Makoto Shinkai

Makoto Shinkai (新海 誠, Shinkai Makoto), born as Makoto Niitsu (新津 誠, Niitsu Makoto, born February 9, 1973), is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer. He is best known for directing Your Name, the current highest-grossing anime film of all time, and was listed by Variety as one of 10 animators to watch in 2016. 2Life A native of Nagano Prefecture, Shinkai studied Japanese literature at Chuo University where he was a member of juvenile literature club where he drew picture books. He traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to while in middle school. His favorite anime is Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki. Shinkai has been called "The New Miyazaki" in several reviews, including those by Anime Advocates and ActiveAnime—comparisons which he himself calls an "overestimation". 2Career After graduating from Chuo in 1994 he got a job at Falcom, a video game company and where he worked for 5 years by making video clips for games and graphic design including web content. During this time he met musician Tenmon who would later collaborate in many of his movies by providing the music score. In 1999, Shinkai released She and Her Cat, a five-minute short piece done in monochrome. It won several awards, including the grand prize at the 12th DoGA CG Animation contest (2000