Makoto Shinkai stands today amongst the greatest visionaries in Japan’s animation scene. He has been called the next Miyazaki (in reference to Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli fame who brought us beloved childhood memories like Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro) but his feature-length stand on their own as works of not only narrative excellence but as paragons of visual and animation mastery. Shinkai’s work was relatively niche during the late 90s to 2000s but his film Kimi no No Wa (Your Name) in 2016 launched him into the mainstream, grossing $380 million worldwide and cemented him as a household name among anime and western animation fans.
The signature themes of a Shinkai picture strongly centers around young (and at times, hopeless) love as well as a strong affinity to the elements of nature to which the characters are at the mercy of; in Kotonoha no Niwa (Garden of Words) it was the spring showers and in Byosoku Go Senchimetoru (5 Centimeters per Second) it was a snowstorm. His earliest professional work, Hoshi no Koe(Voices of a Distant Star) despite its veneer of mecha, space travel and alien wars, codified much of what a Shinkai film engenders thematically: an intense melodrama portrayed by stylistically enhanced animated characters, a powerful Japanese written score, and the intimacy of human connections all with a backdrop of a juxtaposition of an industrialized Japan milieu with that of brilliant open skies and green countryside.
What sets Makoto Shinkai’s films apart from the many other masters of animated feature length films like Mamoru Hosada and Satoshi Kon is his production’s technical prowess. Employing state of the art techniques and software to composite 3D textured environments with 2D CG animated characters which his most recent blockbuster success Tenki no Ko (Weathering with You) ambitiously making use of, Shinkai’s production team has been able to create eye pleasing sweeping camera movements to go along with the vibrantly colored and dynamically animated scenes.
Makoto Shinkai’s filmography is one that should not go unnoticed by both film critics of our era and by general audiences seeking a delightful experience that feels somewhere between the grounded world we are all too familiar with and the magical sensation one feels in the pursuit of love and the impossible.
1. Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name) - 2016
Your Name may be Shinkai’s most outstanding and significant work to date. It stands as both exemplary of the wacky and whimsical culture of the anime industry and of clever storytelling with many twists and conflicts presenting themselves but one which the characters are not merciless to seize and take control of.
The story follows Mitsuha, a girl living in Japan’s countryside and Taki, a boy who resides in Tokyo. In a strange twist of fate, the two wake up, body-swapped. In an attempt to figure out the phenomenon, they are forced to live out each others’ lives… creating a net benefit for both. They attempt to reach one another to no avail with leaving notes in each other’s surroundings before they wake up in their own bodies the next day as the only means of communicating to one another. Eventually they arrange to meet only to realize they missed each other by 3 years-- Mitsuha perished when her town was wiped out by a meteorite.
Your Name takes the boy-meets-girl narrative and turns it on its head. It features imagery of both destruction and the beautiful cities and countries of Tokyo in a larger-than-life style with the CG painted excellence you would expect of a Shinkai film. Many Japanese critics however came down on it harshly, with manga artist Tatsuya Egawa panning the film as trite and a departure from Shinkai’s true signature. Shinkai himself responded to criticism panning the film as generic and trend riding leading to its worldwide success that his production team worked hard in earnest to create the complex but grounded plot as well as the incredible technical feats in CGI and that the production was not a “sell out” as some have claimed.
2. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star) - 2002
Voices of a Distant Star was the first of Makoto Shinkai’s commercially produced films which he himself developed, wrote and animated after publisher Manga Zoo reached out, prompting the then web graphics developer to leave his job at Falcom to pursue animation. It follows the take of a young girl named Mikako who is thrust into a draft by a space military branch to fight in a war against aliens. She is equipped with a mecha, a robot battle suit, and embarks on her journey to mars while she transmits messages to Noboru, a close friend. As time begins to dilate and her messages take longer to reach earth, she leaves a final message to Noboru after the battle professing her love for him as she drifts into space, trapped in her damaged mecha.
While this film is very different setting-wise from the films Shinkai would become well known for, he masterfully presents a fantastical portrait of space travel, aliens planetscapes and picturesque science fiction machinery. The sorrowful portrayal of two very close people separated by space travel precedes that which was seen in Interstellar.
