Makoto Shinkai’s upcoming your name. is set to take your breath away this summer.
Along with Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai is among the most internationally respected directors working in the post-Hayao Miyazaki anime industry. Following his stunning, almost single-handedly created debut work, Voices of a Distant Star, Shinkai has earned a well-deserved reputation for producing stunning visuals and stories dripping with emotion.
2013’s The Garden of Words was Shinkai’s last theatrical feature, but the 42-year-old director is now in the process of creating a new film, titled your name., or Kimi no na ha. in Japanese.
The story focuses on a pair of high school students, Mitsuha Miyamizu, a girl living in a rural mountain community, and Taki Tachibana, a boy in Tokyo. Though they’ve never met, the two begin seeing each other in their dreams, which sets in motion “a tale of love and miracles.”
The just-released teaser video is short on specifics, but full of the lovingly detailed backgrounds and heart-achingly beautiful use of color that have become Shinkai’s trademarks.
The dialogue, spoken by the film’s stars Ryunosuke Kamiki (who played the lead in Hosoda’s Summer Wars) and Mone Kamishiraishi (who made her professional acting debut in last year’s live-action Lady Maiko), translates as:
“Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning I’m crying, but I don’t know why.”
“I can’t ever seem to remember what I was just dreaming about. But I know I was searching for something…for someone.”
“I think I’ve been feeling like this since that day.”
“That day, when I saw the shooting stars, it was like…”
“Like…like something out of a dream.”
“It was such a beautiful sight.”
your name. is scheduled for release in Japanese theatres in August of next year.
Sources: Cinema Today via Jin, Anime News Network, Eiga.com
Top image: YouTube/Toho Movie Channel
Insert images: Eiga.com, YouTube/Toho Movie Channel