Updated RankingVoices of a Distant Star (2002)
★ ★ ½ If this is your first taste of Makoto Shinkai, its singular mood can prepare you for what’s to come. The themes of isolation and people connecting through great distances are there, but the space battles – and Mika wearing a schoolgirl outfit while piloting her ship – are major distractions that keep the emotions from working.
The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
★ ★Too many big swings to work on the emotions. Shinkai is still working the bugs out, enhancing his human moments with content that occasionally produces lyrical beauty, but more often gets trapped in pseudo-science poppycock. The film is as tonally disjointed and psychologically murky as Ad Astra.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)
★ ★ ½ It’s frustrating that I’m watching these films to get into Shinkai, but what I like most here are the creature designs and the blending of fantasy and reality, both of which are clearly inspired by Miyazaki (especially Princess Mononoke), and what I don’t like here is the unclear attempt to use the fantasy to get into feelings of loss and isolation, which is Shinkai’s usual reason for making movies.
The Garden of Words (2013)
★ ★ ½ This is a lovely little film and the closest yet to the director’s 5 Centimeters Per Second. Shinkai’s long films always feel too long, stuffed with too many ideas, while this one I could easily see going longer. The timeframe sometimes jumps ahead and I’m not looking for more story but more time with what we have. Unfortunately, (as Martin says above) the ending is all wrong in terms of how it’s handled, and I felt cheated. I’m left waiting for a better conclusion.
Weathering With You (2019)
★ ★ ★ – Okay Starting with 5 Centimeters, I expected more from Shinkai. Is animation style is still beautiful, and it's only grown more refined and less precious. As for the characters, with them he's overly precious. Once again there's a fantasy conceit, but I feel like I've seen these same cute vanilla boys and girls over and over. It's very watchable and another case where the ideas are unlike any other storyteller, but the emotions just float away with the lightweight people.