 , born as  is a japanese director of anime and former graphic designer. a native of the nagano prefecture, shinkai studied japanese literature at chuo university where he was a member of juvenile literature club where he drew picture books. he traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to while in middle school. his favorite anime is castle in the sky by hayao miyazaki. shinkai has been called "the new miyazaki" in several reviews including anime advocates and activeanime, comparisons which he calls an "overestimation".  == career == after graduating from chuo in 1994 he got a job at falcom, a video game company and where he worked for 5 years by making video clips for games and graphic design including web content. during this time he met musician tenmon who would later collaborate in many of his movies by providing the music score. in 1999, shinkai released she and her cat, a five minute short piece done in monochrome. it won several awards, including the grand prize at the 2000 doga cg animation contest. the short details the life of a cat, entirely from the cat's perspective, as it passes time with its owner, a young woman. after winning the grand prize, shinkai began thinking about a follow-up while he continued for falcom. a few months later in june 2000, shinkai was inspired to begin voices of a distant star by drawing a picture of a girl in a cockpit grasping a cell phone. some time later, he was contacted by mangazoo, who offered to "work with him," giving him a grant to turn his idea into an anime they could sell. in may 2001, he quit his job at falcom and began to work on voices. in an interview, shinkai noted that production took around seven months of "real work". voices of a distant star was followed by the 90 minute long [[
1973_births Animated_film_directors Anime_directors Chuo_University_alumni Japanese_animators Japanese_voice_actors Living_people Manga_artists People_from_Nagano_Prefecture