Age: 4 (Digimon movie part one), 8 (Digimon 01), 11 (Digimon 02), 14 (Digimon Tri.), 19 (Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna), 20 (Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning)

Takeru is the youngest Chosen Child out of the core seven. He is gentle, sweet-natured, and generous. He is also obedient and follows the Chosen Children's lead without complaints. He is also described as Hikari Yagami's "equal."

Takeru is the only Chosen Child to not attend the same school as the rest of the others initially due to living in Sangenjaya instead of Odaiba. He is younger brother of Yamato, but lives with his mother, journalist Natsuko Takaishi, instead due to a divorce between their parents.

Although Takeru was too young to remember the events of the divorce clearly, he is still affected by it and does not like to openly talk about it. Despite the distance between him and Yamato, he admires Yamato greatly and tries to be brave to "impress" him, although he begins to open up to the other Chosen Children as well, particularly Taichi.

In the sequel, Digimon Adventure 02, Takeru and his mother relocate to a new apartment building in Odaiba, where he becomes neighbors with Iori Hida and Miyako Inoue. Although he has gotten remarkably taller, his gentle personality has not changed and it makes him popular with the girls at school. He is also said to have "inherited reliability from Yamato." In addition to this, Takeru becomes the star player on his school's basketball team.