Miyazaki has a great talent, but I really struggle every time I create a new film and am far from Miyazaki.
— Makoto Shinkai
'Your Name' is a film created with the innate imaginations of a Japanese team and put together in a domestic medium. When such a work is imbued with Hollywood filmmaking, we may see new possibilities that we had been completely unaware of - I am looking forward to the live-action film with excited anticipation.
I personally am not very interested in awards or the awards circuit.
When I was working at the game company, I wasn't just doing graphic design, I was doing the entire product management, so I would do the graphic design, I would create the advertisements, even the catch copies. I would figure out what kind of packaging and design of the packaging, so I was basically doing total product management at that time.
When I made 'Voices of a Distant Star,' I wanted to make money from making that movie, of course, but that wasn't my major reason.
I think it is really important to not only take advantage of these tools that you have at your disposal but also to really take the time to develop ideas within yourself and think about what you want to animate, and then you can use these tools to create what you want to create.
The first I paid to see with my own money was 'Laputa Castle In The Sky.' And I was like, wow! I really shocked by it. So I want to make movies that have a similar impact on the audience to that.
Ghibli is about craftsmanship. They draw characters and put life in it.
I do receive some offers for live-action, but I'm not really that interested. It's not something you can just try out and give it a go.
Some people say, 'Well you're a man; how do you write about women or girls when you don't know about them?' Well, I've got my imagination, and I can write about women. Yes, I'll never be pregnant and give birth to children, but I can imagine a bit of what it's like. When you create characters, it's just about making them really real to people.
I think that's a universal theme, you know: we don't know who we're going to meet tomorrow. And that person might change your life entirely. There's always that possibility, and while you're not necessarily actively seeking it, you have that desire deep down.
I pay attention to the things that nobody else is looking at.
I don't think anybody can replace Mr. Miyazaki.
Miyazaki is a genius. He is the legend.
I think it is one of the common themes for many Japanese people to choose where to live: Tokyo or their hometown.
When you're a teenager, there are more things you don't know than you know, and more people that you haven't met than you have met. I felt that way when I was a teenager, and I think maybe, with my films, I'm targeting grown-ups who remember that feeling.
I really wish it would only take two hours to make a two-hour movie.
When I was growing up and until I got married, I had some times when I felt a bit lonely and a little bit isolated - even after I got married.
When we were doing 'Five Centimeters Per Second,' at that time, Japan was in an era when it felt nothing would ever change, so I wanted to make a movie that reflected that feeling.
I was working in a gaming company, but I really wanted to make animation. I didn't really have anything special, no special tools at my disposal, so I used what I had on hand like Photoshop, and that's really how I started.
The identity of Studio Ghibli movies are how the characters move. They move like live, real people.
I feel the best scripts are those that are originally written to be films: that is film in its purest sense.
When Ando arrives in the studio, he picks up his pen even before he gets a cup of tea, and he stays seated until the very last train at night. He hardly eats, just nibbles at little balls of rice at his desk.
I grew up in the countryside and wanted to go to Tokyo. I had Tokyo complex.
Of course I'm happy when people mention his name and mine in the same breath. It's like a dream. But I know they are overpraising 'Your Name' because I am absolutely not at Miyazaki's level. Honestly, I really don't want Miyazaki to see it because he will see all its flaws.
In daily or everyday life, I am so impressed with tiny details, like when I look up at a street lamp falling on the street, it seems to have meaning or so much information in it.
My life has had a lot of fun moments, but I tend to feel sadness more often.
You don't want to be imitating his style. Every anime-maker is thinking, 'I can't be too like Miyazaki.'
'Your Name''s success told me movies still have the power to connect with society. As a medium, it still has a power that resonates.
As soon as I have the idea, I need to create as quickly as possible, because it's what's going on in society, and that's what connects me to my audience.
When I was growing up, I didn't have tons and tons of friends.
I think love isn't doomed, of course, but in real life, love doesn't always work out.
I am from the countryside, very rural countryside, and I moved to Tokyo when I was 18 and have been living first-ever since. So yes, I am a city guy, but sometimes I sort of feel there's another me in a parallel world, still in the countryside.
I think animation can tell more than live action.
There are loads of novels that I really love, like Haruki Murakami's books, and when I read them, I do think about how they would work as an anime. But I do believe that those are great books because they work best as novels, or great manga work best in that form.
I have never really sensed any of Miyazaki's artistic influence on Ando. If there is an influence, it's more in his attitude to his work.
When we have a disaster in Japan, I wonder, how can we prevent our lives and traditions and history from the disaster?
You learn a lot more from stories about getting rejected than stories about becoming happy.
When I was young as a teenager, that was the biggest mystery in the world to me: Why don't people connect?
People who draw tend to think they're craftsmen, so they really want to hang onto their pens and papers, but it's not terribly productive. To be honest with you, it's faster and easier to start with the computer.
