Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below or Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (星を追う子ども) is Shinkai's 4th feature length film and will be his longest film to date. So I guess the long title will go well with the long run time. Hopefully though we'll get a shorter English title some time.
Shinkai's movies usually deal with young people searching for something that they have lost and his latest movie looks to stay with that premise but adds in other interesting details and ideas. His lovingly detailed art will once again feature heavily in the film along with his mix of emotional characters and scifi settings. Anime News Network described the movie as such...
The film centers on Asuna, a girl who spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the crystal radio she received from her father as a memento. However, she embarks on a journey of adventure to meet a boy again, and thus comes to know the cruelty and beauty of the world, as well as loss.
With the movie being released during the summer of 2011 it'll be some time before we will be able to see with the epic long time for Japanese DVD releases followed by the even longer US licensing and releases (think how long it's taken Summer Wars to be licensed and released in the US not to mention Shinkai's other films) we wont get to see it fansubbed until 2012 followed by a probably 2013 (if we're still around) licensed US release.
Until then you can enjoy this short teaser trailer:
