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SPECIAL DramaSuntory Minami Alps no Tennen Mizu
MANGA Dramayour name.
NOVEL Dramayour name. Another Side: Earthbound
MOVIE DramaWeathering With You
MOVIE DramaThe Garden of Words

REVIEWS

• 

  Peng

  70/100
  Shinkai does Shinkai things better than ever

  When I think of [Makoto Shinkai](http://anilist.co/staff/96117) I think of two things: beautiful, hyper-realistic art and grounded, unfulfilled romances. So, when I heard of the success of his latest film, _Your Name_, in [the Japanese box office](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/japan/), I thought little of it. After all, eye candy and high school heartache are a sure-fire combination to draw out Japanese teens in droves. Not one to miss a feature-length anime showing locally, however, I entered the cinema today with modest expectations. Despite his penchant for gorgeous photorealism, Shinkai’s stories have always seemed a tad underwhelming to me and by this stage, predictably repetitive in content matter. I was marginally, albeit pleasantly surprised to find that Shinkai had managed to not fuck anything up. #Don't stop believin' *** _Your Name_ is the story of two high schoolers: Mitsuha, just a small-town girl livin’ in a lonely world, and Taki, just a city boy born and raised in ~~South Detroit~~ Tokyo. The two inexplicably swap bodies at random intervals while sleeping and begin improving upon their opposite’s lives. A fledgling romance emerges from their exploits and is eventually threatened. The tags sum it up nicely: Yep, Shinkai still has a train fetish. In this instance, particularly for the symbolically-rich sliding carriage doors. Shinkai sticks with what he knows. Body swapping isn’t exactly an original concept either. In fact, the opening act is incredibly stock standard. Exposition is handled with enough subtlety, although all we really learn is that Mitsuha is disdainful towards her provincial life and that Taki has a solid sense of justice. They’re just a couple of ordinary kids. Accompanying this ordinariness are the usual body swapping shenanigans: the groping of a new pair of tits, the dread of having a piss, etc. It’s all very gratuitous, maybe even distasteful, and doesn’t really achieve much but reinforce the ungainly pubescent normalcy of the main characters. Are their personalities uninspired? Yes. But does this detract from the film? Not especially. And that’s the thing. Despite how unremarkable the main pair were, or maybe even because of their normalcy, you can’t help but smile at the development of their awkward, teenage relationship and the circumstances in which they must foster it. They’re just a couple of nice, likeable kids making the best of an unusual situation. And as little substance and weight as there is to it, it’s done in a way that’s both endearing and believable. That said, I do find the duo's innocence and bright, positive attitudes to be a tad dubious. It's all very chaste. I mean, you're inexplicably swapping bodies with someone halfway across the country. Would people really react so _calmly_ in this situation? I'd probably freak the fuck out. You'd imagine that this would warrant considerable concern, but these kids just take everything in stride. Major conflict is introduced in the second half that adds a neat spin to what had otherwise been a fairly typical plotline. This conflict is handled carefully enough such that the plot never becomes convoluted. But most importantly, the lengths to which the main duo go to resolve their plight is admirable. Having literally walked each other’s footsteps, the care they display for one another is palpable and ultimately, you’re rooting for their success. In fact, this very may well be Shinkai’s most emotionally resonate pairing, as it is far more conceivable and he dedicates a lot more attention to developing their relationship than in previous works. Again, there is sufficient subtlety here. Things can teeter on melodrama or cheesiness, but it never enters the uncouth sappiness of _[The Garden of Words](http://anilist.co/anime/16782/TheGardenofWords)_. Conversely, nothing is as dull or superfluous as the second act of _[5 Centimeters Per Second](http://anilist.co/anime/1689/5CentimetersperSecond)_. The film remains charming and unremarkable, just like the primary characters. And really, this tasteful simplicity is more than adequate. The side cast is your usual garden variety of comic reliefs. It includes every grandmother ever in the history of anime and one absolute bombshell of a crush/senpai/friend. #24 wallpapers per second *** Speaking of character designs, both Mitsuha and Taki fit the profile of the ordinary kids they are. Indeed, we can’t talk Shinkai without talking about his visual design. [Miyazaki](http://anilist.co/staff/96870) uses colourful, fantastical art to bolster the magic of his stories. [Hosoda](http://anilist.co/staff/100067/) uses clean minimalism to bestow upon his films a homely warmth. Shinkai strives for picturesque hyperreality to emphasise the beauty of his romances. This rings especially true in _Your Name_, perhaps more so than in any of his other works. As a guy whose livelihood depends on pulling on audiences’ heartstrings, Shinkai does an excellent job of returning to recurring imagery and motifs at opportune moments for maximum emotional impact. Mere atmospheric shots are of course, gorgeous: brilliant scarlet autumn leaves, water effects and food porn are in abundance. A sequence detailing Mitsuha’s entire life is a particular standout, complete with pastel-like colouring. Shinkai also uses his imagery to play around with some secondary themes. This type of thematic-visual storytelling has never really been on his agenda, so it’s nice to see him dabble in it. Gloriously detailed smartphones and shimmering cityscapes are juxtaposed with rolling plains, rocky terrain and sylvan architecture. Such a simple contrast invites a variety of relevant thematic talking-points. Tradition meets modernity. To this end, however, I will say that I found Shinkai’s efforts to invokeFukushima and other disasterssomewhat jejune. Emotional peaks almost always coincide the impassioned beat of J-rock band RADWIMPS’ ballads. Some might find their songs too repetitive or conventional, but I never got tired of them. The voice acting is pretty much faultless.

