Summary

Makoto Shinkai is one of the most renowned Japanese anime directors nowadays. He is often compared to Hayao Miyazaki (and his movies are also often compared to Ghibli’s titles), despite having a totally different style, not only in art (though it can remind Ghibli a bit), but also in how he handles his plots.

In a way, his movies are very “Shinkai-ish”. There are recurring themes in his works, so if you’ve watched a few of his movies, you will likely recognize others as his, even without being told in advance that they are by Shinkai. This is not a bad thing, quite the opposite. It means he has his own distinctive style. But it also means that if you don’t like a few of his movies, you likely won’t like the rest.

His most recent work isSuzume, a 2022 movie that was nominated at the Golden Globes and Annie Awards (which has been dubbed “the Oscars for animation”). But that might change soon. He posted on New Year thatthis year he plans to share information on a new movie he’s been working on:

Here’s a translation of his post:

Happy New Year! I spent 2024 working on a new movie. I’m happy to work hard with my colleagues to build from scratch a new world no one has seen yet. I’ll do my best to be able to share information on it this year. I hope 2025 will be a peaceful year for all of you.

Box Office Performance and Nominations

Suzume, Your Name and More

Shinkai has been working as a movie writer and director since 1998, including5 Centimeters per Second, The Garden of Words, Your Name, Weathering with YouandSuzume.Apart from his original features, he has also directed openings and trailers for a few games, likeThe Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean(1999),Ys II Eternal(2000) andEf: A Fairy Tale of the Two(2006).

Hismost famous work perhaps is stillYour Name(2016), which became a huge commercial hit in Japan, grossing over ¥25.17 billion. Back then, it became the second highest-grossing movie in Japanese cinema history, right behind Miyazaki’sSpirited Away(todayDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Mugen Trainis in first place). It also gained a lot of international attention, including from cinema critics, an achievement usually hard for anime movies that are not made by Ghibli. It wasn’t nominated for the Oscars, though.

In 2019,Weathering with Youwas released in Japan, earning over ¥12 billion at the box office.Suzumewas released in 2022, earning ¥14.94 billion, butalso gaining huge international traction. Despite being the 11th highest-grossing movie of all time in the Japanese box office,Suzumeis the fourth highest-grossing Japanese movie worldwide (behindMugen Train,Your Name,andSpirited Awayrespectively).

Suzumeis available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.