3. Tenki no Ko (Weathering with You) - 2019
The story follows a young adolescent, Hodoka Morishima who runs away from home to the big city of Tokyo. There, he meets a detective Keisuke Suga who gives him a room and job and a young girl around his age, Hina Amano. Through a series of misadventures mostly in evading the police who are looking for him, Hodoka and Hina discover Hina’s ability to dispel bad weather through a prayer ritual… with very dire and supernatural consequences. While the story de-emphasizes the themes of romance, Shinkai once again places two seemingly ordinary adolescents in predicament involving weather-- this time with very tangible supernatural elements.
Being faithful to his style, Shinkai’s production team weaves a coming of age story together with the gorgeous backdrop of Tokyo’s modern cityscape and suburbs in both rain and shine. Upon release, it received great acclaim worldwide earning $193 million in the box office and making a splash in the animation industry, earning awards worldwide including Best Animation of 2020 from the Award of the Japanese Academy. Film critic Simon Abrams called it a “perfect entry point… for animation fans… looking for the next Pixar or… Miyazaki.”
4. Z-Kai: Cross Road - 2014
Cross Road is a commercial directed by Makoto Shinkai specially for Z-Kai, an education company in Japan but its story speaks levels in terms of Shinkai’s style and should not go unwatched. Fate itself plays a small but very present role in many of Shinkai’s films. In the case of Cross Road, we are presented with an unnamed boy and girl of high school age from different parts of the country. We are taken through an unbiased perspective of both their mundane lives as students but throughout the short animated piece, we see scenes where they are both present but unbeknownst to one another until the very end where they, by happenstance they bump into one another on the day the entrance exam test scores are posted. There is an implied romantic spark between the two which seemingly answers the questions both characters independently ask at the very start. Audiences on many streaming platforms where it would later be reuploaded praised its animation and directing with many requesting a full feature length adaptation to be made.
5. Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (She and Her Cat) - 1999
One of Shinkai’s earliest works (preceding even that of Voices from a Distant Star), Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko is narrated from the limited perspective of a cat who talks about the affection he has for his owner, a young woman and the day to day life he undergoes as a housecat. At one point in the film, the young woman is grief stricken by something the cat cannot comprehend but revels in the relative comfort that they take in each other’s company. As an earlier Shinkai work, it is unsurprising that it lacks the romantic melodrama of his later works but it still embodies, despite also being a black and white film, much of the beautiful visual material in the manner a Japanese city (and in the case of this film, the interior of an apartment) is composed. This short film won Shinkai Best Animation at DoGA Animation 2000 and while it was not key to his debuting as a career filmmaker, it served as the birth of his style and a proof of his artistic prowess.
6. Kumo no Muko, Yakusuko no Basho
(The Place Promised in Our Early Days) - 2004
Likely Makoto Shinkai’s most complex films, The Place Promised in Our Early Days takes place in an alternate history where Japan is split in two post world war II (similar to how Germany was). There are two plots with the story being told in intersticed segments and in a nonlinear fashion: the first follows a crush between and young boy and girl, Hiroki and Sayuri and the other taking place years into the future where Hiroki is a young man who is thrust into a world of conspiracy where an ultra-nationalist organization plans to destroy a quantum mechanics experimentation tower at the border and begin a war with northern Japan (known as Ezo) to reunify the country.
While the film is in greater parts, an espionage thriller, there is an ever present romantic motivation for the main character Hiroki to help the ultra-nationalists carry out their plan because Sayuri’s coma is directly linked to the tower. The beautiful nature and cityscape backdrops are present in the film as well, symbolically marred with the technology of this setting’s alternate timeline. His first feature length animation won him Best Animation at the 2005 Mainichi Film Concours.
7. Byosoku Go Senchimetoru (5 Centimeters per Second) - 2007
A somber tale of young love brought to its knees by forces outside of both character’s control. The story follows the life of a boy and girl named Takaki and Akari who meet in elementary school. They grow up together but are separated due to Akari’s family moving. They attempt to keep in touch through letters and even more drastically, at one point Takaki fights his way through a snowstorm and a delayed train ride to meet with her at a cold and lonely station at a halfway point and they kiss before they part, never to formally meet again. The human element is very apparent in this film with the endless pursuit of a fragile romance that was never meant to be.
