Makoto Shinkai

Shinkai's work in Ef: A tale of Memories?

Nick — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:12:54 -0500

Though I knew that Makoto Shinkai had directed the openings of the ef games by minori, but I had thought that he didn't work on the Ef: A Tale of Memories anime series at all.

Turns out, my research for the last post had me stumbling on IMDB crediting Shinkai for directing the openings of the series, and has him listed under "Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director". Is this actually true? The style is very different from his usual work, though I do think it fits better with the series than what I tend to think of as his "signature" style.

I've watched the series and thought it was worth watching. One day, I need to put up a post (or posts) with my thoughts on the anime I've watched this past season.

UPDATE: Looks like this isn't true, as of hashi's check on several sources (including the credits from the series itself) in the comments. I'm currently submitting updates to IMDB to get Shinkai's name removed from the credits1.

Thank you, hashi!

UPDATE - October 28, 2008: I had put in change requests to IMDB after hashi confirmed that Shinkai wasn't mentioned anywhere in the credits for the show. IMDB had since removed Shinkai's name from the credits of this series.

1. And how annoying this process is, since Shinkai's name was credited on IMDB for each individual episode instead of the series as a whole, so I have to put a separate request for each episode. And each request consists of going to the episode, pressing an update button, selecting Second Unit Directors or Assistant Directors, selecting "Delete" from the drop down next to Shinkai's name, entering the explanation, finishing it, and confirming the submission. Each step is a separate page with "Continue" or "Finish" button that you have to press to move to the next step...

Bar Graph of Anime Movie Budgets

Nick — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:20:25 -0500

A bar graph showing the estimated budgets, adjusted to 2008 U.S. Dollars, of the following anime movies

Original amounts pulled from IMDB:

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Five Centimeters Per Second
Akira
Steamboy
Perfect Blue

Makoto Shinkai's Movie Budget

Nick — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:59:40 -0500

I got involved in a discussion on AnimeNfo comparing Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai 1. While looking up some hard facts about both of these animation directors, I came across the difference in the budgets they had to work with.

I couldn't find any numbers for Howl's Moving Castle, but I did find the estimated budgets2 for his two movies preceeding it::

Sprited Away (2001): ¥1,900,000,000 (About $15,800,000 in 20013. This would be around $20,000,000 adjusting for inflation to 2008.)
Princess Mononoke (1997): ¥2,400,000,000 (About $20,000,000 in 19974. This would be around $27,000,000 adjusting for inflation to 2008.)

Of course, Miyazaki is the proven animation director; Shinkai is still a newbie and basically still learning on the go. But this still really surprised me:

Five Centimeters Per Second (2007): ¥25,000,000 (About $220,000 in 20075. This would be around $230,000 adjusting for inflation to 2008.)

I've always thought that Makoto Shinkai probably worked on a smaller budget, but how much of a magnitude smaller really surprised me. I was thinking that he was working in the $1-2 million U.S. dollar range for his movies, not as low as $220,000 U.S. Dollars6!

Here's some budget numbers (in yen, estimated) that I could find for movies by other directors:

Akira (1988): ¥1,100,000,000 (About $8,500,000 in 19887, or around $16,000,000 adjusting for inflation to 2008.)
Steamboy (2004): ¥2,127,519,898 (About $19,000,000 in 20048, or around $22,000,000 adjusting for inflation to 2008.)
Perfect Blue (1998): ¥3,000,000 (!) (About $23,000 (!!) in 19989, or around $31,000 (!!!) adjusting for inflation to 2008.)

UDPATE: Reformated the post a bit to hopefully make it easier to follow. Also added in the calculations to current U.S. Dollars for the budgets of the anime I've added at the end.

UPDATE 2: For a visual representation of these numbers:

1. Something I've touched on my blog before...
2. I used this page to estimate the translation from yen to dollars for those years, and used this page to adjust that dollar amount for inflation to 2008. All dollar amounts are in U.S. Dollars.
3. Assuming a rate of ¥120 to $1 in 2001
4. Assuming a rate of ¥120 to $1 in 1997
5. Assuming a rate of ¥115 to $1 in 2007
6. If IMDB is to be believed, at least.
7. Assuming a rate of ¥130 to $1 in 1998
8. Assuming a rate of ¥110 to $1 in 2004
9. Assuming a rate of ¥130 to $1 in 1998

Makoto Shinkai at BFI

Nick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:12:27 -0500

Though I've seen some quick write-ups from some lucky ~~bastards~~people who got to see (and meet) Makoto Shinkai at the BFI in London, Martin was another of those lucky ~~bastards~~persons who got to even shake his hand and wrote about the experience at Nakama Britannica.

