Makoto Shinkai

Makoto Shinkai (born February 9, 1973) is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer well-known for his work on Your Name, the highest-grossing anime film of all time. He directed over 5 films and over 6 short films.

About Your Name

 * But... you can’t be Miyazaki, you can only be the second Miyazaki, and that isn’t something to aim for.
 * Interviewed on Little White Lies
 * Your Name's success told me movies still have the power to connect with society. As a medium, it still has a power that resonates.
 * Interviewed on Entertainment Weekly
 * I think animation can tell more than live action.
 * Interviewed on Complex
 * If I had been born 10 years earlier, I don’t think I would be an animator.
 * I think that science fiction can, by creating extreme situations and settings, draw out the essence of human relationships.
 * Interviewed on Tested
 * You don’t want to be imitating his [Miyazaki] style. You’ve got to create something different, something that he hasn’t done.
 * But I do want to trigger emotions like his [Miyazaki] movies triggered our emotions.
 * Interviewed on The Guardian
 * I consider my anime as if they were children who, once grown up, are free to take their own path and personally I do not want to intrude in their lives. No father should snoop in the affairs of their children.
 * Interviewed on AnimeClick.it

About The Garden of Words

 * It is a part of puberty that we just want to go somewhere far away. We only have a vague image, like behind that mountain or a place more beautiful...
 * Interviewed on Otaku Mode
 * But the thing about getting rejected is that you reflect and think and analyze about why you got turned down. You learn a lot more from stories about getting rejected than stories about becoming happy.
 * Interviewed on Anime Diet
 * I think most directors and people who make anime would agree that their latest film is probably the one they feel the most confident in, that they have done their best and put everything into.
 * Interviewed on Anime News Network

About 5 Centimeters per Second

 * It’s the situations that these distant relationships create that interest me more than the distance itself.
 * Interviewed on the Electric Sheep magazine