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.

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.

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.

Makoto Shinkai Quotes