GreyHorace
Member
So, I've had the pleasure of watching an animated film that I've long been curious about but never got the chance to view until now. Thanks to Netflix, I've finally seen Makoto Shinkai's Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name), which tells the story of two high schoolers, one a girl (Mitsuha) who lives in the rural town of Ittomori, and the other, a boy (Taki), who lives in Tokyo. For some inexplacable reason the two of them swap bodies and get to spend a day in one another's shoes.
What starts out as a romantic comedy with supernatural hijinks slowly becomes a deeper mystery as the unknown connection that binds Mitsuha and Taki is revealed to be the key to preventing an impending disaster. It's an enthralling and heartfelt love story that I'm not surprised it became one of Japan's highest grossing films, and the second highest grossing animated film behind Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
Makoto Shinkai is a name I've long been familiar with in anime circles, but I've resisted the urge to watch any of his work. I thought he'd be another Hideaki Anno, focusing on characters emotions at the expense of plot and resolution. Not that I can judge any of his others films because Your Name is the only one I've watched, but from what I seen in this film I'm happy to say Shinkai does much better on that front than Anno. While Shinkai does go in heavy on the focus of his character's emotions, he does manage to resolve his story barring some possible plot holes (and they aren't dealbreakers as far as I'm concerned).
Let's get the obvious positive out of the way, the visuals in You Name are gorgeous and quite possibly the best I've seen in 2d a animated film. I used to think Studio Ghibli's films were the benchmark for visuals for Japanese animated features but Shinkai has the great Hayao Miyazaki beaten on that front.
The premise, while not exactly original, is handled in a fresh manner with some really funny scenes of Mitsuha and Taki having to get used to each other's lives, all the while leaving messages for each other. But for me the movie really becomes interesting once the plot takes an sudden twist midway into the film, when Taki finds out that Mitsuha has actually been dead for 3 years after a fragment of the Tiamat comet struck her hometown after it passed close to Earth.
All this works for me because of the two leads and their growing relationship, despite the fact that they don't really meet in person until the film's climax. That scene was heartwarming and handled so well by Shinkai, as are the scenes of heartbreak when the two leads realize to their horror that they're slowly losing the memory of each other. Though the disaster has been averted and Mitsuha saves everyone in the town, she and Taki listlessly wander the next few years searching for something they've lost until a chance encounter on opposite trains in Tokyo. This builds up to a truly satisfying happy ending that feels EARNED by the two characters after everything they've endured to meet each other again.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film from start to finish. But what say you GAFFERS?
What starts out as a romantic comedy with supernatural hijinks slowly becomes a deeper mystery as the unknown connection that binds Mitsuha and Taki is revealed to be the key to preventing an impending disaster. It's an enthralling and heartfelt love story that I'm not surprised it became one of Japan's highest grossing films, and the second highest grossing animated film behind Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
Makoto Shinkai is a name I've long been familiar with in anime circles, but I've resisted the urge to watch any of his work. I thought he'd be another Hideaki Anno, focusing on characters emotions at the expense of plot and resolution. Not that I can judge any of his others films because Your Name is the only one I've watched, but from what I seen in this film I'm happy to say Shinkai does much better on that front than Anno. While Shinkai does go in heavy on the focus of his character's emotions, he does manage to resolve his story barring some possible plot holes (and they aren't dealbreakers as far as I'm concerned).
Let's get the obvious positive out of the way, the visuals in You Name are gorgeous and quite possibly the best I've seen in 2d a animated film. I used to think Studio Ghibli's films were the benchmark for visuals for Japanese animated features but Shinkai has the great Hayao Miyazaki beaten on that front.
The premise, while not exactly original, is handled in a fresh manner with some really funny scenes of Mitsuha and Taki having to get used to each other's lives, all the while leaving messages for each other. But for me the movie really becomes interesting once the plot takes an sudden twist midway into the film, when Taki finds out that Mitsuha has actually been dead for 3 years after a fragment of the Tiamat comet struck her hometown after it passed close to Earth.
All this works for me because of the two leads and their growing relationship, despite the fact that they don't really meet in person until the film's climax. That scene was heartwarming and handled so well by Shinkai, as are the scenes of heartbreak when the two leads realize to their horror that they're slowly losing the memory of each other. Though the disaster has been averted and Mitsuha saves everyone in the town, she and Taki listlessly wander the next few years searching for something they've lost until a chance encounter on opposite trains in Tokyo. This builds up to a truly satisfying happy ending that feels EARNED by the two characters after everything they've endured to meet each other again.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film from start to finish. But what say you GAFFERS?
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