Hirunehime is closing NYICFF, for the few of us that are in the area. Directed by the guy who did Ghost in the Shell SAC and the music is by Yoko Shimomura, so it piqued enough of my interest to probably go see it.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwosha9tmDs
Soundtrack: http://vgmdb.net/album/64456

They are also showing Kimi no nawa (Your Name) on opening day, which is the newest Makoto Shinkai movie, which has me incredibly excited, but otherwise has no connection to game music.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRfHcp2GjVI

For anyone else who had no idea what the NYICFF is it's the New York International Children's Film Festival, which apparently includes a fair amount of anime in their program.

I saw Kimi no Na Wa back in Tokyo and really enjoyed it. Couldn't quite follow it entirely but most of my Japanese friends said the same. It'll be interesting to see how clearly they explain things in the English version. I seem to remember the score having some nice musical moments as well.

Any recommended films in particular from that director?

NYICFF has been around for years and every year they have one or two big anime premiers during the festival. I've seen countless movies there! It's a really fantastic festival overall.

Makoto Shinkais works can loosely be classified as "emotional" and "cloud porn". A lot of people tie him to Miyazaki in that they're both incredibly detail-oriented artists. The attention to detail in every single shot (hence: cloud porn) is what really draws me in. Generically, if you're looking for an easy to follow, lighthearted story, watch Children Who Chase Lost Voices. It has a lot of deep meaning in it but can be an easily digestible surface view as well. If you're looking for something a bit more emotional, Garden of Words or 5cm per second are your thing. If you're interested in watching for pure aesthetic beauty of his art, Garden of Words would be my recommendation. I would honestly recommend watching all of his feature full lengths, though. They are not that hard to get a hold of.

Also, I'm a huge fan of the soundtrack to Children who Chase Lost Voices. It's done by Tenmon, and they have frequently collaborated together.

I'm not an anime fan in general, but I watched 5cm per second many years ago and quite liked it.
I didn't find out Kimi no Na wa was from the same guy until recently, so I'm definitely interested in checking it out.

Just got back from seeing kimi no na wa and I can say it was pretty amazing. Tugged at all the right heartstrings in just the right way without being overt. I think I need to see it a second time because there's a lot of things one would probably miss the first time around. Wholeheartedly recommend it when it goes wider in a month (April I think).

Music was good, I expected more of a rock influence given the trailer music, the band name etc, but it was not. I think I may pickup the soundtrack. Certainly not ten mon, though.

If you liked 5cm/s you will almost certainly like this. It's not nearly as well written but it is impactful and well animated (as I expected).

After seeing Hirunehime today I can say that going into it, I wasn't sure exactly what it was, or whether I would like it, and forgot most of what I saw in the trailer prior to it but nevertheless it was still a great movie. As with a lot of Kenji Kamiyama directed stuff it has an emphasis on technology and current social issues. This one had a very clear focus on modern technology and the depiction of it was very well done, very prescient, and very "current". There were mobile phones, tablets (basically an iPad), autonomous cars (a main theme in the film), a mobile phone app connected to a Japanese BBS-type service, Even the main company in the film (Shijima) is blatantly supposed to be Honda in all but name. It might sound like product placement but it was not.

The story was very good. I feel like there can be arguments made that it was deeper than face value in that I felt like a lot of it was an allegory for the struggles of a young girl trying to understand an adult situation.

Kenji Kamiyama answered a few questions at the end of the movie to some of the movie-goers. Most of them were small children asking relatively simple questions but the more memorable replies are:

- The inspiration for the "Engineheads" (large robots) came from him tinkering with an looking at an engine piston and thinking "that looks like a robot"
- The inspiration for the "Colossus" (thing the large robots were "battling") came from basically the coalescence of negative emotions and feelings from social media and all the bad comments and negativity that exists.
- A strong, tech-savvy, programming female protagonist was intentional and sort of modeled around the voracity and such of his daughter and some of the women in his life.
- He mentioned part of his inspiration for the film was to try and bridge the gap between older and younger Japanese in that older Japanese people tend to "stick to traditions/status quo" and younger do not (this was a theme in the film). He also wanted to expand on the issue that Japan used to be a great hardware manufacturer in years past and in the last generation or so they have fallen behind. He would like to see software (coding, programming, etc.) play a larger role in the Japanese workforce since hardware and automation will replace people and jobs.

As far as the music goes (why I went), the soundtrack was fantastic. It was orchestral with light strings and piano and if I had to describe it, it would basically be B-Sides of all our favorite Shimomura FFXV tracks. I am definitely going to be picking this up.