Makoto Shinkai’s modern work is defined by its immediate circumstances to a larger degree than most people realize, be it the themes he decides to tackle or the finesse in the delivery that depends on the whims of the industry. This is how they affected Your Name, Weathering with You, and even his new film Suzume no Tojimari.
Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name achieved unprecedented success, and that warrants an extended look at the film – what it represents for his own career, as well as the industry as a whole.
Since Your Name has finally seen its bluray release in Japan, we’re going to give a thorough look at the neat details hidden in the film, the artists who made it all possible and their personal approach, as well as the usual notes about who animated what. There’s an essay on the film coming up as well, but for now this already should be a huge treat for fans of the film!
Studio Ghibli’s announcement that they were halting regular operations in 2014 hit mainstream sources as hard as any piece of anime news ever could. It was such a big deal that the discourse understandably revolved around what this would mean for the industry as a whole, but that also means a smaller scale issue was mostly overlooked: Miyazaki was retiring and Takahata on his way out, but what about everyone else at the studio?
Welcome back to another compilation of recent – although not strictly within the last 7 days, title be damned – anime industry developments that we felt were worth highlighting, brought to you by the reliable megax. We plan to keep this infrequent column around whenever interesting pieces of info arise and seem to go by unnoticed. Appearing this time: movie budgets, idols, international business, and distribution methods. Let’s jump to our first piece of business!
It’s been a few hours since this year’s installment of Japan’s biggest anime event Anime Japan ended. This exhibition of “everything about anime” featured a considerable number of booths displaying production materials, and so we decided to search twitter and other outlets to compile them into a single gallery. Enjoy!
We’re back to answer our patrons’ questions. This time we get to highlight some exceptional non-Japanese East Asian animators working in this industry, as well as clarifying some doubts about anime as a business and chaotic management endeavor.