Isao Takahata

A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka

Open details →

NHK documentary about "Grave of the Fireflies" and 7 notebooks written by Isao Takahata that were found after his death. The film was based on a novel, but also on the director's personal experience, who fled the bombings with his sister.

Open details →

A documentary that focuses on Hayao Miyazaki’s deep connection to nature and the environmental themes expressed through his films.

Open details →

A documentary that chronicles the making of The Boy and the Heron, filmed with exclusive access to Studio Ghibli across an astonishing seven years.

Open details →

A documentary produced by NHK following the production of "The Boy & The Heron" over 7 years.

Open details →

A chronicle of the creative process of the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a passionate artisan, a steadfast trailblazer, and a father butting heads with his son…

Open details →

A short documentary dedicated to |sao Takahata, composed of archive images, released following his death in April 2018.

Open details →

Documentary about Yasuo Otsuka, famous Japanese animator and mentor of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Featuring interviews with Japanese animation legends such as Masaaki Osumi, Youichi Kotabe, Sadao Tsukioka and Isao Takahata.

Open details →

For his first film in fourteen years, animation director Isao Takahata embarked on a visually sumptuous adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. A dream project for the director that would hopefully establish the recently formed Ghibli Studio 7, created to meet the demands of a new type of modern animation process. But, almost immediately, the epic production is faced with difficulties and falls dramatically behind schedule. In this compelling and insightful documentary, we follow Isao Takahata and his dedicated team of artists as they frantically strive against adversity to make their vision a reality and bring Studio Ghibli into a new era.

Open details →

Aki Asakura, an actress who played the voice of Princess Kaguya, travels around Japan to visit the scenery that appeared in Takahata's work. The documentary also includes an interview with Director Takahata. This documentary is composed from the fragments of a program, aired by BS Nippon Television TV station on the 1st of January 2014, dedicated to the release of The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Open details →

Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.

Open details →

In this documentary we travel to the Swiss Alps and to the Canadian Prince Edward Island looking at the origins of the two classic TV series - Heidi, the Girl of the Alps and Anne of Green Gables. We will also learn how the Japanese scenery found its way into the latter. As the documentary was released as part of the From up on Poppy Hill promotion, a portion of it is dedicated to Yokohama, where the events of the film by Goro Miyazaki take place.

Open details →

This documentary by Hubert Niogret looks at the revival of Japanese cinema during the 1990s.

Open details →

This August 2010 NHK documentary explores the influence of selected children's literature on Miyazaki and Takahata's body of work and on Studio Ghibli as a whole. Also included is a conversation between Miyazaki and Japanese author and TV personality Sawako Agawa.

Open details →

From July 21 through September 10th, 2007, the Museum for Contemporary Art Tokyo held an exhibition honouring Kazuo Oga, the art director and background artist for many famed works from Japan's Studio Ghibli. Over 600 works from the artist were on display, and numerous fans flocked to the one-of-a-kind exhibition celebrating the lush, gorgeous background artwork typifying many a work from Hayao Miyazaki and other Ghibli filmmakers. International fans of Oga and Studio Ghibli have not been left out, however. A Ghibli Artisan - Kazuo Oga Exhibition - The One Who Drew Totoro's Forest allows fans the opportunity to attend the exhibition, as well as watch interviews and testimonials with Oga's contemporaries and collaborators, all subtitled in English.

Open details →

A documentary about the Ghibli Museum. It features Goro Miyazaki speaking with Isao Takahata about the "charm" of the museum and its various influences. Goro tours the viewer around the museum, explaining the intricate details that his father, Hayao Miyazaki made during its construction. The documentary highlights the strong European influences in the museum's architecture, featuring footage of the medieval mountainous city of Calcata in Italy and the historic port city of Genoa, which Miyazaki had visited in the past. These trips would go on to influencing the imagery seen in Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Spirited Away.

