This Week in Anime

Can Makoto Shinkai Only Make One Movie?

Nicky
The man called Makoto Shinkai is an interesting figure. He's been a notable name in a small pantheon of anime filmmakers despite having no film background. He was working at a video game studio doing all sorts of product management when he distributed his five-minute short animation on CDs via mail. The next thing you know, he's a candidate to be "The Next Miyazaki."

I still remember the pure disbelief I felt when I saw the numbers Your Name made at the Japanese box offices. As one of the highest-grossing anime films within milliseconds of its release, I knew it had a surefire trajectory to becoming a huge international hit. However, it's still hard to believe one movie could be such an overnight smash.

Yeah, having knowledge of his humble beginnings as a guy who just quit his job to make anime by himself was a big factor to my surprise. Yet, somehow it also wasn't shocking? Shinkai's previous films are often short, but they already had the ingredients for mass appeal. All his films focus on the burden of being an emotional youth. Even his solo work has a strong aesthetic with a somewhat sense of realism, using a technique where he draws over photos for backgrounds. At his best, his work captures simple and sincere emotional tones aimed to pluck the heartstrings of young folk and folk still young at heart.

His lens-flare use gives JJ Abram's a run for his money. You can even see him reuse shots and techniques repeatedly throughout his works. While recycling sounds like lazy filmmaking, it's a sign of a well-honed style. While Shinkai's stories might be too basic for some people, it's worth watching his films at least once to get a sense of his visuals. Working with the hands at CoMix Wave Films, his most robust storytelling tool has always been these vibrant environments. The everyday can feel nostalgic, melancholy, and even oppressive. You get the same sense of beauty from his urban environments as an entirely natural landscape.

Hell, even regular fast food looks Instagrammable.

Unsurprisingly, Shinkai would also go on to direct a lot of commercials.

ComixWave themselves even did a spotlight on Canadian tourism, of all things.

Yeah, I mention advertising since every ad company imitates ComixWave's art style. You get mini-Shinkai films in the form of Cup Noodle ads. Beyond that, Your Name opened the idea that there was still money to be made in original anime films even if your name isn't Ghibli.

I'll note that while Ghibli had not shut down, it had entered a state of "hiatus." They still haven't produced a big feature since. Miyazaki's current film is still in the works, but since Ghibli is such an industry touchstone, this gap in production also creates a gap in interest for anime films both domestically and internationally. There's no anime studio more widely beloved than Studio Ghibli. They are a significant cultural export; it's hard to imagine that any other studio could compete. Even Shinkai cites Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky as one of his big inspirations, and you can see it with his occasional dips into sci-fi and the supernatural.

At the time, Your Name managed to cozy itself up right under Spirited Away in terms of gross numbers.

Yeah, there's no shortage of Ghibli imitators or ex-Ghibli people trying to make a name for themselves. Studio Ponoc made their whole brand off of that. Shinkai is very much at best when he stays in his wheelhouse. He's not versatile and pretty much has one movie he can make. He's also inconsistent since his vague storytelling sense can slog harder than the train in 5 Centimeters Per Second. I wouldn't call him the best filmmaker, but it's certainly better that he stays as the only Makoto Shinkai than another Miyazaki.

I harp on Your Name a lot because it feels like his most refined version of what he's good at. His stuff is most effective at selling you the "moments." He can do compelling stuff, even in commercials or shorts, because all stories are compromised of moments. Though ideally, you'd still want a story to tie it together. I actually prefer something like Garden of Words or his early Voices of a Distant Star over something like Weathering With You, which was a follow-up I found underwhelming because its overall story was less tight than Your Name.

It's bizarre to say that, actually, yes, I like the foot fetish story with an extremely problematic, somewhat uncritical romance between a teenager and an adult that fortunately never goes anywhere, but it's pretty underrated. It's one of his most mature works. You can easily slot Shinkai's work as inspiration porn from the glossy art and heavy catharsis. Still, he's good at capturing sadness and cynicism imbrued throughout life as much as the kind of hallmark brand front used to get eyeballs.

The Garden of Words is my favorite version of that because it's just two people resting from being worn out, and the real sense of weariness makes the conclusion to get back up feel sincere.

Having your male and female lead be equally rounded characters is vital to its universal success. It might be a result of being a much more modern movie than The Place Promised, but it shows that drama is more effective when you can humanize all your factors in the equation, meaning your characters. Why shouldn't you try to appeal to as many audience members as possible? Especially if your audience is compromised mainly of young people (on dates).

Yeah, drama has to be believable to work. I like some stuff in WWY, but I never really felt as attached as I did seeing Mitsuha struggle with her life in her hometown and some dramatic turns that just don't work (like the GUN or any way that it relates to climate change). However, parts of that film are done well, too, and Hana still gets a lot of focus as a complex metaphor for someone struggling to hold back grief. Still not so sure how Shinkai will get me to "relate" to a chair, though.

That doesn't mean I'm not up for it; I just want to know how.

Weathering With You is not awful, but it almost makes Your Name feel like a fluke. I'm not sure how Suzume will hold up since a lot can go wrong as Shinkai continues to delve into even more abstract and fantastical premises, but I'm interested to see him try. Even if it doesn't succeed, it's not like I want Shinkai, and subsequently, CoMix Wave Films, to stop making movies.

At the moment, Suzume is already topping Japan's box office, and if it turns out to be a lavish dud, it's still overall a net positive when the artists get to keep their jobs. I mentioned Ghibli before because I'd rather have more unique and successful anime films than a monopoly. The films don't have to be the greatest; they don't need to be created by the next Miyazaki; they need to be made. That's really what Shinkai's path has proven to me.

It'd be nice if we started getting films that weren't just about copying whatever other people's greatest successes were, but something I noticed since Your Name is just a lot more anime films in general. This might be related to the same overall industry bloat I mentioned in our last column, but my optimistic side wants me to believe this is more of a good thing.

I've brought it up several times, but now I will answer. Why does everyone want to see some auteur director pop up out of nowhere? Well, that's because the anime film industry's high turnover is a bad environment for raising capable artists. Ghibli was notorious for chasing people away from the industry. Even people who were proven to be good and competent artists, like Mamoru Hosoda, were chased out of the kingdom of dreams and madness. With few alternatives for stable employment, even those capable of recovering from the experience might've had no choice but to leave the industry entirely, as plenty did. I hope the current trend can keep those who remain from being completely stuck.

True, but we've seen some non-series related movies from TV studios as well, like Josee, The Tiger, and the fish or Masashi Ando's (who was also Your Name's animation director) actual attempt at making a "Ghibli film" with Production I.G., The Deer King. Though, this doesn't substitute the need for healthy feature-exclusive studios since many people choose to work in features for their stability compared to TV anime.

Given this information, the fact that a relatively independent studio like CoMix Wave can rise up and grow is inspiring. I can't speak about what the work environment is like there, but I have heard plenty of bad things about the conditions of other studios to know that any competition is welcome. While it'll take more than one director or studio to change the state of the industry, if someone like Shinkai could go from being a nobody to an industry trendsetter, anything is possible.