Makoto Shinkai
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Makoto Shinkai (新海誠) is the director, animator, and principle voice actor of two popular anime. A native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan, he traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he read while growing up in middle school. His favorite anime is Laputa - The Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, and he lists the Dracula movies as another favorite.
Works
His first piece, Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (Her and Her Cat), 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 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 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 the game company and began to work on Voices. In an interview, Makoto noted that production took around seven months of "real work."
Makoto Shinkai has recently completed work on his latest effort, the 90 minute long Kumo no Mukou Yakusoku no Basho ("The place promised in our early days"). The film was released nationwide in Japan on 20 November, 2004.
External links
- http://www2.odn.ne.jp/%7Eccs50140/ (Makoto Shinkai's Website, Japanese)
- http://daike.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ (Makoto Shinkai Fan Web)