Forum - View topicYearning Teens, Frustrated Romance, Pretty Skies — Is There Anything Else to Makoto Shinkai?
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<('_')^
Posts: 72 |
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Except when it isn't? I guess humor is subjective but the anime medium has been doing these kind of jokes for ages. Just from hearing the premise alone you could already see the punchline from a mile away. "Haha the guy lewd'ed the girl! Isn't that funny? Please laugh..." |
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Gnarth
Posts: 175 |
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If you were to wake up in a body of the other sex, you'd absolutely be touching your new assets. In fact, Mitsuha does the same but everybody forgets. You can find it funny or not, but it would just be illogical to not have it happen.
About the actual topic, I adore Makoto Shinkai. His aesthetics and sheer visual splendor are unmatched, and he manages to capture the magic of ordinary life in a way nobody can. His worlds are literally better, beautiful reality and I so wish the real world looked like that. Your Name is undoubtedly his masterpiece, a wonderful mix of humor and drama, grounded and fantastical, love and destiny, tradition and modernity, spiritual and practical. It touches on the contrast between rural and urban Japan and deeply captures this feeling of longing I'm so familiar with. Its relatable, likeable characters share a fateful connection that goes beyond spacetime itself, the fascinating concept of Musubi. The comet represents both their destructive separation and their unbreakable bond, and every stunningly beautiful sky or landscape plays a narrative role, being a visualization of the emotions involved. The personal becomes grand, and the universe becomes personal: that's Shinkai's magic. I could go on for ages, as I truly think it's a perfect movie. I want to spend a few words on Weathering with You and its controversial ending as I think it's greatly misunderstood. Shinkai isn't saying that one person is more important than millions (even though for Hodaka it totally makes sense), but rather he's telling us to accept the world we live in and to make the choice of living there, make the most of our time and be happy, even if it's changing in ways we're afraid of. Finally, about Suzume's love story: yes, it's not as fleshed out as it could've, but it's also not at all the film's point. Souta is the person who turns Suzume's word around and allows her to confront her demons and learn to live, to finally heal herself from her childhood trauma. She falls in love with him but that's accessory to her journey (it gives her the resolve), it's not defining and they'll only become a couple after the end. |
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Dark Mac
Posts: 321 |
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I watched Suzume last week and found it to be by far the worst of Shinkai's works, mainly due to greatly disliking the two leads. It felt like it should've been a TV series with all the random interludes it has.
The She and Her Cat TV series is my favorite thing that spawned from him, but I don't know how much he worked on it. Other than that, I love Garden of Words, 5cm/s, and VoaDS too. I think Shinkai's stuff is better when it doesn't have a happy ending. |
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Doctorkev
 Posts: 87 Location: Scotland |
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For anyone interested in the full-length reviews of each of these movies that I used to help collect my thoughts for this final article, this page list the links to my individual blog articles:
https://doctorkev.medium.com/yearning-teens-frustrated-romance-pretty-skies-is-there-anything-else-to-makoto-shinkai-bbef0b1d963d This one took a lot of work to write, and I'm very thankful to you all for reading and commenting! |
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dmanatunga
Posts: 71 |
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I don't know enough about the discourse, but I do agree that I don't think the point of the movie is about one person is more important than millions. But my interpretation is more in line of the articles author.
That interpretation is why I really love the movie. |
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Gnarth
Posts: 175 |
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Yeah, maybe I didn't express myself super well there, but I was referring to an unfortunately common and superificial criticism I have read online about the movie encouraging selfishness, not the interpretation given by this arcticle, which I actually find very interesting. I still think the point is mainly that positive, accept-the-world message I wrote about earlier, and there's an official Shinkai interview that kinda supports it. The one doesn't totally exclude the other though.
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pikabot
Posts: 169 |
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I don't think there's ever been an artist as obviously technically proficient and talented as Makoto Shinkai whose work I've nonetheless hated across the board. I keep thinking 'surely this will be the one that changes my mind' whenever one of his movies comes out, and it never is. I don't even really know why; I have reasons for hating each one (yes, including Your Name), but they're different each time. Something about the man's vibes just does not mesh with me.
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Boy Howdy
Posts: 25 |
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Is there anything else to Makoto Shinkai? Does there have to be?
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2579 Location: Germany |
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I just had a look at an IMDB list of all Makoto Shinkai´s works. I gave out three 5/10s and ten 6/10s, as I also rated his shorts and I learned of him through Voices of a Distant Star in like 2004. This led to Your Name simply being another of his flicks for me (I figured out the twist halfway through a trailer) and not some sort of event that changed the industry. It of course did as Shinkai-likes are now a genre. Those and Shounen action tie-ins became half the anime film industry at this point. Very annoying.
