Anime director Makoto Shinkai to head to NYC for the 5th annual New York Anime Festival

by Chris MaGee

News out of New York City didn't just promise an amazing retrospective of Nikkatsu films, but a don't-miss event for anime fans as well. The New York Anime Festival, in association with the sixth annual New York Comic Con, announced this past Thursday that a very special guest would be joining them for their 5th offering. To accompany the New York premiere of his "Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below" NYAF will be bringing anime director Makoto Shinkai to meet his New York fans.

Shinkai first came to notoriety with his 2002 short anime "Voices of a Distant Star", the story of the ultimate long distance love affair between two teens, one of which has gone off to fight a war in deep space. Shinkai would continue his romantic and beautifully rendered animation style in 2007's "5 Centimetres Per Second", but he had kept fans waiting since then for a new feature length work. Now "Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below" (trailer below), the story fo a girl who goes on a journey to discover the source of transmissions she has been picking on a mysterious radio, finally puts an end to that wait.

Shinkai will be joining anime artists Hiro Mashima and Junko Takeuchi during the 4-day New York Anime Festival, running from October 13th to the 16th at at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. For more details on the fest click here. Thanks to Anime News Network for details on this.