Tag: kotonoha no niwa

The Garden of Words, despite its return to Makoto Shinkai’s perhaps overly familiar themes and motifs, is still the most concise and eloquent expression of longing he has ever put on screen. A visual and aesthetic tour-de-force by nearly any measure, it is Shinkai’s masterpiece.

We had the honor of talking to one of anime’s most prominent directors, Makoto Shinkai—the creator of memorable anime such as Voices of a Distant Star, Five Centimeters Per Second, and the brand new The Garden of Words. Here’s what he says about his latest film, the casting of Kana Hanazawa, where he gets his lighting ideas from, and whether he sees himself as an outsider or otaku artist.