Makoto Shinkai

Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese filmmaker, animator, and novelist whose films have made him one of the most celebrated directors in the world. Born in 1973 in Nagano Prefecture, he began making animated films largely alone before achieving global recognition with 5 Centimeters per Second (2007) and Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011).

His film Your Name (Kimi no Na wa, 2016) broke Japanese box office records and became one of the highest-grossing anime films ever made worldwide — a body-switching romance that used Shinkai's characteristic themes of longing, distance, and the cruelty of time to produce something of extraordinary emotional power. Weathering With You and Suzume followed, each achieving similar global impact. He has also published prose novelisations of his films.