It’s no surprise that Makoto Shinkai is a realist. Weathering With You: How Humanity Is Changing With The Planet. So, can we expect the same from Suzume No Tojimari? Let’s discuss. However, that streak was broken with Weathering With You. But most importantly, his stories are emotional, with a recurrent joke being that the two characters are almost always separated by an open ending. And with the astronomical success of Kimi No Nawa, he’s only proved himself further as an extremely evocative storyteller. It’s been a hot minute since we got a new Shinkai feature, the last being Weathering With You. It’s why I’m so excited about Suzume No Tojimari. Watching Makoto Shinkai movies is like watching fluid art, with comfort only rivaled by something from, say, Studio Ghibli. It isn’t so much the inherent beauty of his animation, but more so what he offers in the metaphors. The way he utilizes nature and spirituality to signify bonds between characters is a signature of his brand. Though likely the two aren’t related in any continuation, there is similar magic to both.īut that’s just the beauty of movies made by Makoto Shinkai, who is known across the Animesphere as one of the greatest animation directors in the world.

Both movies also feature female protagonists with some sort of otherworldly factor binding them to the plot. Both movies look too beautiful to be true, with gorgeous use of sweeping sceneries and a focus on the beauty of nature gone array. Because they share the same director, the similarities aren’t too farfetched.

While Suzume No Tojimari is not a direct sequel to Weathering With You, Shinkai-sama might be creating a sort of cinematic universe where the two are connected. And it seems like Suzume No Tojimari might not be any different.

Weathering With You was also very beautifully written and explored similar themes. That is on brand for most Shinkai features, however. It’s a gorgeous art piece that explores relationships and loss through nature in tandem with absolutely outstanding musical scores. And, in hindsight, it’s easy to say why it ranks so high.

So, if you asked me what piece of work has touched me most in the past decade? The answer would easily be Kimi No Nawa, a movie by famed director Makoto Shinkai.

Kimi no na wa tenki no ko