Makoto Shinkai, The Next Hayao Miyazaki

Makoto Shinkai stands alone as the next great director of anime. Through his film “The Garden of Words”, which he wrote and directed, Shinkai demonstrates how he is the next Hayao Miyazaki. By utilizing animation that is surreal and composing realistic stories of love, Shinkai demonstrates that anime can be just as important or influential as an American-made drama. Makoto Shinkai is only forty-four years old with ten movies under his belt. Hayao Miyazaki is seventy-six years old and is currently working on his final movie. However, Makoto Shinkai’s new take on realism in anime brings a new spin on anime film direction. Unlike Miyazaki’s take on deep fantasy to portray historical, Makoto Shinkai’s new direction leans towards realistic love stories. Love stories that transcend typical direction of other anime films and series through stellar new-age animation, . Makoto Shinkai proved with his film “The Garden of Words” that he isn’t afraid to approach taboos in love stories as well. With a steady hand in his writing, unearths themes of relational age gaps in “The Garden of Words” while straying the audience from that theme. He strays the audience from the theme, so they will focus only on the love interest and the likeness of the characters. Because of anime creators like Makoto Shinkai, anime has developed into a world-wide phenomenon.

Within the last twenty years, anime has made a huge expanse to the United States and the rest of the world. This leads to the question, why is this happening? The first reason simply has to do with the expansion of the internet. Through the internet anime has exploded across the web. Because of this, millions of people around the world now watch anime as a daily activity. Because of directors such as Makoto Shinkai and Hayao Miyazaki, this media has taken the west by storm. “Anime looked unlike the children’s cartoons of U.S. television, and it told stories that challenged viewers’ emotions and worldviews more than the feel-good films of George Lucas’s and Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood” (Mckevitt). The devastating emotional impact that many anime viewers have felt plays a huge role in why it has become so overwhelmingly popular here in the west. The fact that viewers have seen these shows as being far more emotional than Lucas and Spielberg films speaks volumes. The characters in anime films and series typically seem as if they are as human as anybody else. Anime can delve deeper into emotional values than normal cinema can it seems. This emotional aspect of the films seems to be what lures most viewers into anime series. Its not the level of the animation or the over the top fight scenes that draw people in. It is simply the power of the raw emotion that is demonstrated through anime that truly captivates the viewer.

The films written and directed by Makoto Shinkai pointed towards the everyday anime viewer as well as people who have seen and appreciated a few anime. The general American audience will be familiar with Miyazaki’s works; therefore, it is easy for viewers who have viewed his movies to see that Makoto Shinkai is redefining the entire anime genre. The group of people is small but still stands at a substantial number at the same time. However, in recent years these numbers have begun to grow. “Miyazaki takes anime’s basic propensity to defamiliarize consensus reality in a direction that allows him to develop his own agenda, one that incorporates an ethical and aesthetic universe that is both exotic and yet at some level familiar” (Swale). Miyazaki is not the only director capable of bending the direction of reality. Makoto Shinkai also bends and twists the narrative do demonstrate to viewers what his true intentions are in a film. Shinkai’s films may appear as if they are just love stories; however, at second glance it can always be seen that these stories run much deeper than that. Shinkai’s film, The Garden of Words, does just that. It may appear that it is a love story but under further examination it is apparent that it is also a coming of age story about a boy who is pursuing his dream of designing shoes.

The main supporting evidence is drawn from the fact the Shinkai’s film, Your Name, is the highest grossing anime film of all time. Miyazaki’s well-known anime film, Spirited Away, used to hold that title. Makoto Shinkai’s films bring a breath of fresh air to the anime industry. Makoto Shinkai willingly strips away the fantasy substance of his films. Unlike Miyazaki, Shinkai tends keep the stories embedded in our world. However, he twists his stories to where it appears that the stories are happening in a place far away from our own world. The film, Your Name by Makoto Shinkai, stands as the highest grossing anime film of all time earning two-hundred and eighty-one million dollars world-wide (Ashcraft). This topples Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Spirited Away, which earning an amazing two-hundred and seventy-five dollars world-wide during its debut (Ashcraft). The number of sales from Your Name speak for themselves on who overwhelmingly popular anime has become in the west.

Shinkai’s work has created a shift in how anime will be created and directed. It is a pivot in how all genres of anime will change the way stories are told. It brings a new ideal to interpreting works as well as a shift in the bravery in presenting themes that would normally be thought of as taboo. Makoto Shinkai’s "Garden of Words" brings a taboo into a new light. The story focuses on a boy that is fifteen years of age and a twenty-seven-year-old Japanese Literature teacher. In these two characters’ experiences, they begin to grow from each other. It takes them both a while to realize it and they begin to have feelings for each other. Each of them has a dream or ideal they are pursuing, and they aid each other in this without realizing it. Makoto Shinkai takes an approach that takes the viewer away from the idea that it is a love story. Most of all, it strips away the fact that the taboo is there.