  #Hi! My name is... What? My name is... Who? My name is... *** _Your Name_ is hardly original. Its characters aren’t either. It's all very conventional. But Shinkai treats both the core relationship and story with enough clarity, subtlety and care that they develop to a state of cogency. The film is aesthetically gorgeous, fervidly charming and perhaps most importantly, unassuming. It doesn’t lose itself in awkward plot diversions or unrefined characters and relationships. And although it neither becomes too melodramatic nor is it exceptionally moving, _Your Name_ might just jerk a tear or two. I doubt I’ll rewatch this. However, if you even remotely enjoy romance anime, watch this in cinemas if at all possible.
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• 

  zGustavo

  100/100
  A film with an incredible story with endearing characters.

  Personal opinion

  • I don't have any words to express what this film expresses ... it manages to catch you the incredible story, even being confused at first, soon understood and you can't divert attention.
  • This film is completely on another level, because with the development of its history makes us want more, to want to know what will be the next step that the protagonists will give to solve the problems that arise so that each one who assists gets "trapped" in it . The visual beauty is another factor that can make you do not detach the eye of the movie for any moment because its art combines with the excellent soundtrack gives you an unforgettable experience that at certain moments can make you cry with the sad / happy moments. The excellent combination of all the factors listed above, as already said, can give you an emotion, a feeling, an experience that you can not describe, do not have words to put, because when something is so amazing becomes even repetitive talk because We always find the same words to describe.
    I could spend the day talking about the movie, but I do not have enough time to talk about it and not enough time to share what I have to talk about it. __I'm sorry for my English__

    About Characters - The film centers on two characters, Mitsuha Miyamizu - a student living in a rural village in Japan who has a dream, go to the city of Tokyo and Taki Tachibana - an architecture student living in Tokyo and leads a normal life working in a restaurant part-time.

    Notes

    0/100

    1. __Story:__ 98 2. __Sound:__ 100 3. __Art:__ 100 4. __Character:__ 97
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• 

  LunaKoi

  71/100
  The critically acclaimed hit anime movie of 2016 is riddled with more problems than people would like to admit

  It's impossible to talk about Kimi no Na wa without acknowledging the critical acclimation. It's an aspect you would like to ignore because it's not pertinent to the content itself. However I couldn't really turn my ahead away from the overwhelming reception, that is the buzz behind Kimi no Na wa. It is by far the most successful anime film in the Post-Miyazaki era; it's crushed box office history in Japan and it has crushed rankings on anime databases such as MyAnimeLIst, etc. When something is this popular and this well received it becomes a work of art that reveals what a large collective audience likes and finds compelling, and that is important to talk about. I will go ahead and spoil you: no, I do not think Kimi no Na wa is a masterpiece. Despite the fact that I'm probably not the target audience for the film, it's not really an excuse to ignore where the flaws are in the narrative and the lack of central theming that, in my opinion, a "masterpiece" should have.

