While renewables have gained more and more appearance in anime in recent years as the energy transition unfolds globally, Makoto Shinkai’s decision to include them in his films can be dated back to a time when these technologies were still considered immature and irrelevant. Today, we will do a comprehensive review on all the renewable energy infrastructures appeared in Makoto Shinkai’s major films in the last two decades.
Before we start, here are some disclaimers:
First, we will discuss the following films: The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters per Second, The Garden of Words, Your name, Weathering with you, and Suzume. Although we will focus on the renewable energy infrastructures that appeared in these films, there will inevitably be spoilers for these films. It is better to watch them before this article, and perhaps you can find those renewable energy infrastructures yourself in advance.
Second, while I have rewatched all the films in fast speed mode prior to making this video and tried my best to find all the renewable energy infrastructures in the films, it is likely that I still had missed some. Feel free to comment below if you happen to find something which I did not.
With that said, let’s get started!
The Place Promised in Our Early Days
The first major Makoto Shinkai film we will discuss is The Place Promised in Our Early Days from 2004. The film is set in an alternative time line where Hokkaido was occupied by the Red Army during the waning days of World War Two, and Japan therefore became a hot spot during a cold war that extended and eventually turned hot in the late 1990s.
Towards the very end of the film, when Hiroki was flying the Velaciela system to Hokkaido to free Sayuri’s mind from the tower, he passed through an onshore wind farm on the hills of northern Aomori Prefecture. This short two second long footage is the first time renewable energy ever appeared in Makoto Shinkai’s major film, at least as far as I know.
5 Centimeters per Second
5 Centimeters per Second is a film directed by Makoto Shinkai in 2007. It depicts a sad love story that failed to materialize between Takaki and Akari, two elementary school classmates who parted after graduation and became ever distant from each other.
In the second episode of the film, when Takaki was in Tanegashima, a wind power plant appeared on the screen. In the real world, this is the wind power plant in Nakatane town, which was built in the early 2000s, one of the earliest in Japan. It has been operating until October 2022. There was first a nighttime scene and later a daytime scene depicting the wind power plant.
In the nighttime scene, Takaki was sitting with Kanae, talking about his plans to apply to a university in Tokyo.
In the daytime scene, Kanae looked over the horizon at the beginning of the day when she succeeded her wave-surfing and decided to confess to Takaki. The imagery of a single spinning wind turbine enhanced the sense of loneliness this episode was creating.
The Garden of Words
The Garden of Words is a 2013 film by Makoto Shinkai about the relationship between a literature teacher, Ms. Yukino, and a student, Takao, who occasionally met and socialized at the Shinjuku imperial garden during the raining season.
Renewable energy infrastructure showed up once in The Garden of Words. When Takao first entered the Shinjuku imperial garden in the film, a mini solar panel could be seen at the entrance, possibly powering some of the infrastructure there. It is not as eye-catching as moving wind turbines, but it does mean that renewable energy still existed in this major Makoto Shinkai film during his transitional period from niche to main-stream.
Your name
The 2016 film “Your Name” was the turning point of Makoto Shinkai’s career; it was the film that made his work main-stream.
Perhaps the most famous scene in Your Name that was related to the power system was the explosion of the substation in Itomori town. The scene highlights the vulnerability of a distribution power system against a physical attack on the infrastructure.
Renewable energy infrastructure also appeared in Your Name. First, when Taki, Tsukasa, and Okudera senpai were about to take the Shinkansen, there was a scene of the Tokyo train station. If you look closely, you can see that one of the platform seems to have installed rooftop solar on it. Indeed, solar panels were installed on top of that platform in 2011.
Then, when the three were on the Shinkansen, an onshore wind turbine appeared briefly out of the window during one of their conversations. Also in the same scene, there was a building with a highly reflective rooftop, implying that there could be a rooftop solar on it.
Finally, during the ending scene when Taki and Mitsuha asked each other’s name, a rooftop solar panel appeared on the screen. It is not clear whether the glasses shown were solar panels or windows in the film, but in a video capturing the real world location, there is obviously a rooftop solar panel there.
Weathering with you
The 2019 film “Weathering with You” has climate change as its main theme, and the ethical dilemma presented inside the film can be seen as an allegory to controversial negative emission technologies such as carbon capture and geoengineering.
While in Suzume the main protagonists found a way to save both the world and themselves without major trade-offs, in The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Your Name the main protagonists made the relatively small sacrifice of losing precious memories in committing selfless acts. It was however only in Weathering with You where the main protagonists were asked to pay the ultimate price for the greater good of mankind, and their final decision made us reflect on principles of just transition under a climate crisis.
Besides a very relatable theme in the age of climate crisis, “Weathering with You” also has several depictions of renewable energy. In one scene where Hodaka and Hana visited Taki’s grandmother, a rooftop solar panel was apparent at the neighbor’s house, making it an Easter egg on top of an Easter egg.
Shortly later, when Hodaka and Hana were in Shiba park with Mr. Suga and his daughter, a mini solar and wind generation set was shown; in addition, the rooftop solar panels on the administration office building of the park was also clearly visible.
Given Tokyo ended up raining forever in the film, these solar panels probably produced far less electricity than what they were expected. On the bright side, there will now be plenty of runoff hydroelectricity in Tokyo, and the cooling demand will also be drastically reduced in summer when peak electricity demand occurs. Also, energy intensity of water transport is usually lower than road and railway. Tokyo therefore possible becomes a more energy efficient city.
Suzume
Suzume is Makoto Shinkai’s latest major film so far. The film features the most renewable energy infrastructure in the works discussed here; all of which are solar photovoltaic.
The first of the renewable power plants appeared was an agrophotovoltaic, when Suzume and Souta just arrived at Ehime, during their pursuit of Daijin.
The second set of solar panels appeared just before Suzume and Souta were leaving Ehime, when they were finding a free ride to Kobe.
When they did manage to catch a free ride and reach Kobe, we see some rooftop solar panels at the first shot taken inside the city.
Finally, when Suzume and Souta reached Tokyo by the Shinkansen, there was a shot of the Tokyo train station, which naturally encompassed the rooftop solar panels on top of one of the platforms, the same one which appeared in “Your Name”.
This means that besides the starting point, Kyushu, and the ending point, Sendai, solar power plants appeared in all the intermediate stops of Suzume’s journey. Here it should be pointed out that Kyushu is a leading region in terms of solar energy share in Japan, while Fukushima (very close to Sendai) have made 100 percent renewable energy goals after their 2011 disaster, so it is a little bit regretful that solar panels are missing in these two locations in the film, though it might be the case that I simply have not found them yet.
Conclusion
So, these are the scenes where renewable energy power plants appeared in Makoto Shinkai’s films. Although not a major theme in the films, we can still draw some conclusions based on their appearance:
-
The frequency of renewable energy appearance in Makoto Shinkai’s films has been growing throughout the years. In addition, we see a gradual shift from depicting wind power plants to solar PV power plants in these films, which also reflects the real world trend where solar energy accelerates and outpaces wind energy in recent years.
-
While the inclusion of renewable energy, especially in recent years, may be simply due to the natural proliferation of renewable energy within the broader landscape, the wind power plants in the earlier films and the mini solar panels in the parks are likely deliberate choices of inclusion. Renewable energy infrastructures are therefore objects Makoto Shinkai actively inserted in his work from time to time, and it remains part of my hobby to track whether this trend continues in his future major films.