Biography
This page uses content from the Makoto Shinkai biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
(born February 9, 1973) is an 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 read while growing up 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".
Works
His first independent piece, She and Her Cat (Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko), was a five minute long short, done in monochrome. It won several awards, including the grand prize at the 2000 DoGA CG Animation contest. The short details the life of a cat, entirely from the cat's perspective, as it passes time with its owner, a young woman.
After winning the grand prize, Makoto began thinking about a follow-up while he continued to work as a graphic designer for Falcom, a video game production company. Some months later in June 2000, around the time of PlayStation 2 and the introduction of DVDs, Makoto was inspired to begin Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) 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, Makoto noted that production took around seven months of "real work".
Voices was followed by the 90 minute long The Place Promised in Our Early Days which was released in Japan on November 20, 2004.
Shinkai's next project titled 5 Centimeters per Second will premier in early spring 2007. It consists of three short films, with an estimated one hour total play time.
Aside from his own projects, he also assists in animating eroge opening movies for minori.
References
- ADV Presents The Place Promised in Our Early Days, ActiveAnime.com (Retrieved July 17, 2006)
- Interviews: Active Anime Presents "The Place Promised ..." An Inteview with Makoto Shinkai, ActiveAnime.com (Retrieved July 17, 2006)
External links
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