When last linked to an interview of Shinkai, I had pointed out that he was working on a new feature-length film. In his talks at the BFI, he confirms one of my thoughts at the time: Shinkai went to London to get some new inspirations for his new film. He mentions getting out of his "comfort zone" to recreate the feelings of when he left home for Tokyo when he was eighteen.

In other but related news, I mainly have two words for Fledge: Do it!1 I did buy the Shinkai: Collection Box Set2 for $30 a few years ago at the local Best Buy3, an investment that was well worth it. Worth it enough to import the Special Edition R2 DVD of Byousoku 5 CM when it was released in Japan4 along with buying the R1 release when it came out here in the U.S.

1. The power of peer pressure compels you!
2. I've always found it a bit amusing and presumptuous that it was called a "Collection" when Shinkai only had two movies and a short out that totaled to only about 120 minutes total, but they are probably my most re-watched DVDs so far.
3. It might also be available at Robert's Anime Corner Store if Fledge couldn't wait, but I'm sure there's a good reason he's waiting for it to be available on Amazon.
4. Picture of box here. I should put up a pic of the full contents of the DVD too...

Takaki and Kanae watching a rocket lifting off

Nick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:25:10 -0500

Takaki and Kanae watching a rocket lifting off.

Limits Out of Necessity

Nick — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:05:26 -0500

A new member at Cherry Blossoms Falling 1 had pointed out an interview of Makoto Shinkai on the Electric Sheep Magazine site, the first I've seen since Shinkai released his Five Centimeters Per Second last year.

What interested me most was the real reason Shinkai did without color in Other Worlds and She and Her Cat:

Makoto Shinkai: I made She and Her Cat in black and white more out of necessity than design. I made the film in 1998 and at that time it was very difficult to make colour animation due to the lack of available technology. Colour used three times as much space in the computer and it would also make the process three times slower and as I was still working at the time, I needed to minimise what is a long and complex procedure. If you make a movie now, it doesn’t matter if it’s black and white or colour because the technology is able to deal with it.

Another interesting thing Shinkai reveals is that he is working on a feature-length film for his next project.

I also like learning about Makoto's feelings about trains in his work:

MS: This is a question that I get asked quite a lot by Japanese audiences too. I am not particularly interested in trains themselves and I don’t particularly enjoy drawing trains. People do point out that trains feature in my films quite prominently and what I tell them is that first of all, trains are part of everyday Japanese life and as the main characters in these films are in their teens they don’t have access to cars. Though I’m not interested in trains themselves, I am interested in scenes of trains travelling through cities or countryside. The box-shaped carriages moving through these scenes are beautiful to me and I am attracted by the idea of total strangers being taken to their destination in these boxes. I haven’t seen a level crossing in London yet but in Japan they are everywhere and I have always liked the idea of this divide between two sides that the crossings create. For much of my life, from high school to university to my working life, I used trains myself and have many memories from those days.

I can't wait to see what he will make next!

1. Please ignore the banner there. If you don't know what I mean by that, don't worry about it...

Chobi in She and Her Cat

Nick — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:35:50 -0500

Chobi in Her apartment in She and Her Cat.

New Game Trailer Directed By Makoto Shinkai

Nick — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:55:26 -0500

Here's the new trailer directed by Makoto Shinkai for the game "ef - the latter tale", Music was composed by Tenmon.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. My internet connection is being very obtuse right now. Hopefully, it will clear up in the morning so I can actually watch the entire video.

(Heads up via Daike. He also has links to where you can download higher-quality WMVs, which is probably the route I'll try to watch this.)

UPDATE: Finally got to watch the higher-quality WMV video. It seemed to be missing a certain punch that the trailer of "ef -a fairy tale of the two-"1 had. The first thing that comes to mind is that the music in this one lacks the climactic punch that was in the earlier game trailer. As usual, the visuals are very, very pretty...

1. This trailer can be seen on an earlier blog post.

Chobi in Neko no Shuukai

Nick — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:16:41 -0500

Chobi being lazy again in Neko no Shuukai.

Chobi being petted in Five Centimeters Per Second

Nick — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:10:38 -0500

Chobi being petted by Akari in Five Centimeters Per Second