Like the comet that comes down to earth in Your Name., Makoto Shinkai is teaming up with UNIQLO for a line of shirts that’ll descend into select shops around the world July 22. Now, we write about a UNIQLO collaboration every other week or so. Most recently, I wrote about the ONE PIECE: STAMPEDE collection hitting shelves later this month. However, usually, UNIQLO goes for big Shonen properties or something like Sailor Moon or Mobile Suit Gundam which have millions of fans around the world. Your Name. is the highest profiting Japanese film ever, so them wanting to team up with Shinkai makes sense. Still, it’s pretty unexpected.
One of my favorites from the Shinkai collection is this barely colored in line-art from Your Name. This newest UNIQLO line is only focusing on Your Name. and the upcoming Weathering With You for their prints. Sorry, 5cm Per Second and Voices Of A Distant Star fans. There’s a wide variety of designs and they’ll retail around the 1,500 yen or 15 dollar mark. Some are subtle, like the Red String Of Fate design, and some aren’t like the ones that just feature the poster artwork for each respective film.
Makoto Shinkai’s latest film comes out in Japan in just 5 days. Weathering With You is already set for English release and we’re sure audiences in other countries won’t have to wait too long. By the time Your Name. came out Shinkai was already an industry veteran and people thought 5cm Per Second was going to be his masterpiece. He surprised everyone in 2016 when Your Name. made over 350 million dollars worldwide. More than any Studio Ghibli films, even. With such a big property, it really does make sense for UNIQLO to hop onto the band-wagon.
The Makoto Shinkai UNIQLO collection will hit stores July 22. You can see the full line-up here.