Makoto Shinkai just is so I have no favorites or any emotions but I failed to finish Suzume. Too annoying. Children Who Chase Lost Voices might be his worst as I remember being frustrated by it. One of these two. Even they are saved by production values. Would be nice if he branched out and adapted scripts by others. His biggest flaw is his same old same old writing. Mamoru Hosoda is the much better Makoto Shinkai. His latest Belle was is trainwreck but that also proves that he isn´t stuck in a rut. It got a 4/10 from me and The Boy and the Beast got an 8/10. I would rather have a teen director with misfires than what is now starting to feel like a constructed by a committee manufacturing line of clones. Is there independent footage of Makoto Shinkai out there that proves that he exists and that his films weren´t constructed by a supercomputer... |
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light turner
Posts: 179 |
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That was my take away as well. I never really got why it was considered controversial |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Admittedly, 5 Centimeters is also one of my least-favorites--though it doesn't reach into hatred, more just boredom, as it seems like the goal was to make an entire 3-act play where literally nothing happens (and not even as a joke like Waiting for Godot or something). But this sentence...
...really sums up why I suspect many people can't stand his movies. There's a popular sense that main characters must be "likable," a word which typically means "extroverted and never does anything to harm anyone undeserving." (If they ever break that mold, it has to become a plot point to restore their perfect-role-model status, by making amends for their mistake or whatever.) That's all well and good--by design--but not a very realistic depiction of humans. Everyone does negative things to other people sometimes, often without realizing it, and most frequently through poor communication. And everyone has things they remain irrationally attached to for excessively long periods of time. If you don't think those things describe you, I guarantee they do, you just aren't aware of it. Romance causes those types of friction more efficiently than any other human activity, probably because attraction runs on the random whims of biology and ignores all rational justification. Is it incredibly stupid to obsess over a girl from years ago and pay no attention to actually-available partners, even the one you're ostensibly going out with? Yes. Is this something real people do, all the damn time, even while knowing how dumb it is? Also yes. It's the human condition, man. You can call it annoying all you like, and you'll be right, but it won't stop happening. The real question is... do you want fictional characters to provide escapism from that situation, or an honest depiction of it? Soapboxing aside... it's interesting that Suzume wasn't originally supposed to be a love story, because that part of it does feel entirely unnecessary, unlike in all his other movies. This gives a whole new meaning to Daijin telling Souta he's "in the way" before turning him into a chair and scampering away. Despite his reputation for making the same movie over and over, I feel like he's continually improved and tried new things each time; even in ways the audience might disagree with, like Weathering did. I'm sure whatever comes next will be both recognizably his and unique in its own way, as all its predecessors have been. |
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nyaa
Posts: 149 |
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Gotta say I totally disagree with the opinion of 5 Centimeters Per Second, it's my 3rd favorite Shinkai film behind Your Name and Weathering With You.
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SaitoHajime101
 Posts: 285 |
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It's interesting to read every take on Makoto Shinkai. There's not many directors that I'm personally familiar with that has such a weird reaction depending on whom it comes from.
I'm on the other side on this article. I thoroughly enjoyed 5 Centimeters per Second and not much of a fan of Garden of Words. I actually felt very similar to Takaki throughout my teen years and really didn't feel much until my early-20s when things seem to move forward again. Watching it, I felt I understood Takaki at a deeper level than I normally would have expected. Garden of Words was almost a complete opposite of that. Garden is a better movie by narrative structure and technical achievements; I never quite understood the relationship between the characters. All in all, Shinkai had me hooked since I saw Voices of a Distant Star, when that OVA dropped all those years ago. It's like watching a Marvel film these days. I know some are definitely going to be 'below average' movies, but I just can't stop. 
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ShanaChanTT
 Posts: 165 |
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if only the romance didn't pussyfoot around and had clear ending like other anime series
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 238 |
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No, Shinkai's films are not all the same. But even if they were, who else is making his sorts of anime movies? It's not like we're drowning in Shinkai-likes. We shouldn't get so bothered when directors revisit concepts and themes multiple times.
At any rate, 5 Centimeters Per Second is my personal favorite of Shinkai's works, and my pick for top anime film in general. Heck, maybe just #1 film in general for me. Everything about it resonates with me so thoroughly though, so it's operating both as a beautiful art piece and something that speaks to me on a personal level. I also love the manga adaptation and the companion novel (One More Side) for it, which both offer more insight on the characters and what they're thinking. Garden of Words is probably my second favorite, followed by... well, it's probably time for a rewatch for most of them, as it's hard for me to choose. I'd say I've quite liked all of his works though, save for Children Who Chase Lost Voices. (Can't win them all, but I'd say that for any director.) |
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