Makoto Shinkai ~beautiful~

Makoto Shinkai (Shinkai Makoto^?), born Makoto Niitsu (Niitsu Makoto^?) (born February 9, 1973) is a Japanese anime director, animator, and principal voice actor. A native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan, he studied Japanese literature in university. He traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to while in middle school. His favorite anime is Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki. Shinkai has been called "The New Miyazaki" in several reviews including Anime Advocates and ActiveAnime, though he disagrees with this comparison, stating that "it is an overestimation".

The Place Promised in Our Early Days



Totally love this anime music video using Kokia’s Arigatou with the anime ‘The Place Promised In Our Early Days’ (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho). Kokia is a relatively lesser known Japanese singer who knew how to express her feelings by sound in her early childhood and her third single ‘Arigatou’ used in this anime music video won the third place in the International Popular Music Award in Hong Kong. 1 videoclip after the jump.



She and Her Cat: She and Her Cat, subtitled Their standing points, is an independent five minute anime OVA about the relationship between a male cat and his female owner told from the cat's perspective. It was created mostly by Makoto Shinkai, except the soundtrack, which was done by his friend Tenmon. She and Her Cat is also the first project Makoto Shinkai directed.



5 Centimeters Per Second

Makoto Shinkai had expressed that, unlike his past works, there would be no fantasy or science fiction elements in this film. Instead, the feature film would attempt to present the real world from a different perspective. Makoto's film gives a realistic view of the struggles many face against: time, space, people, and love. The title 5 Centimeters Per Second comes from the speed at which cherry blossoms petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways.^[1]





Other Worlds:
This is the first short anime (1 min 28 sec) which Mr. Shinkai made in 1997, and He continued adjusting it till 1999. The motifs, which appears in his other films again and again, repeatedly already used in it; such as trains, telegraph poles, and everyday scenery of Japanese town. The atmosphere is close to "Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko."
Special Award in "eAT Kanazawa '98"
The Highest Award (General Animation Category) in "SKIP Creative Human Award '98"



After winning the grand prize, Shinkai began thinking about a follow-up while he continued to work as a graphic designer for Falcom, a video game company. Some months later in June 2000, Shinkai was inspired to begin Voices of a Distant Star by drawing a picture of a girl in a cockpit grasping a cell phone. Some time later, he was contacted by Mangazoo, who offered to "work with him," giving him a grant to turn his idea into an anime they could sell. In May 2001, he quit his job at Falcom and began to work on Voices. In an interview, Shinkai noted that production took around seven months of "real work."

Voices of a Distant Star