Open details →

Studio Ghibli is Japan's most successful animation studio, with helmers Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro") and Isao Takahata ("Grave of The Fireflies," "The Tale of Princess Kaguya") creating a bonanza for producer/prexy Toshio Suzuki. Generously adorned with clips from their films and their influences, the docu follows Ghibli's arc from a mid-'60s rebellion against working conditions at Toei Co. to its present powerhouse position, complete with public fun park. All interviews are illuminating, but Miyazaki is teasingly confined to pic's tete-a-tete finale with esteemed French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud. Meeting of the wizened European, whose imprint is on films from "Blade Runner" to "The Fifth Element," and the apparently relaxed Nipponese helmer makes an interesting contrast, and will be of special interest to Francophiles. All credits are impeccable

Open details →

Open details →

Yasuo Ōtsuka was the mentor of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, the man who taught them to feel the joy of animation. As the supervising animator of their films and through the creation of superb scenes such as Lupin leaping from turret to turret in Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro, Ōtsuka made the impossible believable, and touched people’s emotions. To look back at the many works he was involved in is to review the history of Japanese animation after WWII. This film is a must for anime fans who want to learn how Japanese animation evolved.

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

A promotional film by Studio Ghibli about the work on the film "The Cat Returns" (directed by Hiroyuki Morita)

Open details →

Nippon Television "Super TV Information Frontline Exclusive Coverage of 15 Months! The Secrets of the Rumored Movie "My Neighbors the Yamadas""

Open details →

A documentary film following Isao Takahata to Canada to meet Frédéric Back.

Open details →

A contemporary look at the creation and evolution of Studio Ghibli, from ‘The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun’ (1968) to ‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997).

Open details →

A making of documentary on the Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday

Open details →

An educational documentary series covering a wide range of topics including social issues, culture, arts, science, and history, and featuring in-depth analysis and interviews.

Open details →

A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka

Open details →

The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.

Open details →

Open details →

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

Open details →

The Yamadas are a typical middle class Japanese family in urban Tokyo and this film shows us a variety of episodes of their lives. With tales that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking, we see this family cope with life's little conflicts, problems, and joys in their own way.

Open details →

The Raccoons of the Tama Hills are being forced from their homes by the rapid development of houses and shopping malls. As it becomes harder to find food and shelter, they decide to band together and fight back. The Raccoons practice and perfect the ancient art of transformation until they are even able to appear as humans in hilarious circumstances.

Open details →

In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko contemplates the arc of her life, and wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.

Open details →

In this movie that summarizes the first six episodes of Anne of Green Gables, we follow the story of Anne, an orphan full of imagination. When she arrives at her new home, she learns that sometimes you have to be a sensible person, while her unique character changes, or at least attracts, the people around her.

Open details →

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

Open details →

The story of Au Aurka is set in the hinterland of Tokyo in the eighties. The protagonists are two girls who have a dream that then becomes reality. Produced by Iso Takahata in 1988, the film was positively received by Italian critics

Open details →

A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.

Open details →

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

Open details →

Gauche is a diligent but mediocre cellist who plays for a small town orchestra and the local cinema in the early 20th century. He struggles during rehearsals and is often berated by his conductor during preparations for an upcoming performance of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. Over the course of four nights, Gauche is visited at his mill house home by talking animals as he is practicing.

Open details →

Chie Takemoto is a dependable girl who struggles to help her troublesome father run a small tavern in Osaka. Unbeknown to her dad, she occasionally visits her mother who left him not too long ago. She plans on trying to reunite them, but not until her father gets a job.

Open details →

A young Italian boy named Marco is devastated when his mother must leave home to work in Argentina to pay off the family debt. She sends the family letters, but soon the messages stop coming, which worries Marco and sets him off on an epic quest to find her.

Open details →

Anne Shirley is a freckle-faced, red-haired girl, who grows up in an orphanage having lost her parents at a very early age. Anne is always cheerful and fun-loving despite being brought up without love or affection. When she turns 11, she is adopted by the old farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla. Anne starts her new life at Green Gables, but actually the Cuthberts wanted a boy who could help with their work on the farm...

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

TV pilot based on an original manga by Tetsuya Chiba, about a 10-year old girl named Yuki. An orphan who's being adopted by a family.

Open details →