Very few directors ever reach the level that Miyazaki has achieved. Makoto Shinkai is one of those directors who is considered to be the next Miyazaki. This is primarily due to his versatility as he was a former graphic designer who became a manga artist, voice actor, cinematographer, editor, animator, producer, writer, and Japanese director all before the age of 40. It is clear in each of his works that every role he has held has helped him to produce some of the best anime that is currently available to watch. While Shinkai is achieving success with his latest film, Your Name, and rightfully so, he has many other works that must be seen, if call your-self an anime fan.
Voice of a Distant Star (2002):
Voices of a Distant Star, is considered to be Shinkai’s first big project in 2002. As the story focuses on a schoolgirl named Mikaki Nagamine who is recruited by the UN Space Army to fight a war against aliens called the Tarsians. Mikaki pilots a giant robotic Mecha, called a Tracer, to fight and kill aliens. Eventually Mikaki leaves earth. and her friend Noboru, but agrees to stay in contact with him through email. As she goes deeper into space it takes increasingly longer for their messages to reach one another, sometimes taking years. Mikaki receives a message almost 9 years after she sent one to Noboru, as she is entering a final battle against the Tarsians. In receiving this message it gives her the ability to want to keep fighting, where she saves her ship from being destroyed. After the battle she realizes that the UN has sent out a rescue mission and Noboru has enlisted for the mission. This confirms that the two will meet again after spending so much time communicating through email.
Considering that this is Shinkai’s first work he delivers an excellent story that is based on love with a twist. This twist is the two characters that are in love are communicating through email and are physically separated by time and distance. By doing this Shinkai challenges the definition of love and in many ways redefines it as being boundless as time, distance, and lack of human interaction with each other has not prevented their relationship. Rather, it has strengthened it. Furthermore, Shinkai almost single handily developed, wrote, produced, drew, and animated this project over the course of 7 months. This shows that he understands at every stage of a project what needs to be done to make it a good project. Voices of a Distant Star is the anime that launched Shinkai’s career, as it has allowed him to show off his story telling and technical abilities.
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004):
Following the success of Voices of a Distant Star, Shinkai got the opportunity to write, produce, and direct The Place Promised in Our Early Days. The film focuses on three teenagers, Hiroki, Takuya, and Sayuri in 1974 where half of Japan is controlled by the Soviet Union. One day Hiroki and Takuya find a broken drone plane and begin to fix it up as they promise to fly to the mysterious Hokkaido Tower. This never happens as Sayuri disappeared that summer as she went into a deep coma and was hospitalized. Yet Hiroki and Takuya were never aware of this and went their separate ways. Three years later Takuya is working as a physicist for the Alliance Scientific facility researching why the Hokkaido Tower has the ability to change its surroundings. He eventually joins up with the Uilta Liberation Front who wants to bomb the tower to start a war with the Soviet Union as a way to reunite Japan. Once a member he learns that Sayuri has been in a coma for the last three years. In order to save her he has to destroy the tower. With this information he volunteers and is joined by Hiroki where they fly the plane to the tower and blow it up. Afterwards, Hiroki and Sayuri begin a relationship with each other.
Shinkai pulls out all of the stops on Place Promised in our Early Childhood as he shows that he can direct a movie. Throughout the movie he captures the complexities of Hiroki and Takuya and their evolving friendship. As their friendship is centered on a promise they made to fly to the Hokkaido Tower one day. Yet, this friendship changes as Sayuri disappears causing a drift between the two of them. By having such a strong promise broken it shows that this event is significant to both of them and has caused them pain. This pain only begins to heal once it is discovered that Sayuri is alive and the only way to save her is if the two boys, Hiroki and Takuya, team up and destroy the tower. This story arc is complicated as many different emotions are occurring simultaneously. Shinkai understands how to utilize all of the different emotions to convey this story and relate it back to the audience.
5 Centimeters per Second (2007):
5 Centimeters per Second is a very different story than most of Shinkai’s work as there is no science fiction or fantasy elements in it. The story focuses on a boy Takaki Tono and his interactions in life. Starting when he quickly befriends Akari Shinohara when she transfers to his elementary school. The two quickly grow closer to one another due to similar interests as they both have seasonal allergies. This allows them to grow a strong bond with each other and develop a strong friendship. Upon graduation from elementary school, Akari moves to a nearby prefecture, yet, the two choose to write letters to one another. They slowly begin to drift apart as the letters become fewer and fewer. Takaki learns that his family will be moving to the other side of the country and decides to personally see Akari. He knows that this will be the last time they see each other ever. He prepares a letter to confess his love to Akari, yet he loses while coming to see her and is delayed by a severe snowstorm. When he finally arrives he shares his first kiss with her. With both of them stranded at the train station they talk all night until they fall asleep. In the morning Takaki leaves on a train, but before he goes the two promise to continue to write to each other.
The movie jumps into the future where Takaki is now a third year student at senior high, where Kanae Sumida, a classmate of Takaki is in love with him. She has tried to spend time with him after school countless times, yet Takaki appears ignorant to her feelings. Meanwhile, it is observed that Takaki is always writing emails to someone, yet these emails are not being sent to anybody. In seeing this Kanae realizes that Takaki is looking for something else and decides not to tell him how she really feels as she cries herself to sleep. The movie makes a final time skip to 2008 where Takaki is now a computer programmer in Tokyo. Akari is preparing to get married to another man. Takaki is still longing for Akari, which is making him depressed as he leaves his job. As this is occurring Akari goes through her old possessions and finds the letter she never gave to him. At that moment both reveal that they wish they could watch the cherry blossoms together again, thus suggesting they both have feelings for each other. One day, while walking down a road Takaki and Akari appear to pass and recognize each other at a train crossing, where they had decided to watch cherry blossoms together 13 years ago. With each of them on one side of the track, they begin to look back, only to be cut off by a passing train. Takaki waits for the train to pass and sees that Akari is gone. He waits a moment and smiles and continues to walk. Arguably this is Shinkai’s most powerful piece of work as it captures the emotions of a child who is growing up and discovering love. In that process he is learning what love is, what it is like to be loved, and how to react when your first love has moved on and you haven’t. Furthermore, he is learning how to cope with realizing that he will never be with the one person who is perfect for him due to distance and the fact that life moves on. Shinkai captures and conveys the depression that Takaki feels perfectly; after watching this anime you begin to understand what that emotion is like. Unlike any other work that Shinkai has done this is the film that will drain you as a person. Any director or creator that can do this is truly gifted.
Shinkai has directed, animated, and written many other films, but these are among his earliest and truly introduce you to him as a director and creator. With these works alone he is considered to be the next Miyazaki and he has only begun his career.
You can pick up a copy of 5 Centimeters per Second here.
You can pick up a copy of Garden of Words here.
You can pick up a copy of Children who Chase Lost Voices here.
