Makoto Shinkai has become a huge name in Japanese animation, thanks to the success of his films that intertwine an impending disaster with a touching love story. Now, the filmmaker is opening up about the Japanese disaster that led to his movies Your Name, Weathering With You, and Suzume no Tojimari.
In a new interview with Crunchyroll, Makoto Shinkai discussed the effects of the Great Tohoku Earthquake on his work and on the rest of Japan.
"When the disaster happened in 2011... it shook the whole country to the core, myself included. It changed many things. It changed society, and it changed my approach to animation," he said.
"I gradually started to feel a sense of guilt in making anime. I felt that I wasn't helping anyone if I was simply making anime. The job of creating anime felt useless in helping the earthquake victims. But eventually... I started to explore ways to face and understand disasters that are only possible through anime and entertainment," Shinkai continued.
"That led me to making Your Name. and Weathering With You and finally found my way to making Suzume," he added. "What I've been feeling in the process of making anime since 2011 is that not just earthquakes, but disasters in general are becoming more common in our lives."
Shinkai further explained that it is important to accept that disasters are inevitable and they are often unavoidable when telling a story.
"We need to learn to live side-by-side with disasters. Since 2011, this feeling has grown inside me with each passing year. So it wasn't that I was trying to make a film on natural disasters. But if I wanted to tell a contemporary story, I couldn't avoid the topic. That's how I see it," he said.
Suzume no Tojimari has become Makoto Shinkai's most successful film and is currently the fourth-highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.
Related: Makoto Shinkai Discusses Studio Ghibli Easter Eggs in Suzume
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