Makoto Shinkai

What makes a Makoto Shinkai film a Makoto Shinkai film

Across 6 films, they run far more romance, far more melancholy and much more spirituality than films in general. Their films resemble each other far more than any 6 films picked at random would, which is what makes one recognisable before anybody says who directed it.

The line down the middle is the average film. A bar to the right means more of that reading than films in general, to the left less. Drawn from every film of theirs in the catalogue, not a selection.