GKIDS Pick Up Makoto Shinkai's 'Weathering With You' For US Release

In 2016 Makoto Shinkai's sci-fi romance Your Name delighted audiences and critics around the world. Although not Shinkai's first film, it was the movie that really saw him graduate to the top tier of anime directors, breaking records at home and abroad. Hopes are high that the director's next film- due out in Japan this July- will be similarly well received.

Weathering With You sees writer-director Shinkai reteam with Your Name producer Genki Kawamura and musicians RADWIMPS. GKIDS Films have announced that the film will be released in US cinemas in early 2020, following an awards-qualifying run (likely in LA and New York) later this year. The film will screen in both subtitled and English dubbed versions. It's set to be another twist on teen romances- this time with a supernatural rather than a sci-fi flavour.

SYNOPSIS

The summer of his high school freshman year, Hokoda runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hokoda meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky...

"GKIDS is thrilled to be working with Makoto Shinkai and Genki Kawamura on Weathering With You, following their blockbuster hit Your Name," says GKIDS's  Eric Beckman. "We have been huge fans of Makoto Shinkai since his breathtaking 5 Centimeters Per Second, and he is unquestionably one of the top animation filmmakers working today. Weathering With You combines Shinkai's unparalleled visually beautiful and detailed animation with a riveting emotional story that will be sure to connect with audiences worldwide."