Forum - View topicThe Best (and Worst) Works of Makoto Shinkai
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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I will turn this the other way around, can people please stop praising Hayao Miyazaki as the god of anime? He is without a doubt one of the top anime directors and creators ever, but to me Satoshi Kon and Kunihiko Ikuhara are on par, if not better than Miyazaki. |
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grooven
Posts: 1428 Location: Canada |
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I've only seen Your Name and 5 centimeters per second. Your Name was brilliant, but I couldn't stand 5 centimeters one bit. It iwas a boring slog with an uninteresting cast, however the art was amazing.
I do want to see his other works, even if I do end up putting them on mute and putting on a soundtrack over top. |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 713 |
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I totally agree. Satoshi Kon is woefully underrated, although I admit I don't much care for Ikuhara, as what (admittedly little) I've seen of his work I found nearly insufferably obtuse. Now, if you'd said Hideaki Anno on the other hand... |
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鳳凰の王
 Posts: 28 |
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I can't help but compare Shinkai's supernatural works to Mahou Tsukai no Yome -- impressive aesthetics and acoustics are deprived of their proper effects by the artificiality of their plots (I shudder when a dragon dying in Iceland somehow knows that the name Hatori contains the semantics of a bird. Universal linguistic device? Or merely a trivial literary non sequitur? I also believe that the main character of Kimi no Na wa is named Taki so that "taki 'su" could be rendered as "suki da" for some comedic-tragic effect at the end). It feels as if the supernatural events are merely deus ex machina devices to drive the plot forward in whatever conveniences they can provide. However, I quite enjoyed his more slice of life works. Dareka no Manazashi would be my pick of his work, followed by Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko, Koto no Ha no Niwa, and Hoshi no Koe. From my perspective, Shinkai is better when he doesn't have to over-elaborate on full-length films.
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lostbirdinatree
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I've seen exactly one Shinkai film (Children Who Chase Lost Voices) so I can't rank anything, but I can see why people compare it to Ghibli a lot. Some people are calling it a failure in these forums though - I don't think it's a failure per se, because it's still very visually attractive and looks at its themes of longing and loss well. (However, keep in mind I saw Children because I knew someone who became a Shinkai fan through seeing Your Name hype, and I had a library I could borrow the Children disc from.)
Also, Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo translates to Children Who Chase Stars according to the kanji used - why is it known as Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below, anyway? |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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I've haven't seen much of Shinkai's works, though I plan to see some more in the near future.
I'll agree with Your Name ranked first, as it was the best executed of his works that I've seen, both in terms of visuals and having the most moving story for me. Doesn't hurt that the production was bolstered by ex-Ghibli animators. Not only was it the best Shinkai movie I've seen but also the best movie I saw this past year, anime or otherwise. Second would be Garden of Words, as it is a beautiful looking movie. I don't know about rain, but it is certainly a love letter to something... I don't know if recent adaptation of She and Her Cat counts, but I'd put that in third if it does. I could really identify with the protagonist's trouble with finding a career after school, and the story of the cat was effective. I saw The Place Promised in Our Early Days, but it was so long ago that I don't know if I can confidently rank it. I do plan to see 5 Centimeters Per Second in the near future, but I'll have to see if or where the others are available if at all. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13615 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I think the only person truly worthy of being deemed the god of anime is the one that really set the standards for modern anime, Osamu Tezuka. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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From the looks of this list, Anne prefers Shinkai with more plot, which I suppose is about the opposite of me. I prefer Shinkai when he focuses as heavily on atmosphere as possible. I don't dislike Your Name, or any of his more plot-y films, and I actually like all of his work, but 5 centimeters per second is without a doubt my #1.
Honestly, I found Your Name to be significantly too short for the story it was trying to tell, the pacing was pretty awkward, and the 3rd act was all over the place narratively and really kind of lost me. I'm surprised there has been little to no criticism of the film's writing on ANN, to be honest, because I've talked to a lot of people who felt it was similarly far too busy(people who aren't just trying to hate it because it's popular). Also, while the music was great, the use of literal music videos randomly dropped all throughout the film was a bit much for me. It felt less like a film, and more like a series of music videos. Maybe a strange complaint coming from someone who likes Shinkai's other atmospheric work, but the problem here was that, rather than creating atmosphere, it felt like a necessary clip show to advance the plot as much as possible in a few minutes since they didn't have time to let it unfold more naturally. Anyway, I did genuinely enjoy the film, but I thought, structurally, it had a lot of problems that seem to have totally eluded many anime critics. I have yet to see a couple of the shorts, but I guess here would be my ranking: 8. Children Who Chase Lost Voices 7. The Place Promised in our Early Days 6. Your Name. 5. Dareka no Manazashi 4. Voices of a Distant Star 3. She and Her Cat(if you are loose with the rules and allow the 2016 series, this is #2) 2. Garden of Words 1. 5 Centimeters Per Second Last edited by relyat08 on Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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fikshen
 Posts: 11 |
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Just wanted to say that the original She and Her Cat will always be my favorite of his and is one of my all-time favorite anime period. Its simplicity and heart always grip me. Plus, I'm a sucker for talking cats. I thought the ONA Everything Flows was a nice follow up as well.
