Makoto Shinkai

Makoto Shinkai, born Makoto Niitsu on February 9, 1973, is a Japanese director, animator, and author. A co-founder of the animation studio CoMix Wave Films, he has established a reputation for creating anime movies that feature visually vibrant art paired with romantic narratives focusing on adolescents and high school students. His works have earned strong critical acclaim and established him as one of Japan's most commercially successful filmmakers.

Raised in Koumi, Nagano, Shinkai grew up in a family that owned a construction enterprise. His early creative interests were sparked during middle school through exposure to comic books, animated media, and novels. He later attended Chuo University to study Japanese literature, participating in a student literature group and illustrating picture books before graduating in March 1996.

Shinkai began his professional career in 1996 at the video game company Nihon Falcom, spending five years creating promotional game videos, web content, and graphic designs. During his tenure there, he established a collaborative relationship with composer Tenmon. In 1999, Shinkai produced the independent short project She and Her Cat, a five-minute black-and-white animation depicting a young woman through the perspective of her pet cat, which earned top honors at the 12th DoGA CG Animation Contest in 2000.

Following the reception of his short work, Shinkai conceived the idea for Voices of a Distant Star in mid-2000. After securing production support from Manga Zoo, he resigned from Nihon Falcom in May 2001 to devote seven months to completing the project, which was released in 2002 as his initial project with CoMix Wave. He followed this with his full-length debut, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, in late 2004, and the three-part animated feature 5 Centimeters per Second in early 2007. Later that year, he animated a television advertisement for the local newspaper Shinano Mainichi Shinbun.

After spending 2008 in London, Shinkai returned to Japan in 2009 to develop new projects. He released the adventure and romance feature Children Who Chase Lost Voices in May 2011, followed by another animated feature, The Garden of Words, in May 2013. His projects during this period further solidified his distinct style of storytelling and visual aesthetic.

Shinkai achieved significant worldwide commercial success with his subsequent releases, collectively referred to as the Disaster trilogy. His 2016 feature Your Name gained critical acclaim and broke box office records to become the highest-grossing anime film of its time globally. He followed this success with Weathering with You in July 2019, which grossed nearly two hundred million dollars globally, and Suzume in November 2022, which surpassed three hundred million dollars worldwide.

In his personal life, Shinkai is married to former actress Chieko Misaka, with whom he has a daughter, young actress Chise Niitsu, born in 2010. Among his personal artistic influences are animated films by directors Hayao Miyazaki, Hideaki Anno, and Mamoru Oshii. In recognition of his creative contributions, the minor planet 55222 Makotoshinkai was officially named in his honor.