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Poll

What's your favorite film by Makoto Shinkai?

haven't seen any
2 (14.3%)
don't like any
0 (0%)
Voices of a Distant Star
4 (28.6%)
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
0 (0%)
5 Centimeters Per Second
6 (42.9%)
Children Who Chase Lost Voices
0 (0%)
Garden of Words
0 (0%)
Your Name
2 (14.3%)
Weathering With You
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 14

Author Topic: Shinkai, Makoto  (Read 2012 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2017, 06:02:34 AM »
Your Name

Highly interested in FCPS right now.

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Will

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2020, 07:27:56 PM »
The Smile 8/10
Voices of a Distant Star 7/10
Your Name 7/10
Cat's Gathering 7/10
She and Her Cat 7/10
Someone's Gaze 6/10
Other Worlds 6/10
The Garden of Words 5/10
Cross Road 4/10

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I included shorts. You can find all of them on YouTube. I highly recommend THE SMILE. It is a music video about the love between a hamster and a human.

Despite not yet finding a feature of his I love, I like Makoto's style. I am committed to finishing his work.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2020, 07:58:56 PM »
I think I watched about 30 minutes of The Place Promised in Our Early Days before I got bored.

I loved Weathering With You. I will probably watch all these films at some point.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2020, 03:54:00 AM »
I've only seen Your Name and Weathering with You. The first is divine, the latter's story gets a little murky but is beautiful to look at.
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Will

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2020, 01:19:55 AM »
The Smile 8/10
Voices of a Distant Star 7/10
Your Name 7/10

Cat's Gathering 7/10
She and Her Cat 7/10
Five Centimeters Per Second 6/10
Someone's Gaze 6/10
Other Worlds 6/10
The Garden of Words 5/10
Weathering with You 5/10

Cross Road 4/10

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How can anyone compare Makoto Shinkai to Hayao Miyazaki when Mamoru Hosoda and Naoko Yamada are right there?

Teproc

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2020, 03:17:39 AM »
Meaning that they're better comparisons for Shinkai or for Miyazaki?

Hosoda is closer to Miyazaki while Yamada and Shinkai are close to each other I'd say.
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roujin

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2020, 07:42:41 AM »
Shinkai is only good in short form. All his long movies are bad.

1SO

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #17 on: August 23, 2020, 12:45:43 AM »
Updated Ranking

Voices 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.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Shinkai, Makoto
« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2024, 01:52:54 PM »
Your Name

Yes, I found this moving, yes I get the appeal, but the further out I get from it, the more I can't get past all the anime cliches that drag down the film.

The film ticks off just about every coming of age anime cliche and the two main characters lack true flaws besides being horny teens.

The music is overproduced J-Pop ballads, there's an awful montage that rushes the end of the first act, and it's mostly the final act where the film started to click for me.

It's enjoyable, middle of the pack Anime when there are so many more better written, paced, and stylized Animes out there. I continue to be baffled by the adoration this studio gets when it's riddled by some of the worst tendencies of Anime.

Just goes to show that whether or not you're an Anime fan, we can all agree Anime fans have terrible taste.

 

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