Makoto Shinkai on his upcoming new film and the ending of 'Weathering with You'

Makoto Shinkai is now one of the most well known anime movie directors thanks his award winning and critically acclaimed Kimi No Nawa(Your Name) and Tenki No Ko (Weathering with You). Recently ANNnews, a Japanese News Channel sat down with Makoto Shinkai and discussed about his previous films and also asked some questions about the new film he is working on.

Before I start a big thanks to @LnlyHikikomori for providing us with the translation.

About the ending of Tenki No Ko(Weathering with You)

'Weathering with You' was loved my many but a few people didn't like the ending. Shinkai addressed the ending of Weathering with You in the interview. He mentioned that he was worried that people would get mad at him for the change he did to Tokyo at the end of 'Weathering with You' (talking about the flood) and how the characters would adapt with the new situation. He was worried but he felt that it was necessary. He said:

“No one knows that, but I was worried how the characters would perceive that the world is changed because of me”

He later on drew connection with the current pandemic and mentioned how fragile the world is and it is always changing. There is no shortcut way of escaping it. People needs to adapt to this changing world. We have a detailed post about why Hodaka's choice was justifiable and correlated with the real message of the movie. Infact I would go as far to say that, Hodaka is one of the most well written character Shinkai has ever written as he embraced the imperfections of humans and embraced it.

Demon Slayer outperforming Your Name

(Kimi No Nawa)

Recently Demon Slayer: Mugen Train overtook Your Name and it is now the second highest grossing movie in Japan box office. Regarding this the director previously stated:

"Wow, already?! I feel frustrated, but at the same time, I know it’s healthiness of the entertainment industry that records are constantly getting updated"

He added to that in the interview. This surprised the director a lot considering the movie was released during the pandemic. This showed him that people want entertainment even during the darkest of times.

The next Shinaki film

The big director said that he wasn't allowed to share anything about the movie just yet but he mentioned that his new movie would revolve around something that is out of the control of men. Shinkai said the following about the new movie(according to reddit user u/Puzzled-Window-1172):

"It is a story that begins when a major event occurs that is beyond one's control....I want to depict how we can live as healthy as possible in a world that has changed so much."

“I need to make a film that portrays the things that we need to stand up to after the apocalypse,” Shinkai further added.

The interviewer asked him if the current pandemic would be involved in his new movie. Shinaki replied that the virus environment did affect his mood while the writing of the new film but the film won't include the virus as a main plot point. He also expressed his interest on making a movie about unfolding a 'before the end' situation' which is probably refers to a pre-catastrophic disaster movie after making this one. We assume the movie would be a similar to his previous works and revolve around two compassionate lovers. The new movie will presumably be released around 2022-2023.

We can't wait for the new Shinkai film. Let us know how hyped you are. Also we only got translation of a few part of the interview. So if you know Japanese you can check out the entire interview down below.