'Your Name' Director Makoto Shinkai Announces New Anime Feature

'Weather Child,' the follow-up to the 2016 megahit is scheduled for a release in Japan in July 2019, with distribution already settled for major global markets.

Makoto Shinkai, director of anime smash Your Name, has announced his next film, Weather Child (Tenki no Ko) Weathering With You, to be released in Japan in July 2019.

The follow-up to the 2016 megahit will be the story of a boy called Hodaka, voiced by Daigo Kotaro, who moves from a small island to Tokyo and finds himself working for a shady occult magazine to make ends meet. While working there he meets a girl, voiced by Nana Morishima, who seems to have the power to control the weather.

"I've been working on creating a very real entertainment piece that will make you laugh, cry and say, 'It's so thrilling,' as well as arouse your intellectual curiosity," Shinkai said at a press conference at a Tokyo hotel on Thursday. "I have used the weather as it is a familiar topic to everybody."

Shinkai, 45, teased the film on Twitter in June with a cell he appeared to be working on featuring an umbrella and a construction sign that suggested some of the film would be set in the Japanese capital.

Like Your Name, Shinkai will write and direct alongside character designer Masayoshi Tanaka. Weather Child will be produced by Story Inc., animated by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho.

Your Name took more than $235 million in Japan, making it the second-highest grossing domestic film ever in its home market, behind Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. However, with overseas box office taking its worldwide total over the $350 million mark, it became the biggest anime and Japanese film in history.

Weather Child is set for a worldwide release, with distribution already decided for Asia, Europe, North and South America, but with no dates announced yet.