  Kimi no Na wa is a love story. The way it's told isn't exactly simple, and that's a good thing. If the movie moved linearly it would have been a lot more boring, the way it bounced off of two intertwining perspectives made the experience interesting. While I wouldn't describe the execution as being anything groundbreaking, it pulls it off decently. The pacing is awkward, and the way it bumbles from scene to scene can sometimes be contrived or not really thought out as well as it should have been. I thought the climax got a bit too silly, and even unsatisfying the more and more it went on.

  There's not much to say about the characters. They are pretty lackluster, though they have about as much personality as you can have in a 100 minute movie, their growth is unfulfilling. The two main leads are pretty simple and "self-inserty", teenage boys are supposed to identify with the teenage boy character, teenage girls are supposed to identify with the teenage girl character. While there is some poetry to them, they're pretty much just unoffensive simple devices to tell the story of a commercially driven movie. That's all there is to say about them, really.

  I want to talk about animation, artstyle and directing in the same package since they're tightly knit together and I'm not really adding anything insightful about these aspects. They're the main source of Kimi no Na wa's critical acclimation, and for good reason, it deserves the praise it gets for what it does visually. The animation is consistent, it doesn't cut corners, it's more than what you should expect for movie production values. While there's not many individual cuts that stand out to me in terms of sakuga (there's an incredible cut in the middle of the movie, you'd know when you see it), there's nothing to really pick at either. Artstyle is about the same. It's attention to realism is not really my cup of tea, but it works in it's favor the more and more unrealistic the circumstances become. The shot composition is pretty textbook and palatable, while it's not anything new, it's done right. The lighting and colors look beautiful, and the storyboard makes the most out of an inconsistent narrative.

  People really love the Radwimps in this movie from what I've seen. This is my first Shinkai movie that I've seen but apparently this was new for him to pick a pop music band to do the soundtrack in order to differentiate himself from Hayao Miyazaki. The music isn't bad but I have a problem with the inserts. I think Shinkai made this decision to do the music like this as an afterthought, or maybe even post-production, because none of the insert songs have any sense of choreography to them on a visual-audio level. They don't mix, they're awkward, they were simply slapped onto the scenes. When you want to use insert songs to invoke emotion or to grandiose a scene you craft both to coexist with one another. I like the music, just not the way it's used.

  I can see a lot of the reasons why Shinkai is disappointed with the movie, and why he didn't want it to win an Oscar, even though he directed it. There was more he wanted to do with it, but he had to make a final cut that he wasn't really proud of. Even though I wanted to see it nominated, since it was anime, I don't really think it would have "deserved" to win (ignoring the fact that the Best Animated Movie award process is a joke). The only difference between Kimi no Na wa and the nominations that made it is that it was marketed towards teenagers instead of children. I can see the reason why Kimi no Na wa getting so much praise due to the fact that it's accessible for people who aren't fans of the medium. This is why I think Shinkai cannot escape the Miyazaki comparison, because he makes content aimed at a broad audience.

  I don't think Kimi no Na wa is a bad introduction to the medium of anime at all either, there will be an entire generation who grows up on it. I think there is an inevitable wall that this age group will face when they grow older and their tastes mature, at some point I think they will either grow away from anime when they realize that most of it isn't like Kimi no Na wa, or they have to acknowledge that there are better things out there. Sometimes when you have something that you think is a masterpiece, you have to ask yourself if you will feel as passionate about it in 5 to 10 years from now. For a lot of people that is taking things too seriously, for people who are fans of a medium, that is why they stick with it, because they enjoy exploring it and they hold their favorites close to their heart. If you hold Kimi no Na wa close to your heart, wonderful. If you don't after thinking about it for a while, think more about why.

  Like I said it's impossible to ignore Kimi no Na wa without addressing it's success, and this review was about the success more than I wanted it to be. Even though it appeared mostly negative, I think it's a good movie at best. Without the success I probably wouldn't have seen it as soon as I did, nor would have I made a review, but either way in terms of the content alone, I would feel the same. It's not perfect by any means, but I do think it's good overall, so I rate it a

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