two current anime directors · 7:56am May 31st, 2017
Everyone knows there are 5 dangerous topics you shouldn't talk about in your blog. After politics and religion, number 3 is anime. I'm gonna take a risk anyway. 
After watching Your Name, some friends gave me recommendations for other quality animated movies. Two names kept popping up: Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai. Unlike with my other friends who keep telling me to watch TV series and then I never do, I actually tried these out. I'm too lazy to watch TV episodes.
They're both directors who tend to write their own stories. High quality animation, and accessible stories that are mature yet suitable for the family (i.e. not junkfood for weebs), though they usually skew slightly older than Hayao Miyazaki's fairy tale demographic. They're a nice change of pace from the usual 3D CGI animation of Pixar and other American studios.
Filmography I burned through over the course of a week:
Mamoru Hosoda -- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast (already watched Summer Wars)
Makoto Shinkai -- She and Her Cat, Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, The Garden of Words (already watched Your Name)
I'm not gonna review every single film, but I had some thoughts on each director's body of work as a whole.
Hosoda makes charming films about character growth. and furries, he likes those. Great animation, keen directing and visuals, fun characters that move a lot. How can you not have fun watching these? is he the next Hayao Miyazaki??
Hosoda's films are consistently enjoyable.... but I don't recommend them.
Don't get the wrong impression, there's nothing wrong with them. They're just not beautiful to me. After they're done, I feel like I've watched a finely crafted animated film, but not something important. You're not missing out on anything. You'll probably want to watch them anyway if they catch your eye, so don't let this stop you.
Much like how Howl's Moving Castle might be Miyazaki's weakest film (the story fizzled out), all of Hosoda's films felt like Howl to me. A lot of spectacle, with an attempt at cramming in some deeper meaning at the end with a climax, but it feels forced to me. Miyazaki's stronger movies seem to effortlessly carry their meaning, like it just floats in the air surrounding them. He doesn't have to try anything, he lives and breathes his ideas. Except in Howl.
My top pick from this director would probably be Wolf Children, because it has a relaxed pacing that reminded me of Totoro. Hey, wait a minute. 
The entire story is Totoro. Except not as cleverly written. I think I'd rather watch Totoro again.
Shinkai makes slice of life films about the ways people become disconnected. Seperated by time, distance, mortality, or even alternate realities. It's a common theme in all of his stories, but don't mistake it for being predictable. He explores this theme differently each time, such as the ways people manage to reconnect, or perhaps learn to say goodbye for good.
I didn't enjoy most of Shinkai's films.... but I still recommend them.
This guy has ideas he wants to express, and he's got a unique vision. But the problem is that his films come off as pretentious, by which I mean inadequate in their expression. His characters begin as little more than established tropes, and don't develop much beyond that because the story wants to rush ahead and focus on the plot and grand themes. I understand the themes, yet I don't feel them, because I don't really care about his characters. I sympathize with their loneliness as a detached observer, but I'm not invested in whatever outcome awaits them.
But I still think it's important to watch his films, because these ideas and the way he animates them, nobody else is trying this. I didn't enjoy 2001: A Space Odyssey at all, but I still think it's important to see it at least once, and not just because of its fame. Or how about Pulp Fiction; even if you don't like Tarantino's style, at least you know this unique director exists. Not a single person can imitate Kubrick or Tarantino, though thousands have tried and failed.
This isn't all a pessimistic recommendation to watch «pretentious art films», because I was pleasantly surprised that Shinkai did improve over time! Children Who Chase Lost Voices is his attempt at a broader audience, doing a fantasy adventure with characters. Hrm, it's trying too hard to be Castle in the Sky crossed with Princess Mononoke, but isn't as good as either. I almost enjoyed it. But it's an interesting turning point where Shinkai learns that showing what happens to characters isn't enough, you have to build the characters too!
After that, he made The Garden of Words, and this is the point where the magic clicked with me. He goes back to slice of life stories, only now it becomes character driven! Once I cared deeply about the characters, the themes of seperation and disconnection hit me like a tidal wave. It's not pretentious anymore, it's beautiful.
And this is how he went on to make Your Name, the highest grossing anime film in the world. If you remember my reaction post after I watched it, I noticed how there's no conflict for half the movie (I carefully wrote that to be misleading enough, because the conflict is in the second half). Half the movie is just getting to know the characters, before they finally want to meet each other (the trailer suggests the entire movie is about this, which is false). And at that point the twist hits -- no, they simply can't meet. 
I care deeply about them, but can't think of any possible solution to their problem, and this effect is HUGE. Now I can compare this to Shinkai's earlier films, where the disconnect between characters happens early in the plot, and I'm watching with mild interest rather than putting myself in their shoes.
tl;dr - make your characters relatable, and your grandiose pretentious ideas will suddenly work.
I haven't discussed Shinkai's animation, because it's too big a topic to tackle. But I'll say that the feeling of synesthesia I had was no accident, because it kept coming back to me in each of his films. There's something about how specific and careful he animates and directs, down to the exact sound effects needed. A lot of anime uses pretty yet generic backgrounds. Hosoda and Miyazaki can make backgrounds that feel real and alive. Shinkai somehow goes even further than that, and each background feels like it only exists only once in the world, even if it's something common like a subway car. And he directs his scenes to show how THIS subway car is different from every other in existence, because you're there to experience it. Something like that. He's a perfectionist among perfectionists, but it produces unique fruit.
I was surprised to learn that Hosoda's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is based on a book written by the same author as Paprika, made into a movie by Satoshi Kon. I felt that both stories had similar flaws, especially with unconvincing romantic elements. Paprika had Kon's most gorgeous visuals and direction, yet the story was a letdown for me.
and now that I watched Howl's Moving Castle for the first time, I also think that has Miyazaki's most impressive animation. and the story is his weakest. it's also based on a fantasy novel. I like all of these genius animators better when they're writing their own stories, not borrowing from books like Walt Disney. This trend might just be anecdotal, a coincidence.
Speaking of Disney I watched Zootopia for the first time as well. I liked it a lot. But I can't think of anything clever to say about it. I'm personally really bored of the current Disney/Pixar formula, so this is higher praise than it seems. I'm actually looking forward to Zootopia 2.
As someone:
Who really likes Diana Wynne Jones's original novel of Howl's Moving Castle--I learned more about how to handle narrative voice from that book than any other I've ever read--I still have to say that Miyazaki kept way too much of the story. He jettisoned a lot, but he should've jettisoned a lot more and focused on just the real essentials. Also, Billy Chrystal was completely wrong for the voice of Calcifer in the English dub--they should've gotten Bill Murray.
Mike
4553795
I haven't read the book, but that sounds plausible. The movie was doing so well with Sophie's story for the first half! Then it went off in some other direction.
Billy Crystal was such an odd choice.