Makoto Shinkai’s movie “Your Name” became the highest grossing anime film of all time last year, surpassing Miyazaki’s critically acclaimed film “Spirited Away” for the number one spot. The film “Your Name”, focuses on a male and female teenager switching places with each other’s body without realizing it. At first glance, this sounds like a cliché that has been done with films like Freaky Friday in the United States. However, this anime film takes a completely different direction on the idea of two characters switching bodies. The characters literally long to have a different life. The film is a drama with a slight twist of comedy to keep the viewer from intrigued and humored. Makoto Shinkai can make his animated characters act and behave like real people. Because his realistic approach to character development and setting, Shinkai’s films have helped pave the way towards the expanse of anime films and series in the west.

Viewers will see that anime should be just as recognizable as an art form just as Hollywood cinema is recognized as art. The interaction between anime characters can be just as real as the interactions between two living people. But why is it that the decided to display these taboos in what would seem like at first glance to be light-hearted anime love films? This revolves around the fact that Makoto Shinkai demonstrates no fear when diving into this different perspective in a world that is much like our own. Although his films are set in what is modern day Japan, the films can be relatable to viewers because everybody has thought about what it would be like to live the life of somebody else.

The idea of Makoto Shinkai becoming the next great anime is fascinating because while Miyazaki’s films are great, Shinkai’s new direction in anime is refreshing. Because of Miyazaki, the west got an idea of what anime is. Miyazaki is great at expressing how these movies are great for all ages; however, Shinkai’s audience leans towards older teens and adults of all ages. “The cinematic era of the early twentieth century and the anime-ic era at the end of that century are, in fact, really moments characterized by relations between a number of differing media technologies, brought together in particular ways” (Looser). Because of Miyazaki, anime has begun to thrive in the west and across the globe. Without having had directors such as Miyazaki, anime film directors such as Makoto Shinkai wouldn’t be recognized today for their amazing creative ability. Makoto Shinkai serves to represent the next Miyazaki of the anime direction world. Because he is unafraid to write a story on the taboo of two lovers with an age gap, Shinkai demonstrates that he is relentless and bold in his storytelling. Because of this theme, Makoto Shinkai has taken a bold new direction in anime story telling. However, this theme is pushed to the side because it is truly a coming of age story.

Makoto Shinkai’s themes of love and taboos makes for a great piece to analyze in his film “The Garden of Words”. Shinkai’s themes of longing for a different life are clearly suggested in his film “Your Name”. Each of these films also presents a coming of age story as well. Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese anime director; therefore, these films are made in the east. The eastern and western sides of the world differ significantly; however, Shinkai’s films demonstrate that people across the globe are similar in many ways. While watching the film, Garden of Words, viewers tend to forget that the woman is twenty-seven years old and the boy is only fifteen years of age. The characters grow from each other through the story. They are the only two people that can understand one another which makes it a truly compelling story that couldn’t be presented in any other kind of modern media. Because of Makoto Shinkai’s bravery in his recent films, it is exciting to see what this brilliant director will come up with next. Shinkai is still in his forties while Miyazaki is in his and eighties and on the way out the door with his final film in production. Shinkai truly stands alone as the next great anime director of this generation.

Makoto Shinkai has devastated the world of animation with his films. However, his film Your Name has demonstrated that Shinkai’s work is not one to be taken lightly. Because of his complete originality and fearless method of presenting taboos, love, and coming of age stories, Makoto Shinkai is sure to bring more brilliant masterpieces to the anime film industry. His name is one worth noting not just as one of the greatest anime directors of all time, but as one of the greatest story tellers of this century. People with creative abilities such as this are people that walk the Earth once in a lifetime. In fact, comparing him to Hayao Miyazaki does not begin to describe how great this director’s future is looking.

References

Ashcraft, Brian. “Your Name Is The Highest Grossing Anime Worldwide, And It Deserves To Be.” Kotaku, Kotaku east, 17 Jan. 2017, kotaku.com/your-name-is-the-highest-grossing- anime-worldwide-and-1791278393.

Looser, Thomas. “From Edogawa to Miyazaki: Cinematic and Anime-Ic Architectures of Early and Late Twentieth-Century Japan.” Japan Forum, vol. 14, no. 2, Sept. 2002, pp. 297- 327. Mckevitt, Andrew C. “‘You Are Not Alone!’: Anime and the Globalizing America.” Diplomatic History, vol. 34, no. 5, Nov. 2010, pp. 893-921.

Swale, Alistair. “Miyazaki Hayao and the Aesthetics of Imagination: Nostalgia and Memory in Spirited Away.” Asian Studies Review, vol. 39, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 413-429. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10357823.2015.1056086.