Even as one of Shinkai’s earlier films, it is a stunning visual exhibition that holds its own in his entire filmography with the stunning scene of a rocket launch leaving an occluded shadow in the wake of its smoke trail up through a beautifully CG painted dusk sky standing out in my memory. Jeff Shannon of the Seattle Times praised the film as well as Director Shinkai as a “poet of heartbreak” and 5 Centimeters per Second would go on to winning Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Award in 2007.
8. Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (Children Who Chase Lost Voices) - 2011
Hoshi o Ou Kodomo is perhaps Makoto Shinkai’s most expansive film in terms of the themes it explores as well as its worldbuilding in general. It follows the tale of an ordinary country girl named Asuna who finds herself mysteriously drawn into the underworld of Agartha after she finds herself involved in the death of a mysterious boy named Shun who saves her from a corrupted Quetzelcoatl, or guardian of Agartha. From there she embarks on a journey with her teacher, Mr. Morizaki who grows to be a father figure to her. They seek to bring back the lives of their loved ones, for him, his dead wife Lisa and for her, Shun, the boy she fell in love with.
In many scenes in the Japanese countryside, we see remnants of old war turrets from World War II that have been completely overtaken by ivy. In a similar sense, the people of Agatha, primitive but magic-central tribes reference imperialism from the overworld that threatened the existence of their world in many ages past from human emperors and tyrants. The film also makes numerous references to the guardians and gods described by many cultures: the Quatzelcoatl of Latin legend, to the Shakuna Vimana of Hinduism. Critic Luke Halliday noted the importance of the magic of films, as demonstrative of Children Who Chase Lost Voices, to breakthrough to new generations of film enjoyers, particularly younger audiences.
9. Dareka no Manazashi (Someone’s Gaze) - 2013
A short film in Shinkai’s body of works that stands out not as a particularly strong romance piece but a piece about familial bonds and the sadness that comes with losing a dear pet. The story centers around a young woman named Aya who has grown apart from her father with her distant mother who works overseas narrating. After word reaches her about the death of their family cat Mii by her father, she goes to visit where she rekindles much of her respect and love for her father. Much of the story is occupied with snippets from Aya’s life showing how she has grown apart from the people and pet that love her the most. The film concludes with the entire family reuniting and the father adopting a brand new kitten.
While the artistic style of this film is more cutesy and caricatured rather than photorealistically masterful, it serves as a glowing example of how Makoto Shinkai’s signature can still be seen through that incredibly realistically portrayed human relationship as well as a different coming of age or turning point in a character’s life outside of a romantic context. While it saw limited release on its own, it was later streamed from various online platforms as well as packaged with other Shinkai films. Critic Megumi Sawai praised it along with others citing its incredible emotional impact for its short runtime.
Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words) - 2013
The Garden of Words brings two strangers, a high schooler and a grown woman together at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden when they both seemingly cut class and skip work respectively on a day where the april showers set in. They quickly form a friendly bond, and for the young man, a one-sided romantic affection as they grow closer during their meetings. The theme of nature entwining with the lives of these two characters that toys with their fates-- at one point in the film, a long dry spell prevented the two from meeting again. The romance we witness too is a hopeless one too not from the dilation of time or distance but rather an age gap and an unwillingness for both parties to open up to one another.
The Garden of Words saw limited worldwide screenings being that it was not a fully feature length film, however it received wide distribution through Sentai Filmworks, a distributor of anime home media and saw incredible success on payment based streaming services like iTunes in 2013 where it became animation of the year. Film critic Lindsey Nelson praised Shinkai’s ability to transfigure the seemingly mundane city of Tokyo into a larger than life and vibrant setting while others praised the extreme photorealism and color toning that went into the film’s visual presentation. Critic Curtis Stone also praised the voice acting (famed voice actress Kana Hanazawa was cast alongside Miyu Irino) and the broad range of emotions both leading talents were able to convey.
Disclaimer: I screened every one of these films/short films from beginning to end myself in their respective original language but took to additional research to understand some of the film's underlying messages and some critics' voices regarding the film's success or mixed reception.
Works Cited