I, too, am tired of Miyazaki being brought up in conversation or anything about Shinkai. I get why he's held in such high regard, but I've never seen him as the end-all for anything anime. Personally, I don't like his work that much, but that's beside the point - like someone else stated, Shinkai has a completely different style, and it's unfair to both directors to say he's the "next Miyazaki", although I see what that statement was going for initially. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Children who Chase Lost Voices was actually my favorite before Your Name came out. It seems like its shortcomings are wildly exaggerated because of a knee-jerk reaction that it's a Miyazaki ripoff. While it's obviously heavily Ghibli-inspired, most actual Ghibli movies, to me, have a sort of hard-to-describe blandness that keeps them from standing out in any meaningful way; their whole aesthetic feels like a knockoff of Disney (which is probably why Disney bought out all US distribution rights).
Shinkai's usual thematic content made Lost Voices work surprisingly well for me as a mashup of Ghibli and himself. Most of the strange, often inconclusive or anticlimactic directions the plot takes make more sense when you remember it's not actually a Ghibli movie. 5 Centimeters Per Second spoiler[is quite (in)famous for its lack of closure, and barely having a plot at all, but people love it anyway (though it's probably my least favorite).] Maybe he copied the style a little too well. Your Name felt less like a single movie and more like the dramatic conclusion to Shinkai's entire filmography. The only problem I have with it is that it's hard to see where he can go from here. Maybe a new direction entirely? |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1796 Location: South America |
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My favorite Shinkai movie is Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. In fact, it's his best movie because it is the one most unlike his other movies. Shinkai's movies suffer from being simplistic so in this one we get a more complex plot reminiscent of Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky (actually Shinkai did this movie as his own version of his favorite Miyazaki movie). I also loved it's visuals, IMO they are among the most beautiful of his movies and with a greater visual diversity without feeling generic like Your Name. My second favorite is Your Name followed by 5 Centimeters per Second and Garden of Words in that order. I also liked the one about the Cold War thingie.
@kotomikun, I find it outlandish to compare Miyazaki to Disney as if the Japanese auteur and his complex films were remotely similar to the simplistic children's entertainment products by a profit maximizing American corporate entity. The only similarity is that some of Miyazaki's movies are rated G and have fantastical elements, which also occur in those corporation's products. Of course, there is also a bunch of other directors who worked in the studio and made stuff that is very different from Miyazaki's such as Ocean Waves and When Marnie was There, but they are also enormously distinct from Disney's fare. It strikes me as lacking in artistic awareness to not perceive these massive differences. Last edited by Jose Cruz on Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:51 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2658 |
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I have to post on this, guess which Shinkai film I think is #1 (still). It had a full, well developed story executed with finesse so that it was touching in several ways. Could talk all day on it, but I really detest 1/2-page posts. I find the use of "worst" a little out of place as I don't think his least good is really terrible. The rest in order of my preference,
2. Voices of a Distant Star 3. Your Name- sort of confusing, took me a couple of viewings to sort out but worth it 4. She and her Cat 5. Children who chase lost voices- tie with #4, good story but not as well constructed as #3 6. Garden of Words 7. 5cm/s- OK I have to go back on the "terrible" comment for this, he had exactly one Will have to check out the others on the list later. I really hope not to see another Shinkai film for a few years with the understanding that he takes his time to make a really good film, maybe something quite different and definitely not something just for the masses. And not a revisit of 5cm/s. 
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Ojamajo LimePie
 Posts: 772 |
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No mention of his visual novel openings? They're basically 2 minute doses of pure Shinkai.
Wind -a breath of heart- OP1 Wind -a breath of heart- OP2 Haru no Ashioto OP ef - the first tale. OP ef - the latter tale. OP |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5925 Location: Virginia, United States |
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"Your Name" was a fantastic movie. It deserves everything it received.
My personal favorite though is "The Place Promised in our Early Days". I truly loved this one. "5 Centimeters Per Second", though I just couldn't relate too. Yeah, he needed to move on, since he wasn't doing anything to progress that relationship. But does that really require letting that person disappear into history as the finale seems to imply. At my age now, I see this as an action on his part that he will regret later on in life, along with letting her go before. Though you could say, she wasn't the "One", since she wasn't important enough to hold on too. "Voice of a Distant Star", I really need to see this one. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4157 |
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That got a good laugh out of me. I'm still trying to figure out why spoiler[the time difference was only three years as it made the comet an event Taki and the rest should remember] or why spoiler[mention that her mother went through a similar thing that's still somehow related to the same comet that comes every thousand years ] or how spoiler[said comet broke apart at the same time every time and landed on nearly the same spot three times] to notice this polished, focused narrative. The hand waving, the excuses, the poorest of poor plot chestnuts, "convenient amnesia", I see those. |
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