I Wish We Weren’t Entering The Makoto Shinkai Cinematic Universe

thegamer.com:

Makoto Shinkai has revealed the first trailer for his upcoming film Suzume no Tojimari, which will seemingly follow in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Your Name and Weathering With You. For years, the director has been the biggest name across the entire medium, with his gorgeous visuals, lovable characters, and poignant yet relatable themes allowing each film to resonate with a global audience.

He’s one hell of a talent, and thus the fervour around this new project has been met with ample anticipation. People love to label Shinkai as the next Hayao Miyazaki, but that’s a shorthand description that fails to recognise the strengths of both filmmakers and how their approach to delivering animated stories are fundamentally different. Comparing the two most recognisable names in the industry so readily discounts all other talent to be found in the wider space too, and how anime is being pushed forward all the time by such voices. Animation is a medium, not a genre, and it can be far too easy to forget that.

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Shinkai is a realist, with the majority of his films grounded in a reality not that far removed from our own, often touching upon the struggles of modern youth, climate change, and the nature of identity in a rapidly changing world. Miyazaki is more fantastical, often escaping our own in search of fictional realms where wild creatures and foreign conflicts rage. But these are always told from a human perspective, tying us to the emotional core of films like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke that have gone down as timeless classics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c4GAIig9gY

Your Name was a beautiful film harkening back to the natural paranoia associated