Originally released in 1988, the wait is over for the UK release of this anime classic, superb animated feature from the Studio Ghibli studio (Miyazaki's animation stable). What sets this film apart from the fantastical films made in the tradition of his peers, it its historical and emotional realism. The focus in Takahata's film is on the story of its two young protagonists, brother and sister Seita and Setsuko, as they flee the destruction of their home and family after the American firebombin find out more...

As a young boy, the bespectacled Jiro Horikoshi dreams of flying a plane but when he learns he will be unable to become a pilot due to his poor eyesight, he instead decides to be an aircraft designer. On September 1st 1923 Jiro is travelling by train when the Great Kanto earthquake strikes. He assists fellow passenger Naoko and her maid who suffers an injury. He doesn't meet Naoko again till many years later and the two fall in love but she is suffering from tuberculosis and while they try to find out more...