Summary
Makoto Shinkai has well and truly established himself as one of the most respected names in modern anime film. His blend of cutting-edge animation techniques and powerful storytelling have earned him a global fanbase who view him as one of the great auteurs in the industry.
When looking at the filmography of Makoto Shinkai, you’ll find a mix of mainstream hits and lesser-known gems. What’s consistent across his works is an exceptional eye for detail - both in the technology used and the craft that goes into developing the story and characters.
This list will only be focusing on the feature films that were directed by Makoto Shinkai. Short films such as Voices of a Distant Star and She and Her Cat will not be included for this reason.
7The Garden Of Words
When The Rain Stops Falling
The Garden of Words was the last film Makoto Shinkai released before his fame reached stratospheric levels with Your Name. In many ways, this melancholic slice-of-life film about a teenage shoemaker and a literature teacher finding solace in each other is a fitting capstone to the early stages of Shinkai’s career.
The forty-six-minute runtime does hold the film back from prying deeper into the emotional struggles of its characters, with the ending feeling particularly rushed. Still, you could make a very compelling argument that The Garden of Words is Makoto Shinkai’s most visually beautiful film, as the rainy scenes in Shinjuki Gyoen are just as breathtaking over ten years later.
6Children Who Chase Lost Voices
The Journey To Agartha
With Children Who Chase Lost Voices, Makoto Shinkai drew heavy inspiration from the works of his childhood hero Hayao Miyazaki in creating a sweeping fantasy adventure starring a relatable child protagonist going through their own emotional journey. After being saved from a mysterious beast by an equally mysterious boy, Asuna discovers the magical world of Agartha and all of the wonders and terrors it holds.
While imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery, Children Who Chase Lost Voices can feel at times like Makoto Shinkai shrugging off his usual strengths as a filmmaker in favour of someone else’s. The result is a film that, while still filled with strong scenes and heartfelt emotional beats, occupies a strange limbo space between a typical Shinkai work andone of Studio Ghibli’s.
5The Place Promised In Our Early Days
An Early Promise From A Young Filmmaker
As far as debut feature films go, The Place Promised in Our Early Days soars with the confidence of an up-and-coming filmmaker unafraid to assert their own style. Many of Makoto Shinkai’s directorial pillars were already firmly established in this film: the gorgeous animation, a beautiful soundtrack, and a bitter-sweet story about connection and unfulfilled romance set against the backdrop of a science-fiction conflict.
All of these elements would be refined in later Shinkai films, but there’s a rawness to the emotional core of The Place Promised in Our Early Days that’s hard to turn away from. With some truly stirring scenes and a palpable sense of longing threaded throughout the narrative, this film was all the proof you needed that Makoto Shinkai was a generational talent in anime.
4Weathering With You
A Story Of Sunshine And Rain
Hot off the success of Your Name, Makoto Shinkai’s next film Weathering With You swapped out the body-swapping antics in favour of weather manipulation. High school student Hodaka meets Hina, a girl who can make the rain stop through prayer, and the film shines in having the characters use this ability in various ways.
The budding romance between Hodaka and Hina is somewhat dampened by the film’s questionable ending (it’s hard to root for these kids getting together when half of Tokyo needs to get flooded in the process). Still, Weathering WIth You makes up for it with the strongest cast of supporting characters in a Shinkai movie, as both Keisuke and Natsumi Suga are endlessly enjoyable to watch and demonstrate Shinkai’s ever-expanding attention to character depth in his works.
3Suzume
Love Is An Open Door
Makoto Shinkai’s latest feature film, Suzume showcases some of his most imaginative work. You have to give credit to a film where its leading male character is trapped inside a three-legged chair for most of the runtime and you still care deeply about him and his relationship with the protagonist.
That “out of the box” thinking goes a long way toward making every scene in Suzume feel like an event. But as quirky and silly as some of the film’s concepts and characters can be (looking at you, Daijin), it never loses sight of its emotional heartbeat – especially in how it weaves Japan’s tragic 2011 earthquake and tsunami into Suzume’s character arc.
2Your Name
One Of The Great Modern Anime Love Stories
Often consideredone of the greatest anime films ever made, Your Name was the movie that put Makoto Shinkai on the global stage. The story of Taki and Mitsuha growing a connection with each other through swapping bodies resonated with people all around the world and earned Shinkai the widespread recognition and acclaim he has always deserved.
The film’s story premise, pacing, and character arcs are all so expertly conceived and executed, that it’s hard to poke any holes in the final product. From the memorable musical montages to a climax that is simply a masterclass in how to build stakes and tension, Your Name engages on so many emotional levels and deserves every word of praise that has come its way.
15 Centimeters Per Second
The Speed At Which Our Lives Change
Makoto Shinkai’s best film is also, arguably, his most grounded. Instead of having the two love interests kept apart through body swapping or age gaps or even having one of them turn into a talking chair, 5 Centimeters Per Second shows in achingly beautiful detail how the inevitable passage of time brings an end to even the purest of loves.
Told across three vignettes, we witness childhood sweethearts Takaki and Akari grow up and grow apart through circumstances that feel all too real, and Makoto Shinkai crafts aromance animefilm filled with melancholy, showing how succumbing to an idea of the past is often what holds us back from moving forward with our lives. Unconventional yet masterfully executed, there is no other Makoto Shinkai film that’ll leave you feeling a strange sense of warm emptiness quite like 5 Centimeters Per Second.
