That’s also challenging, because I have to get everything right in the storyboarding,” he notes. “As a director, I do the storyboards all by myself at the very beginning, and I think that’s important. “Like, we know that the sun won’t come in this way, from this angle, through this building,” he explains, “but we made it that way, just so that it’ll look more beautiful.”įor the director, the greatest challenge with his latest film was controlling all the different stages his animators were taking the film through, and maintaining the stylistic balance he was after with his animated film. It was through the use of light and color that Shinkai and his team were able to craft their exaggeratedly beautiful portrait of the Japanese capital. “So, even though there’s one part that we might’ve changed for the story, geographically, it’s very accurate.” We even got a helicopter chartered, and took pictures from above to map and scan, so that we could make a 3D CG version, and recreate Tokyo from above,” the director says. In order to capture real Tokyo locations like Shinjuku Station with a fair degree of accuracy, Shinkai engaged in a long process of location scouting.

“Hodaka comes to Tokyo and falls in love with Hina, so the city that Hina lives in looks more beautiful to him, because he’s in love.”

“Also, it’s really about the characters’ point of view, how they see Tokyo,” Shinkai adds. “That’s how beautiful I wanted Tokyo to look in this film.” I’m going to go visit.’ And then, once they visit, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s not that beautiful,’” the director says, with a laugh. “We wanted to make it more beautiful than it actually is, so that when someone from outside of Japan sees this film, it’s like, ‘Oh, Tokyo is so beautiful. “‘Thank you for making it sunny today.’”įor Shinkai, one of the goals with Weathering with You was to depict a realistic, albeit slightly heightened version of Tokyo. “In Japan, it’s very common for someone to say, ‘Oh, you’re such a Sunshine Girl,’” he explains. On the press circuit for the film, Shinkai was surprised to learn that in the United States and elsewhere, there is no concept of a ‘Sunshine Girl’ or ‘Rainy Guy’-a person with the abilities that Weathering with You’s Hina has. Berlin Unveils Director-On-Director Talks & Poster Sky Boards 'Four Kids And It' Gkids Buys 'Tokyo Godfathers' - Global Briefs GKIDS

Weathering With You by Makoto Shinkai