I've been seeing this comparison around quite a bit. Shinkai, the new Miyazaki? Granted, many fans of their work have made that comparison, but is it an apt one? I had given it some thought as I am a big fan of both creators' works.

With his first large project, Voices of a Distant Star, Makoto Shinkai made a big splash in the anime world with an unusual robot-war OAV that, well, didn't really feature robots, didn't have the war be center stage, and wasn't full of gratuitous action, but instead focused solely on a couple and their messages to one another via cell-phone text-messaging as they become separated by time and space. This twenty-five minute movie got people's attention for many reasons; the breathtaking backgrounds, the CG work that rivaled GONZO's early work, the unusual directing and camera placement, the presenting of the familiar themes of separated lovers and solitude in an original way, the way he uses color and lighting to emphasize moods, or the fact that all of this was done almost entirely by Shinkai on his iMac. Yes, the computer age has made a big splash in animation, where an animator can get off the shelf Adobe products and create an animated movie that rivals the quality huge productions houses in many factors. But where Shinkai is able to surpass those large production companies is how seriously and earnestly he took his subject matter, free of commercialization and the polishing that often occurs when an anime goes through many hands. Voice of a Distant Star was a labor of love, and it showed it in all of its imperfections.

Which made it even more reassuring that The Place Promised in Our Early Days did not suffer through too much polish; it still retained the Shinkai feel (as can be observed in the credits; his name appears numerous times). It also showed the world that Shinkai can work with a team and create a stunning feature film. Indeed, the story did suffer from "over-explanation", but the main themes of his previous work are still strongly prevalent here and can evoke tears from its audience from the characters with believable inner life and the sweet and charming storyline that build up to a powerful emotional climax. And it looks like Shinkai's horizons may have room to expand with his upcoming 5 Centimeters per Second in spring 2007.

So, is Makoto Shinkai the new Miyazaki? Hayao Miyazaki, the man who has gained near-legendary fame in the anime industry (and even in the American animation world) for his more than 2 decades of bringing powerful animated films such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Spirited Away?

Well, both Shinkai and Miyazaki both do create films with an incredible eye to background details. They both make use of pillow shots to let the audience meditate on what they've absorbed. Both create very human characters with inner conflicts and genuine emotions. Both do spend much time personally on their films.

But to call Shinkai the new Miyazaki is, I feel, unfair to both. Miyazaki's films generally contain a good storyline that can be easily followed and enjoyed by young and old. He also tends to play with themes in the line of man vs. nature. He may have some romance in his work, but the love story is almost always secondary to his other themes. On the other hand, Shinkai explores a different world. Following from his two films and his various shorts (which include She and her Cat and Other Worlds), love, or separated love, and loneliness are always his main themes. Shinkai also makes strong use of colors and light to frame the moods of scenes, and he occasionally uses quick-changing sequences of imagery to trick the viewer's mind into linking those scenes with memories. Shinkai's work will not be as enjoyable for the young. And don't forget that Shinkai himself disagrees with that comparison. It could also be said that Shinkai is just far too new at this craft to really consider comparing to Miyazaki.

So no, I don't think Shinkai is the new Miyazaki. Shinkai is simply forging out his own path in a different direction. This is not to say that he will or will not surpass the master, but that you simply can't compare them. Both create great films for different purposes, and, I feel, anime as a whole is better off with that.