Miyazaki's long time colleague and another leading head of Ghibli. Unlike Miyazaki, Takahata started his career as a director from the beginning. Born in 1935, he graduated from the most prestigious University in Japan, Tokyo University, and joined the newly founded animation studio, Toei Doga in 1959 (an interesting career move to say the least). He and Miyazaki became friends through the animators' union at Toei Doga, of which Miyazaki was a chairman, and Takahata was a vice chairman. His first movie, "Horus: The Prince of the Sun" (1968) is still considered as one of the greatest pieces of Japanese animation. Miyazaki worked as an animator for this movie, providing numerous ideas.

Takahata and Miyazaki kept on working as a director-animator team, for great many masterpieces of anime such as "Lupin III", "Heidi", "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother" and "Anne of Green Gables". When Tokuma approached Miyazaki about making "Nausicaa" into a movie, the only condition Miyazaki asked for was to have Takahata as the producer. This was the first time Takahata ever worked as a producer but he did a great job. He also produced the next Miyazaki movie, "Laputa", and then directed his first Ghibli movie, "Grave of the Fireflies" in 1988. Since then, he directed "Only Yesterday" and "Pom Poko", worked as the music director of "Kiki", and produced "I Can Hear the Sea".

• Filmography
• Interview
• Booklist

Mr. Kondo passed away at 4:25am, January 21st, 1998, in Tokyo Tachikawa City Hospital, victim of an aneurysm. He was 47 years of age. Eulogies by Miyazaki and Takahata, along with more information about Mr. Kondo's death and funeral, are also available.

The character Shizuku, from Whisper of the Heart (directed by Mr. Kondo).

Born on March 31st, 1950, Kondo had worked for Miyazaki and Takahata from the early part of his career as an animator at A Pro. He was the animation supervisor of "Anne of Green Gables", "Grave of the Fireflies", "Kiki", and "Only Yesterday". He also did character design for "Grave of the Fireflies". He worked as a technical director for "Sorairo no Tane" in 1992. In 1995, he directed "Whisper of the Heart", which was his directing debut. He also worked as one of the supervising animators of Mononoke Hime.

• Filmography by Mitsuhiro Wada

No relation to Yoshifumi Kondo, Katsuya Kondo is one of the top animators at Ghibli. Born in 1963, he has been working for Ghibli movies since "Laputa". He was the animation director of "Kiki", "Only Yesterday" (making things more complicated, Kondo Yoshifumi was also the animation director of these movies), and "I Can Hear the Sea". He also did character design of "Kiki" and "I Can Hear the Sea". He also worked for Mononoke Hime.

Oga has been the art director of Ghibli movies such as "Totoro", "Only Yesterday", "Pom Poko", and "Mononoke Hime". He recently published his first art book, "Oga Kazuo Gashu", with works he did for Ghibli movies.

• Oga Kazuo Page

Hisaishi composed the beautiful and unforgettable music for "Nausicaa", "Laputa", "Kiki", and "Porco Rosso". His music plays a very important part in these movies. He also did the music for "Mononoke Hime". It was Takahata who "discovered" Hisaishi for "Nausicaa". Before that, he was composing minimal music.

• Discography                                 
• Hisaishi Page                                
• Official Home Page  

A color designer and the chief of ink and paint division of Ghibli. She is an old colleague of Miyazaki and Takahata, since the start of their careers. She is responsible for choosing the beautiful colors in Ghibli movies. Recently, her work was highlighted in a book, "Animation no Iro Shokunin (The Color Artisan of Animation".

As a producer and executive managing director of Ghibli, Suzuki has been a force behind the Ghibli's success. According to Miyazaki, "If it were not for Mr. Suzuki, there wouldn't have been Studio Ghibli". Born in 1948, he was an editor of "Animage", one of the committee members to make "Nausicaa", and was involved in all the Ghibli movies after that. He later became the chief editor, and then officially moved to Ghibli in 1989. He has been a producer of all the Ghibli movies since then.

Born in 1958, Mochizuki is one of the prominent directors of the new generation, and is famous for doing sensitive love stories. He has directed animation films and OVAs such as "Kimagure Orange Road the movie: I Want to Return to Those Days", "Maison Ikkoku, the Movie", and "Here is Greenwood". He is not a member of Ghibli, but was chosen to direct its first TV movie, "Umi ga Kikoeru (I Can Hear the Sea)". The project was for the young staff members, and Ghibli wanted a young director to direct it.

Mochizuki is a big fan of HIMURO Saeko, the author of "Umi", and he once proposed to make "Umi" into anime when it had been serialized in "Animage", a Japanese Anime magazine. His wish was later granted, although Ghibli's choice of him as director was unrelated to his earlier proposal.

At that time, he was already committed to direct the "Here is Greenwood" OVA series, but he did not want to pass up the opportunity. He decided to take on both projects. During production, he was hospitalized due to an overwork related illness, but he somehow managed to finish the jobs. Both "Here is Greenwood" and "Umi ga Kikoeru" are considered masterpieces by many fans.

The director of "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer", "Angel's Egg", "Patlabor (1&2)" and "Ghost in the Shell". Born in 1951, Oshii is considered as one of the leading directors of the younger generation. Oshii's movies are darker and more cynical than Miyazaki's. Yet, Oshii and Miyazaki are good friends. Oshii has been offered a director's job at Ghibli several times, but the projects were never realized.

• Interview: Oshii speaks about Miyazaki and Takahata
• Interview: Miyazaki and Oshii discuss Patlabor 2
• Manga: "Fearsome Takuwan Rock Head", by Oshii about Miyazaki, page 1 and 2

A long time partner of Miyazaki, Otsuka worked as the animation director of "Horus: The Prince of the Sun", "Lupin III (the first TV series)", "Lupin III, the Castle of Cagliostro", and "Future Boy Conan". Born in 1931, he is now fostering young animators at Telecom Animation Film.

• Home Page by Miyazaki Takahata Film Laboratory (in Japanese, but with some beautiful graphics).