‘Suzume’ Director Shinkai Makoto on Hand-Drawn Animation and the Importance of Original Stories
variety.comMark Schilling Japan Correspondent One of Japan’s most commercially successful and highly acclaimed animators, Shinkai Makoto has been called a successor to anime titan Miyazaki Hayao.
Known for his mix of photo-realistic visuals and gorgeously realized fantasies, Shinkai surpassed the master when his 2016 smash “Your Name” became the highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide, beating Miyazaki’s 2001 “Spirited Away.” (That record was later broken by the 2020 anime sensation “Demon Slayer.”) His latest film, “Suzume,” about a teen girl’s quest to halt an apocalypse triggered by the opening of magical doors all over Japan, is also the first Japanese animated feature to screen in the Berlin competition since “Spirited Away” in 2002.
Variety sat down with Shinkai to hear his views on his own work and the state of the anime industry. “Suzume” features the so-called haikyo(“ruins”), the abandoned buildings that can be found everywhere in Japan, many of which are the result of the long stagnation after the economic boom of the 1980s.
The film also references the 2011 earthquake that took nearly 20,000 lives and left much devastation. What were your reasons for those choices? I wanted to make an adventure story, so I wondered where I could set it in present-day Japan.
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