LOS ANGELES — Makoto Shinkai knows the 2011 Tohoku earthquake changed him.
The Japanese filmmaker has been talking a lot about that catastrophic earthquake and its aftermath as he's made the rounds promoting his latest anime feature, "Suzume," out now in theaters, because it focuses on that disaster and what followed. But those familiar with Shinkai's work know he's been having a conversation about natural disasters through his films for years.
In an interview earlier this month during a visit to Los Angeles for the premiere of the film's English-dubbed version, Shinkai carefully recounted how everybody's life was disrupted that day 12 years ago, even in Tokyo, far away from the quake's epicenter. Every time another early earthquake warning alert would set off cellphones, he would huddle with his wife and young daughter and wonder what was going to happen to Japan.
