Zuiyo Eizo, the staff of which later established themselves independently as Nippon Animation.

After Miyazaki's directorial feature debut,Castle of Cagliostro (1979), he hired Takahata as producer on Nausicaä (1984). The movie's success allowed them to set up Studio Ghibli to make Castle in the Sky(1986), followed by two films on a double bill: Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro (1988).