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Director Makoto Shinkai shared his thoughts on X as “Your Name.” marks the 10th anniversary of its release. On 5ch, threads compared it to his other major works — with some arguing “Five Centimeters Per Second was better” — while others praised the film citing its box office haul and Academy Prize win. Meanwhile, comments dismissing him as a “one-hit wonder” drew pushback backed by box office figures.
Wed, Aug 26, 5:20 PM
Director Makoto Shinkai (53) posted on X (formerly Twitter) on the 26th, once again expressing his gratitude as his blockbuster anime film “Your Name.,” which he directed and wrote, celebrates the 10th anniversary of its release.
“Your Name.” was released 10 years ago, on August 26, 2016. It earned roughly 25 billion yen at the box office, ranking 5th all-time domestically, and won Best Screenplay at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize — the first animated film ever to do so.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Hope the next one comes out soon.
Nippon TV was pushing him as some kind of successor to Miyazaki, wasn't it.
How do you even mix those two up?
They're completely different in every way.
plenty of weird spots in it.
All I remember is that the visuals were amazing somehow.
is the new film out yet?
Nobody's really talking about anything except that 'nicotine-stained cat' bit.
This year's earthquake didn't wipe them all out.
Hosoda actually went and made a new film.
Shinkai, where's yours?
I heard he's working on one right now.
I can't remember the title of the one before Five Centimeters.
The one where they build a plane and fly to Hakodate.
Your Name. was good too, but the bad ending of Five Centimeters is what really stuck in my long-term memory.
Guess that's just how it goes.
He started doing his own thing after that.
Your Name. was the miracle.
He went on to put out two more 15-billion-yen films after that — is there any other 'one-hit wonder' like that in history?
And on top of that, a live-action adaptation of one of his lesser-known early works pulled in 2.5 billion yen.
Three films in a row over 10 billion yen — that's insane.
And the population's shrinking by around 800,000 a year.
Miyazaki's about the only other person who's pulled off a feat like that.
His last film was 4 years ago, so a new announcement might be coming soon.
I'm old enough to have grandkids, and I genuinely love both Demon Slayer and Shinkai's work.
I'm even taking Friday off to catch the Madoka Magica premiere.
I was skeptical too, up until around the COVID years.
Watching Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan changed my mind.
Background and Key Points
Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name.” opened in Japan on August 26, 2016, months after the devastating Kumamoto earthquakes that April knocked out every theater in that prefecture — the reason one poster describes driving to Fukuoka to catch the opening. The film went on to earn roughly 25 billion yen, the 5th-highest domestic gross of all time in Japan, and won Best Screenplay at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize, the first animated feature ever to take that award. That milestone matters because Japan’s Academy Prize, modeled on the Oscars, had historically treated anime as a separate, lesser category from live-action screenwriting.
The thread doesn’t really argue about whether “Your Name.” is good — it splits on which Shinkai film should define him. One camp holds up the bleaker, unresolved “Five Centimeters Per Second” as his emotional high point, treating “Your Name.” as the polished, commercially safe version of the same romantic-separation formula. The other camp measures him by scale: box office, awards, and staying power.
What the thread underplays is that Shinkai isn’t a one-off case study — the “one-hit wonder” jab gets knocked down by posters citing his two subsequent films, “Weathering With You” and “Suzume,” each also grossing around 15 billion yen, a three-for-three run matched in modern Japanese cinema only by Hayao Miyazaki. Readers unfamiliar with Japan may also miss that the film’s “kuchikamizake,” the chewed-rice ritual sake one poster calls gross, isn’t an anime invention but references an actual, ancient Shinto-linked brewing practice tied to shrine ritual.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread: Director Makoto Shinkai Thanks Fans as “Your Name.” Turns 10: “I’m truly happy this story still lives on in someone’s heart”.
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