Makoto Shinkai
Birthday: February 9, 1973
Notable Works: Your Name, The Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters Per Second
Makoto Shinkai has been called “the new Miyazaki,” and he has outright rejected the title. I can’t say I blame him. That title comes with quite a burden, and in some ways its disrespectful to both creators.
But I think the two men also have drastic differences in terms of approaches and interests. Miyazaki is old-fashioned, animating by hand long after the tradition has fallen out of favor. Shinkai has animated via computer his entire career. Miyazaki’s filmography is predominantly targeted toward young girls. Shinkai’s work skews toward older young adult audiences. Miyazaki focuses on narratives of personal growth and external conflicts. Shinkai focuses on relationships.
What the two men do have in common are auteur sensibilities that often turn into micromanaging and histories of producing beautiful, painstakingly detailed works.
Shinkai loved anime and manga as a kid. His favorite anime is Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky. He studied Japanese literature at Chuo University, thus the wealth of literary themes and references in his works.
From Chuo he made the unusual leap to making video clips for gaming studio Falcom in 1994. This jump was facilitated in part by his participation in a club that created manga and picture books while at Chuo.
In 1999, he created his award-winning short film She and Her Cat, a black and white short from the perspective of a cat. The following year, he would begin work on Voices of a Distant Star, and quit his job at Falcom to focus on the new film full time in 2001.
Shinkai’s backgrounds have always been lovingly realized. They’re usually created by drawing over photos in Photoshop. His character models and animation, though, have evolved over time. In his early works, the character models are rough and amateurish at best, but by The Garden of Words Shinkai has found his footing there.
I get the impression that a lot of Shinkai’s filmography is introspective. He’s said before that he needs to be able to relate and to feel grounded in a concept to make it work, and it seems that many of the relationships at the core of his works are inspired by his own past relationships.
What most excites me about Shinkai, though, is his potential. Shinkai is sure that he and his team can do better than global phenomenon Your Name. And he’s only 45, if he follows in the footsteps of Miyazaki and others he has plenty of time to make good on that.
At 45, Miyazaki was just starting up Studio Ghibli with Takahata and Suzuki. He had a handful of TV directorial credits to his name, and he had directed The Castle of Cagliostro and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The majority of his directorial oeuvre was ahead of him, including Spirited Away, often considered his magnum opus.
It’s exciting to think that Shinkai could have another three decades of improvement and innovation ahead of him, and I’m optimistic about whatever he does next.
Tomorrow we start on Mamoru Hosoda with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Until tomorrow!
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