Makoto Shinkai, the creator of beloved anime films like Your Name, Weather With You, and Suzume, is considered one of Japan's most commercially successful filmmakers, with some of the highest-grossing animated films in his pocket. It's been a while since Shinkai's latest major project, Suzume, was released in theaters. Now, it looks like the legendary filmmaker is getting ready to reveal more about his next film project.
Recently, Shinkai took it to X (formerly Twitter) to wish his followers a Happy New Year in a tweet reflecting on his 2024. He revealed that he spent the year working on his upcoming new film, describing the experience as a “great joy to build a new world that no one has ever seen before from scratch with my colleagues.” He went on to say that he'll do his best to update fans about the movie this year, ending the note by saying, “I hope that 2025 will be a peaceful year for all of you.” You can check out Shinkai's tweet below:
Makoto Shinkai's Most Recent Movies
Shinkai's most recent films have consistently received positive reviews from both critics and audiences. Many critics praised his films' animation, characters, emotional story, visual, and music. Here's a list of his four most recent movies:
The Garden of Words (2013)
Your Name (2016)
Weathering with You (2019)
Suzume (2022)
Shinkai's three latest films are among the highest-grossing Japanese movies of all time both in Japan and worldwide at the time of their theatrical release. Suzume, which was released in November 2022, grossed over US$318 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing Japanese movie of all time, as well as the fourth highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan.
A live-action adaptation of his 5 Centimeters per Second film (2007) is slated for a Fall 2025 release. The film will star Hokuto Matsumura from SixTONES as Takaki Kono. The film is slated for a Fall 2025 release and saw Hokuto Matsumura from the idol group SixTONES cast as Takaki Tono. The 29-year-old actor previously worked with Shinkai as the voice of Suzume's protagonist Souta Munakata, starring alongside Nanoka Hara, who played the titular lead character Suzume Iwato. If you've been keeping up with the recent Oshi no Ko live-action TV show and film, you'd probably recognize Hara as Kana Arima in those projects.
If you haven't seen 5 Centimeters per Second, you can stream it on Netflix. It's considered to be one of Shinkai's most underrated films. 5 Centimeters per Second is told in three short stories centered on a boy named Takaki Tōno over various periods of his life. The one-hour film follows Takaki's from his childhood to his adulthood, and explores how he responds to being separated from his closest friend, Akari Shinohana, as she leaves.
Suzume is also available to stream on Netflix, so if you haven't seen that and his other critically-acclaimed films, you have a lot of time to watch them before his next film is released. We'll keep you updated about his next project once Shinkai makes an official announcement this year.
