In a recent interview with TV Asahi, anime director Makoto Shinkai discussed the current state of the business, including his upcoming projects, the dominance of the Demon Slayer film, and the effects of COVID-19 on the industry. While Shinkai could not give many details about his own latest project, it was nonetheless an interesting insight into the business from one of the most successful Anime directors of recent years.
Anyone who's been following the Japanese anime industry closely has heard about Demon Slayer. Released under the lengthy title of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, the film smashed box office records in Japan, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the country, and the highest-grossing animated film of 2020 full stop.
The total revenue of Demon Slayer currently sits at around $337 million. Makoto Shinkai himself directed the highest-grossing anime film of all time, Your Name, which reached $358 million. The only film between the two is Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli, which sits at $355 million. While discussing the incredible performance of the film, he remarked: "Nobody could have anticipated that in the year of 2020, where people were made to avoid gathering in one place, that Japan's box office records would get overwritten."
Despite having had his own records in Japan bested, Shinkai has been looking on the positive side, happy that there's such a large audience for these movies out there, and that other works are finding great success. Shortly after Demon Slayer broke the Japanese records, he Tweeted his support for the film, and how happy he was to see the news: "the fact that records are constantly getting beaten is the sign of a healthy entertainment industry. The least I can do is work hard to create good films."
During the interview, he also admitted that he had made some progress on his next big film project. According to Shinkai, he began writing the script around the same time that Japan announced a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. That has had a significant impact on the story, as the director admits: "the mood of the times is indelibly etched into the script."
That being said, the actual pandemic has not slowed down progress yet, as the film is still in a phase where work can be done largely from home. There has not yet been a need for everyone to be in person to start full production. Shinkai has described the story as an exploration of what happens after an apocalypse, inspired by the current uncertainty and fear over the Coronavirus: "It's a story where something major happens that one's own power can't do anything to affect. By making this film, I want a part of people to think, 'We'll somehow manage to get by, won't we?'"
Source: Anime News Network