Makoto Shinkai

Born in 1973, Shinkai's theatrical film debut Voices of a Distant Star (2002), in which he did nearly everything himself, sent shock waves through the anime community with its unique vision of the world. He then increased his staff to put out the critically acclaimed The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) and 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) before finally scoring a smash hit with The Garden of Words (2013).