Takanashi was born in
Tokyo, in 1963. At the age of 18, he began playing
keyboard, later working as the
keyboardist for the band Hellen. In 1993, he formed the group Planet Earth with a Hellen's
guitarist and others, releasing the album
Big Bang in the same year. In the late 1990s, he joined Musashi Project, a
rock band which features
traditional Japanese musical instruments. In 2002, alongside Musashi and
Toshio Masuda, he made his debut as a composer in the anime series
Naruto, writing the track "Sadness and Sorrow". He is currently the leader of the group Yaiba, which co-composes some of Takanashi's soundtrack works. Takanashi has received the
JASRAC International Award for the soundtrack of
Naruto Shippuden five times—in 2013, 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2021. ==Works==