More anime films by ‘Your Name’ director Makoto Shinkai added to Netflix

Japanese animator, filmmaker and manga artist Makoto Shinkai is best known for directing phenomenal films like Weathering With You, Japan’s number one anime in 2019 and Your Name, the highest-grossing anime film of all time.

While those two hits have been available on Netflix since July, the streamer recently added four other award-winning films previously written and directed by the acclaimed animator to their Netflix roster, which viewers in the Philippines can now watch. 

The new titles include Shinkai’s feature film debut The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007), Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) and The Garden of Words (2013).

Take a look below at the trailers of Shinkai’s full-length feature films currently streaming on Netflix. 

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

The film, written, directed, produced, cinematographed, edited, and storyboarded by Shinkai back in 2004, was his feature film debut.

Set over several years in an alternate history where the Soviet Union occupies half of Japan, the film follows two childhood friends who grow apart after one of their friends disappears.

As international tension rises and a mysterious tower built by the Union starts replacing matter around it with matter from other universes, the friends cross paths once again and realize their missing friend might be the key to saving the world.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days went on to win a number of awards including the Silver Prize for Best Animated Film Section (by audience choice) of Public Prize at the Canada Fantasia Film Festival, Best Animated Film at the 2004 Mainichi Film Awards, and Special Distinction (Feature Film category) in the 2005 Seoul Comics and Animation Festival. 

5 Centimeters Per Second

Released in 2007, 5 Centimeters per Second is a romantic drama that consists of a chain of three stories: Cherry Blossom, Cosmonaut, and 5 Centimeters per Second.

The story begins in the 1990's up until the present day (2008), with each story segment following a period in the life of a boy named Takaki Tōno, as well as his relationships with the girls around him.

This film was awarded Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It also received a novelization in November 2007, and a manga adaption illustrated by Seike Yukiko in 2010.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices

This was released in 2011 and is Shinkai's longest animation film to date. The lively animated film, with elements of adventure, action, and romance, centers on a cheerful and spirited girl named Asuna Watase, who has been forced to grow up quickly ever since her father passed away.

Her mother, a nurse, works long shifts at a hospital. Asuna spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from a crystal radio given by her father as a memento. When she hears a strange song from it, she gets transported to a world of mythical beasts and brave warriors.

Critical reception of the film has been positive. As reviewed by Capsule Computers: "This is perhaps the most important anime film of the new millennium, because it marks an important changing of tides. It is films like Children Who Chase Lost Voices that remind us of how magical anime can truly be."

The Garden of Words

This 2013 drama focuses on Takao Akizuki, an aspiring 15-year-old shoemaker, and Yukari Yukino, a mysterious 27-year-old woman he keeps meeting at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on rainy mornings.

The motifs of the film include rain, Man'yōshū poetry, and the Japanese garden. According to Shinkai, the age difference between the two main characters and their character traits demonstrate how awkwardly and disjointedly people mature, where even adults sometimes feel no more mature than teenagers.

The Garden of Words has won a number of accolades including the 2013 Kobe Theatrical Film Award, and the AniMovie Award for feature films at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film in 2014.

Your Name 

A fan favorite among millions of anime fans, Your Name (also known as Kimi no Na wa) is Makoto Shinkai's most well-known film to date.

This 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film tells the story of a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school girl in a rural town, who suddenly and inexplicably begin to swap bodies. The story focuses on the two teenagers who share a profound, magical connection and the complications that arise when they decide to meet in person.

Critically-acclaimed for its animation, complex narrative, musical score, and emotional weight, this film broke records left and right in the world of anime.

It's the first anime not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than $100 million at the Japanese box office. It officially became the highest-grossing anime film, beating out the international gross of Studio Ghibli's Miyazaki classic, Spirited Away. A Hollywood live-action remake set in the United States is currently in development.