Favorite Makoto Shinkai film
| The one with the cat. |
| Isn't it 5 Centimeters Per Second hands down? I mean that ending is the good kind of bitter sweet flavor. I would've liked to see more of a focus on the civil war within Beyond the Clouds. When the conflict started I thought the story was going to turn into a full-blown World War 3 kind of movie, but meh. |
| Hoshi no Koe. The first (big) and the best. |
| I haven't actually watched it, but The Place Promised in Our Early Days sounds like the most pretentious so i voted for that |
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| underrated thread. Hoshi no Koe was great, Beyond The Clouds had a troll prologue and a compelling storyline, She and Her cat was super short but still stronger than 25eps series, Hoshi no ou wo Kodomo was Ghibli'ed but still enjoyable, Kotonoha no Niwa was 8/10 rainporn, but... 5cm/s for sure. The anime version, the manga and also the novel are far superior to any other franchise in this industry. It's fucking purrfect. All other arguments are invalid. Worth mention Cross Roads and Dareka are also great. |
| Okay, let's start... ...5 centimeters per second is his best so far, in the sense that it mixes amazing visuals with equally praiseworthy content, a tragic view on love emphasized by a profoundly intimist direction. Among the best animated works I've seen under the "romance" label. Garden of words to me is almost as good as that one but I can understand that it didn't fulfill people's expectations. In this case the scenery porn is the actual driving force instead of the love story which appears to be somewhat underdeveloped. I think this is maybe the least purely story-driven of his movies, and that actually works in its advantage. Children who chase... uhm, your typical Ghibli fare with, again, breathtaking visuals and a fairly good worldbuilding. The characters are endearing but limited. I quite liked it, but I prefer Shinkai to develop his own style instead of copying Miyazaki. The place promised in our early days was kind of forgettable to me. I can't seem to remember anything solid about it; liked the experience but it was a bit too messy, the sci-fi context didn't appeal me in the slightest. Still, it seems I found it good enough, if not as a whole, through bursts of greatness. I can't say the same for Voices of a distant star. Aside from the goddamn precious visuals -again- this was to me like a 5 centimeters per second beta version, with fake and contrived monologues and reiterative -and kind of annoying- emotional exposition. On his shorts, I think he's been more regular. She and her cat is a very nice, stylish and somewhat melancholic experience, same as Other worlds. Egao is a guilty pleasure of cheesy joy. Dareka no manazashi and Cross roads were both some of the most beautifully crafted works I've ever seen but sadly their condition of commercials didn't allow for much development and significance. And his short in the Ani*Kuri collection, A gathering of cats, is a surprisingly convincing lesson of condensed narrative and the second best in there. I guess I am in a sort of middle road with Shinkai. His works don't -consistantly- amaze me but I see a lot of potential, and to a point find the criticisms on the vacuity of his style unfair. |
| I've only seen Voices of a Distant Star and She & Her Cat, and VDS is one of the best things I've seen in a long time. She & Her Cat was similar too, so I know it wasn't a fluke - this guy has serious talent for telling emotional stories, even ones that hardly have any time to tell a proper story. If those two were anything to go by, I'll love his other works, but I'm curious to see if any of the others can top VDS. It'll certainly be amazing if they can and I've love to see them try, as I have a very high opinion of VDS and anything better than that would be godlike. |
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| Not a huge fan of Shinkai. Beautiful visuals, bittersweet romance, etc. Voice of the Distant Star was my favorite, but it could just be that it was the first one I watched. It was short and carried with it the same emotional weight as any of his other show's I've seen. The Place Promised in Our Early Days was my least favorite. |
| Sieg Zeon! |
| 5cm and Garden are the only two I'd consider good and above, so Garden. |
| 5cm, by far. I don't remember them well, but my impressions of the rest weren't favorable. Either too short, insubstantial stories, messy science fiction, lack of believability (ahem...GOW), etc. If I had to pick a Silver and Bronze--VODS or Placed Promised, but neither did much for me. There's more star and navel gazing in those works than actual story. But maybe that's the point: an empty canvass for the viewer to fill in, idk. |
DouluoSep 30, 2014 3:42 PM
| The Place Promised in Our Early Days, because it actually told a decent story and had a conclusion instead of just being scenery porn. |
| "Laws exist only for those who cannot live without clinging onto them." -Souske Aizen "Bleach"  |
| Yeah, I really want to see a fully-animated Cross Roads, because that seems like it could be the best one. |
| Children Who Chase Lost Voices (your vote) Cause it was the most fantasy-ish |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Children Who Chase Lost Voices is the best because it is his richest and most complex film. |
| Definitely 5 Centimeters Per Second. The story is so damn good and I really like it. |
Zergneedsfood said: mayukachan said: Too bad it's an advertisement for a cram school. :3Yeah, I really want to see a fully-animated Cross Roads, because that seems like it could be the best one. Too bad :( |
| Kotonoha no Niwa is his best work, i really want Cross Roads to be a full movie as well, looked so good. |
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| My favorite is that one film about cherry blossoms petals falling at the speed of 0.18km/h. I think it was called "The petals that couldn't fall faster". |
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| Honestly... I don't really like any of them. 5 cm/s was especially terrible Kotonoha no Niwa is great as scenery porn though |
