According to the official website, Shinkai Makoto came back to Japan this month. He had been in London since February 2008 and not been working on anime movie production. Last August, he said he'd like to produce a new anime when he comes back to Tokyo. Presumably, he will set out for a new anime project soon.
He directed the OP movie of "ef - a latter tale" game through the internet during a trip in the middle east Asia before the stay in London.
Update
According to the official diary on May 31st, Shinkai started working on a new anime. He said he couldn't say anything concrete about the new project.
How about just tackling his usual auteur-ish tendencies (long distance relationships in a post-modern society) and just grounding it in reality with no sci-fi nonsense, just one person in Japan, one person in the UK, and watching them deal with the distance.
Or is that too boring for anime which just has to have heavy genre influences in it somewhere? (and if it doesnt then its hilariously automatically labelled 'slice of life', but that's another debate entirely...)
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Thought he'd say in London for longer to get inspiration, I was lucky enough to meet him at the BFI when they showed "5 Centimeters Per Second" on the big screen.
He signed my DVD and I shook his hand/took a photo with him, which was awesome. He's very polite and I'm looking forward to his next piece of work.
Beatnik said: How about just tackling his usual auteur-ish tendencies (long distance relationships in a post-modern society) and just grounding it in reality with no sci-fi nonsense, just one person in Japan, one person in the UK, and watching them deal with the distance.
Or is that too boring for anime which just has to have heavy genre influences in it somewhere? (and if it doesnt then its hilariously automatically labelled 'slice of life', but that's another debate entirely...)
That actually sounds like a good story idea in a way. I bet he'd somehow make it work into an awesome emotional ride.