For me it's just how he writes some of his characters. In Voices, the characters were just bland to me and I couldn't really connect with them. I feel the same way about Garden of Words. But then you have Your Name and 5cm to where you could emotionally connect with those characters. That and the actually stories for some of his films is where the inconsistencies were for me. Like I said, I agree his films do have similar beats, but the quality of the writing is inconsistent from movie to movie for me.

Same! Already planning to rewatch it this week

I guess what I mean by consistent in this context is his writing, at least in my opinion. A lot of his films do feature pretty similar writing beats, but some his stories feel like they take a backseat for the sake of the visuals. You get a lot of "wallpaper" moments, but they often don't really mean anything other than looking pretty. Your Name feels like his best project to me because it has the best balance of breathtaking visuals and an engaging enough story. Something like Weathering For You or Children Who Chase Lost Voices was disappointing for me because the stories were underwhelming or they didn't really go anywhere.

Darren Aronofsky is also another notable director who's taken heavy inspiration from Kon's films (mostly Perfect Blue).

It's an oldie, but I recently watched Brief Encounter for the first time. I gotta say, it's probably the best romance I've watched! Celia Johnson, one of the leads, does such a great job in the movie. The last moments movie were perfection and just heartbreaking to the core. I can't believe I hadn't watched it sooner!

I loved Your Name when it first came out. Can't believe it came out 6 years ago already! It's definitely my favorite from the director as well (Makoto Shinkai). None of his other movies have really touched me quite like Your Name.

If you want another great anime film, you should check out the amazing psychological thriller/horror Perfect Blue. It's my favorite anime film of all time (tied with The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), and its director Satoshi Kon has a much more consistent and interesting catalogue as opposed to Makoto Shinkai.