Makoto Shinkai Movies Ranked – Your Name, Suzume & Weathering With You

TL;DR – Our Dadnology Picks

Made your pick? The full reviews are just below. Still deciding? Read on — the ranking has reasons.

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Why Shinkai Is the Best Entry Point Into Anime Films

Here’s a conversation every dad in my circle has had at some point: someone recommends “an anime,” and the response is a polite nod and a mental note to never follow up. Fair enough — from the outside, anime looks like a commitment: hundred-episode series, in-jokes, homework. Makoto Shinkai’s modern run is the antidote. Three films — Your Name (2016), Weathering With You (2019), and Suzume (2022) — each fully standalone, each around two hours, each among the most beautiful things ever animated. No lore. No prerequisites. Just filmmaking.

The numbers back the pitch: Your Name grossed roughly 405 million dollars worldwide and stood as the highest-grossing anime film in history until 2020. Suzume took around 314 million and competed at the Berlinale — the first anime in the festival’s competition since Spirited Away, 21 years earlier. Weathering With You was Japan’s official Oscar submission. This is not a niche recommendation; this is world cinema that happens to be drawn.

All three films earned full reviews here, and this page is the map: the ranking, the watch order, what makes the style so instantly recognizable, and — because this is Dadnology — exactly which film fits which family movie night.

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Your Name (4K Ultra-HD) [Blu-ray] (opens in a new tab)

The masterpiece and our number one — the film to hand anyone who says they do not watch anime.

The Ranking, Explained

1. Your Name (2016) — 10/10. The masterpiece, and not by accident. It’s the film where Shinkai’s fifteen years of craft — light, longing, distance — finally met a story structure worthy of them: a body-swap comedy that pivots, mid-film, into something devastating, with a RADWIMPS soundtrack welded directly into the edit. It’s one of my favorite anime films full stop, and the one I hand to people who “don’t watch anime.” They come back different. Full review here.

2. Suzume (2022) — 9/10. Fresh off a weekend rewatch, this ranking held firm. Suzume is Shinkai’s funniest film — a road trip across Japan starring a girl, a trickster cat, and a cursed three-legged chair — and simultaneously his most mature, because underneath the comedy it’s an honest, careful film about the 2011 earthquake and childhood grief. That both halves work in the same two hours is the achievement. Full review here.

3. Weathering With You (2019) — 8/10. Third of three, which in this trio is like finishing third in a Champions League final. It’s the most visually stunning film of the run — an entire feature set in supernatural rain, with sunbreaks that land like chemical events — and its ending is braver than either sibling’s. What it lacks is Your Name’s clockwork discipline: the middle act circles, the mythology stays vague. Still essential. Full review here.

The honest gap analysis: all three films share the same DNA — teenagers, folklore, impossible skies, RADWIMPS — so the ranking comes down to story discipline. Your Name executes its structure flawlessly. Suzume balances two tones most directors couldn’t hold separately. Weathering With You trades some structure for mood and nerve. There is no bad pick here.

The Style: Why Every Frame Looks Like That

If you’ve seen a single still from any of these films, you know the look: skies that seem lit from inside, light flares straight off a camera sensor, backgrounds detailed down to the convenience-store shelf labels. I’ll say it plainly — I love this graphic style. All three films, every frame, perfect. It’s the thing that first pulled me in, and it’s the thing that keeps these films rewatchable long after you know every plot turn.

What makes the style more than wallpaper is that Shinkai uses it as grammar. In Your Name, twilight — the moment when faces blur — is literally the hinge of the plot. In Weathering With You, ninety percent of the film is drenched precisely so each sunbreak detonates. In Suzume, the beauty migrates to ruins — rusted ferris wheels, overgrown schoolyards — because the film is about the places disaster empties out. Same brush, three completely different arguments. That’s an auteur, not a filter.

The sound half of the signature is RADWIMPS, the rock band Shinkai has brought into production on all three films — joined on Suzume by Halo 5 composer Kazuma Jinnouchi. The songs aren’t laid over the films; scenes are built around them. It’s why these movies feel like they move differently than other animation.

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Suzume – Steelbook (4K Ultra HD) (opens in a new tab)

Shinkai's funniest and most mature film — a road-trip epic with a talking chair and a huge heart.

Watch Order & Entry Points

Release order is the right order, and conveniently also the quality-adjacent order:

1. Your Name (2016) — the strongest opening argument the medium has.
2. Weathering With You (2019) — watch for the rain, stay for the cameos: two Your Name characters appear briefly, a small reward for chronology.
3. Suzume (2022) — fully standalone, and the ideal closer: it’s the film where Shinkai’s themes grow up.

If you’re optimizing for a specific scenario instead: starting with a skeptical partner, choose Your Name. Starting with kids around 10, choose Suzume — the chair is the best co-host imaginable. Saving the prettiest for a rainy evening, that’s Weathering With You, ideally with actual rain on the windows.

Head-to-Head: The Trilogy at a Glance

The table tells you what two hours with each film costs and pays. What it can’t show is the consistency: there isn’t a skippable film in this run, which is precisely why this page exists — the question is never whether to watch Shinkai, only where to start.

Family & Age Suitability

The honest breakdown, from one dad to another. Your Name is fine from about 10 — some cheeky body-swap humor and a tense final act, nothing graphic, and teens especially get pulled in hard. Suzume is also a 10+, with an asterisk: the comedy makes it the most kid-friendly on the surface, but it engages real earthquake imagery and grief, so sensitive kids want a co-viewer — and it’s genuinely worth co-viewing. Weathering With You skews oldest at 12+: runaway minors, a firearm subplot, and the fringes of the adult city, all handled discreetly but present.

One practical note: all three work dubbed or subtitled. If your kids can read at speed, the original Japanese casts are worth it — but the dubs are solid, and a first watch that actually gets finished beats a purist one that doesn’t.

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Weathering With You (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) (opens in a new tab)

The most visually stunning of the three — rain-drowned Tokyo has never looked this good.

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Our full individual reviews appear above — each with detailed ratings, pros, cons, family watch notes, and buying links. More animation on Dadnology: The War of the Rohirrim review · One Piece anime starter guide · Star Wars: Visions review

📌 FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Makoto Shinkai movie?

Your Name (2016) — a perfect 10/10 for us and one of the best animated films ever made. Suzume (9/10) is a close second, and Weathering With You (8/10) rounds out an exceptionally strong trio.

In what order should I watch Makoto Shinkai's movies?

Release order works perfectly: Your Name, then Weathering With You, then Suzume. The films are standalone, but Weathering With You contains small Your Name cameos that reward watching the 2016 film first.

Are Your Name, Weathering With You, and Suzume connected?

Only loosely. Weathering With You includes brief cameo appearances by two Your Name characters; Suzume stands fully alone. You can watch any of the three without the others and miss nothing essential.

Which Makoto Shinkai movie is best for kids?

Suzume and Your Name both work from about age 10 — Suzume has the most kid-friendly comedy, Your Name the most accessible story. Weathering With You skews older; we recommend 12 and up for its runaway-teen themes and a firearm subplot.

Is Makoto Shinkai the next Miyazaki?

The comparison follows him everywhere, but it undersells both. Shinkai’s films are more grounded in modern Japan — smartphones, convenience stores, trains — with a photorealistic light style that is entirely his own. Start with Your Name and judge for yourself.