Makoto Shinkai has been a fan favorite director among anime fans as he has produced several well-written and animated films, but he reached a new level of critical and commercial popularity as Your Name became one of the most successful anime film releases of all time back in 2016-2017. So there's admittedly more pressure than ever to deliver with whatever project he decided to release next.

With Tenki no ko: Weathering With You now releasing in Japan, Shinkai shared in a recent interview with NHK that Your Name helped with this new film as he's now attempting to draw the same kind of energetic criticisms.

In the interview, Shinkai mentions how the success of Your Name brought the film to new audiences, and thus drew even more praise and criticism than ever before. This initially made Shinkai hesitate when putting Weathering With You together as he wasn't sure if he wanted to make a film that would be as heavily criticized as his last work. But eventually Shinkai concluded that he wanted to tap into that critiquing energy.

Resolving to create Weathering With You knowing that more scrutiny will be applied to his works, Shinkai mentioned how the criticism of Your Name was an "energy" from fans and a passion that he wanted to chase as a writer. Your Name will thus contributed to Weathering With You's success or lack therof as Shinkai's now out to make a film that will be more "criticized" in this same sense.

Now released into theaters in Japan, Makoto Shinkai directs and writes Tenki no Ko: Weathering With You for CoMix Wave Films. Masayoshi Tanaka returns from Your Name to design the characters, Atsushi Tamura will serve as animation director, and Hiroshi Takiguchi will serve as art director. The film stars Kotaro Daigo as Hodaka Morishima and Nana Mori as Hina Amano along with Tsubasa Honda, Shun Oguri, Sakura Kiryuu, Sei Hiraizumi, Yuki Kaji, and Chieko Baisho in currently unconfirmed roles.

Are you excited for Weathering With You? Did Your Name pay more attention to Shinkai's works? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

GKIDS has confirmed that they have licensed the film for an English language release with the current release window of 2020. They describe Weathering With You as such, "The summer of his high school freshman year, Hokoda runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hokoda meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong­willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky..."

via NHK