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| I've only seen two of his stuff so far and one of them, I have yet to complete. They are: Hoshi no Koe; going into this, I had no idea that he was behind it, meaning I went in almost completely blind. The result? I hated it. The story was incoherent, the characters barely meant a thing and the CGI was terrible. Unbelievably jarring. I was actually surprised to find out that it was the famed Makoto Shinkai's first work and like my experience with Ghibli, it disappointed me greatly. I mean, this is things from two guys (Shinkai and Miyazaki) I've heard praised beyond most and they sucked. 5 cm/s; this, I did know what I was getting into. I knew I was in for a lot of scenery porn and truth be told, it is indeed beautiful. I can say, without hesitation, that this has the greatest visuals of anything I've ever seen (real life excluded). But the story? I felt that it greatly sucked. In fact, I'd hold no hesitation in saying that the movie would be far better if they took out the two characters, because then at least, we wouldn't have something so damn cheesy to distract us from the visual porn. I don't know if the remaining two episodes will make any difference, but for the sake of the respect I have for this industry's big names, I hope it does. I also have Kotonoha no Niwa in my HDD and am going to watch it soon. Depending on how 5 cm/s goes, I'll know how to keep my expectations because if that is, according to the vast majority of you, Makoto Shinkai's best work, I'll know better than to expect too much. |
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TripleSRank said: He does really awesome commercials and shorts. I thought Voices of a Distant Star was horrible, and 5cm/second was average. However, Cross Road was a fun watch that left me wanting a full series. Someone's Gaze was good as well- though it was a little hard for me to relate to due to personal reasons. I would strongly recommend watching the latter two if you haven't already, given how short they are: The only other shows he's connected to that I currently plan on watching are The Garden of Words and ef ~ A Fairy Tale of the Two. Overall I wouldn't say he's particularly good or bad. I think 5cm/second is overrated, but I don't necessarily think he is. That's probably because I don't see much praise of Makoto Shinkai himself very often, though. |
| Garden of Words for me... |
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| Shitty plot, beautiful art But that's it. |
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| I agree 5 Centimeters Per Second is the best one. It's still one of my favorite movies. The ending with the song doesn't completely work for me, which might be cultural differences since it's a apparently a very recognizable, old, Japanese pop song, but otherwise it just captures something really sad about life while still somehow redeeming it with beauty and is full of unforgettable images. Such as the rocket launch. Voices of a Distant Star is impressive, but still kind of amateurish. There is a lot of story there that he doesn't fully explain and it's often awkward although it's still a very, very good movie. His potential was undeniable already then. The Place Promised in Our Early Days is solid, interesting and unusual, but I remember it not feeling quite right, maybe like there wasn't enough content to properly fill 2 hours. It was too slow. I think Children Who Chase Lost Voices is great, but it's just a Ghibli pastiche, so I find it a bit difficult to take it quite seriously. It strangely felt more like an exercise than a serious movie. The Garden of Words I just watched recently and think is his worst movie. It's just extremely melodramatic and sappy in the worst possible way. You're supposed to really be touched by their feelings, but everything happens so fast I don't really buy their love. It's as if like he was trying to get the build-up out of the way as quickly as possible just so we could get to the crying as quick as possible. In a way, it felt like "Instant Shinkai". Just pour water and wait 30 seconds. I hope he still has his best works in front of him, people did call him "the next Miyazaki", but I'm afraid 5 Centimeters Per Second was the best he could do and now he's just found his shtick and is going to keep punching the clock until he can retire. |
| I have seen 3 of them. The best of them was definitely The Garden of Words. I kind of liked it, felt most real of them. While I disliked 5cm/s, found it very boring, and Voices of a Distant Star was outright crap. |
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| Haven't seen any of his other works apart from 5cm/s which was visually appealing. |
 All credit goes to Sacred. |
| I personally loved his use of silence in 5cm per Second - the scene where he was on the train, and the part where the two of them walked alone through the snow, leaving nothing but the crunches of their feet to be heard. The Place Promised in Our Early Days was also animated beautifully, but the story didn't really make sense for me. His other works are also up there, but 5cm per Second is definitely my favorite. |
| I like his commercials. |
| Children Who Chase Lost Voices was decent and had more going for it than his other works besides visuals. All of his other works, while not terrible in anyway, feel like they are missing large chunks of content and I can't really get behind them because the characters are so bland or not there at all. |
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| Children Who Chase Lost Voices is my favorite. Yes, it's Ghibli-esque, but that's actually a good thing. Fantasy, a good story, and Shinkai's typical romance that could've been, but wasn't. |
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| One of the most overrated directors in history. He is number 2 director in favorites after Miyazaki (obviously) I mean, really? |
gothamknight26 said: guywholikesanime said: ahaha!! besides Miyazaki who better then shinkai? He's a master at telling story and making emotions felt with animation and music.One of the most overrated directors in history. He is number 2 director in favorites after Miyazaki (obviously) I mean, really? From what I've seen, Miyazaki isn't really that amazing either. |
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| The necromancer is the OP himself. Haha. On topic, Haven't watched both Voices movies. Out of 3 I have watched: 5 Centimeters per Second is the best by far and The Place Promised in Our Early Days bored me the most. The Garden of Words is quite decent. |
| Garden of word is my favourite. The story is quite decent maybe inferior to 5 cm per second but the scenery view is one of the best in anime i saw and love the ost too. |
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| I like The Place Promised In Our Early Days the most and Children Who Chase Lost Voices I like the least. |
| You're a louse, Roger Smith. - R. Dorothy Wayneright This is my fight! No Senpai, this is our fight! - Kojou Akatsuki & Yukina Himeragi  |
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