MY TOP 4 MAKOTO SHINKAI’S NOVELS

Makoto Shinkai (pseudonym of Makoto Niitsu) is a Japanese director, animator and dubber born in  the area of Nagano in 1973. He started very early to make animated films, both short films and feature films. However, the success arrived only in 2016 with his most famous film “Your Name”, considered a best seller of Japanese animation. 

Nevertheless, today I'm not going to talk about his films but about his novels. Actually, he isn’t a writer, or rather Shinkai doesn’t consider himself a writer. What  he wrote is practically the novelizations of his own screenplays, of four of them. Here they are in my top 4 list.  

WHAT IS A JAPANESE NOVEL?

Light novels (often Abbreviated with novel) are a type of Japanese illustrated novels with the aesthetic characteristics and style of a manga. The drafting of the text is completely similar to that of a novel, but very often, there are some illustrations created by the writers themselves or, more often, by a character designer (and sometimes by a mecha designer, in the role of illustrator). 
The term light novel is a wasei-eigo construction (a Japanese expression built according to the English language). 
Light novels are considered works in prose, designed as novels for teenagers or for a youth audience. Some light novels have inspired several manga or animated series  and, therefore, they are considered as a subgenre  of the manga.

4) FIVE CENTIMETRES PER SECOND

5 Centimetres per second is the first novel written by Makoto Shinkai (2007), published ten months after the animated film of the same name. It is the story of the love between two main characters, Takaki Tōno and Akari Shinohara, bloomed during their childhood, from which Takaki cannot separate neither in the adult age, after many years without seeing her. 
The plot is divided in three phases, respectively childhood, teenage and adulthood  and every period is described very well. We can find descriptive sequences both of the landscapes and of the emotions of all the characters. It is due also to the fact that Shinkai usually writes in first person, with frequent shifts in the point of view and consequent changes of narrator.

However, this is not my best favourite of his novels for some reasons. First of all, there are some scenes, mostly descriptive, which are, in my opinion, useless. They are perfeclty written and in the context of the scene they make sense, but they seem superfluous.  Then, there are some points of the story in which the writer creates suspence which doesn't culminate anywhere or has a weak solution. In the end, I also find the finale nonsensical and very disappointing. 

3) WEATHERING WITH YOU

Weathering with you is the last novel as well as the last film of Shinkai, both released last year. It’s a fantasy romance: a teenager Hodaka Morishima, runs away from home and moves to Tokyo. On his journey, he almost gets thrown off a ferry when a freak rainstorm hits. He is saved by a man named Keisuke Suga, who gives Hodaka his business card in case he ever needs help. 
While settling down in Tokyo, Hodaka strives, so he decides to contact  Suga and is hired as an assistant to Suga's small publishing company. With Suga’s assistant, he investigates urban legends related to the unusual weather in Tokyo; from a psychic, they hear the legend of a weather maiden who can control the weather. He will meet her and will fall in love with her. A dramatic and emotional adventure starts for him. 

I really appreciate this novel, basically for its being a coming-of-age story mixed to an atypical love story between the protagonist and the "whether maiden". Then, I find the themes covered  very interesting and relatable, for instance the relationship with parents, independence, suburban crime, and, above all, egoism, which is an unusual theme for a story addressed to teenagers.

2) YOUR NAME

Your name is  Shinkai's best seller , as well as the novel and the film which led him to great popularity. In this book, the two main characters, Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu,  live each other's life for a while. This situation will bring them to save Japan from a natural disaster, and will create a link between the past and the present.

What can I add? The plot is truly engaging, and the premise is original. The narration is full of plot twists, thrilling moments, and comical scenes. Imagine finding yourselves in another body, with a completely different life, and speaking with unknown people, which instead know you, moreover, you are now of the opposite sex. Therefore, I like the expedient of parallel lives, of the change and the narrative arc, which is at times a mystery,  in others a love story. Last but not least,  I really like all the information you get about the Japanese culture. So, I think it deserves its success and I recommend it you.

1) THE GARDEN OF WORDS

I literally love this light novel. It is in my top 10 favourite books. It contains several stories related to each other.

The main story tells about an ordinary teenager Takao Akizuki who has a difficult situation at home, both money problems and complicated relationships, due to the fact that he can’t realize his dream to become a shoemaker. 
One day, he misses the train he usually takes to go to school, so decides to go to a park. In the park, he meets a curious lady, with whom he will establish a singular relationship…

The second one is the story of Takao’s brother. His story is intertwined with Takao’s story, but has some independent points, like his relationship with his girlfriend. Therefore, we see him during his speeches as “older brother” with Takao, and his quarrels with their mother, which, after the divorce, has had drinking problems.

The last one is the story of a teacher of Takao’s school who had been accused of having had a relationship with a student and had been dismissed. That generated in her a big sense of inadequacy, which she will try to face. 

I don’t know exactly why it resonates with me so much, maybe,  because it’s the longest of the four novels, and considering Shinkai's ability to build the characters, it becomes particularly engaging;      or , maybe,  because I’m particularly sensitive to some of the themes contained in the book; or without any precise reason (love has love as unique argument Cit.). 
However, the storytelling is fantastic, the character psychology is described accurately, the stories are mixed perfectly and the ends of the stories is an explosion of emotions. In my opinion, it’s Shinkai 's masterpiece.

JACO