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How long will we have to wait until we see more from the creator of the most successful non-Miyazaki anime ever?

It’s safe to say that anime director Makoto Shinkai is a pretty popular guy these days. His latest film, Your Name is not only a critical success, with its domestic box earnings now at 13.8 billion yen (US$134 million), it’s a runaway commercial hit as well.

Your Name is now the highest-earning non-Hayao Miyazaki-directed anime movie in history, and it’s even surpassed the legendary Studio Ghibli co-founder’s final feature film, The Wind Rises. It’s also the sixth-highest grossing domestic movie of all time in Japan, with only one live-action film, Bayside Shakedown 2, part of the long-running Odoru Daisosasen police story franchise, above it.

As such, both animation fans and industry executives alike are already looking forward to Shinkai’s next project, and the director himself recently gave a few hints about what he hopes it’ll be. While appearing at a screening of Your Name at Korea’s Busan International Film Festival, Shinkai told reporters that his next anime will probably be about an adolescent boy and girl, much as with most of his previous body of work. As for a timetable, he said he’d like to make the movie within the next three years, and have it distributed by Toho, the same company that’s handling Your Name.

Shinkai didn’t clarify if by “three years” he meant that he wants production to start within that period, or if he hopes for the movie to actually be in theaters in that amount of time. Plenty of people, though, are no doubt hoping it’s the later.

Source: Sports Hochi via Jin
Top image: Your Name official website