Makoto Shinkai’s newest anime film, Suzume no Tojimari, will be released in theaters on Wednesday (8/3/2023). However, previously this anime director released several works that were also fun to watch.

Lately, anime has become one of the most popular cultures, which is also one of the most watched film genres. Hundreds of new anime films are shown on TV and screened in films in Japan every year. One of them is the Makoto Shinkai film.

Makoto Shinkai is a new director who made waves with the anime film Your Name released in 2016. It became a global box office hit. Since then, he has cemented his position as the new leader of the global anime industry after his 2019 anime film Weathering with You was also a huge success.

There are many more anime films directed by Makoto Shinkai that must be watched besides these two recent works. So, here are the best Makoto Shinkai anime films of all time.

5 Makoto Shinkai Anime Movies You Must Watch

1. The Garden of Words

It is the debut film directed by Makoto Shinkai and was released in 2013.

The story of the film, which was also screened in South Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong cinemas, is centered on the main character named Takao Akizuki, a 15-year-old high school student.

He dreams of becoming a shoemaker. When it rains, he skips school in the morning and goes to a park called Shinjuku Gyoen, which is actually in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

One day, Takao meets a heroine named Yukari Yukino who frequents Japanese gardens. He has problems with several things, including work and love, and he runs away from those problems to the park. They meet there on a rainy day and talk to each other.

2. The place promised at our beginning

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is Makoto Shinkai’s 2d anime movie launched in 2004. It follows his first work Voices of a Distant Star in 2002.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days additionally called Makoto Shinkai’s first full-duration anime, made with contributors of his team. Meanwhile, Voices of a Distant Star is a short film that he produced almost entirely himself.

Makoto Shinkai’s recent anime storylines such as Weathering with You and Your Name are based on his early works such as The Place Promised in Our Early Days. The main characters scramble to achieve their dreams by sacrificing someone or the world instead.

The setting is fictional Japan in 1996, focusing primarily on two high school students named Hiroki and Takuya. They put their whole heart into completing the plane to fly to the symbolic and mysterious tower.

3. Aging with you

One of the best animated films of 2019 is Weathering with You. Some Anime Fans Think This Film Is Better Than Makoto Shinkai’s Initial Films

The story centers on high school student Hodaka Morishima, who flies from his isolated island to Tokyo. He wanders desperately in an unknown metropolis without enough money or work.

In downtown Tokyo, he meets a girl named Hina Amano who is gifted with an extraordinary ability: she can make the weather sunny.

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4.5 centimeters per second

5 Centimeters Per Second is considered one of Makoto Shinkai’s early career masterpieces. This animated film, which was released in 2007, consists of three parts with a total duration of approximately one hour: Cherry Blossom, Cosmonaut and 5 centimeters per second.

All three parts center on the boy Takaki and the heroine Akari. They loved each other when they were elementary school students but the situation changed with time.

This anime represents a cruel but true “reality”.

5. Your name

Your Name is one of the most successful films in Japan of all time and is also well known around the world. In fact, this popular anime is the second highest-grossing Japanese film with an estimated box office of $250 million (#1 is Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away).

Your Name is also playing in theaters in more than 120 countries and regions, and sales are booming in China and South Korea.

There are two main characters in Your Name: Taki Tachibana who lives in the metropolitan city of Tokyo and Mitsuha Miyamizu who lives in the countryside.

One day they realized that their bodies had been swapped with each other all of a sudden, and it happened again and again. In the present, they live in different timelines (there is a three year difference.) Taki and Mitsuha get to know each other more while being confused under strange circumstances.

So, those are five recommendations for anime films made by Makoto Shinkai. So before watching the latest film in theaters, make sure to watch the previous films.