Directed by: Makoto Shinkai Production Company: CoMix Wave Films Written by: Makoto Shinkai Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki Mone Kamishiraishi Music by: Radwimps Distributed by: Toho Running time: 104 minutes Release dates: July 3, 2016 (Anime Expo) August 26, 2016 (Japan)
Cheers to the 1st month of release with a whooping box-office earnings of 10 billion yen!
First non-Ghibli, non-Miyazaki anime film to earn this much.
A first of Makoto Shinkai, he has now added a teaspoon of sugar on his fourth cup of coffee. Tracking his past cups of bittersweet coffees, Makoto artfully narrates a melancholic ending on his past works that clearly made himself a distinct Animated filmmaker and writer.He masters a theme putting his main characters on a great loss and how do they deal with it that will still satisfy his audience, and he never disappoints even if he disheartened a lot of happy-ending-hoping viewers.
My one liner summary: Two teenagers who were switching bodies with each other randomly, fell in love, and found out that they don’t belong at the same plane of time.
Theme : Musubi are decorative knots made to support obi sashes. Time is compared to knots that are connected, tied, and shackled. In this work of Makoto Shinkai, he touched the aspect of magical realism that stops all the skeptics on asking for more logical explanation of how the phenomena started and happens.
Main characters:
- Taki Tachibana dubbed by Ryunosuke Kamiki. He is a short-tempered high-school Tokyo boy who works part-time in an Italian restaurant. He have a strong interest on architecture and a sharp photographic memory that later on helped him to find the Itomori town.
- Mitsuha Miyamizu dubbed by Mone Kamishiraishi. She is a simple girl living on a far-away town tired and unsatisfied with her current life, shouting she wants to be born as a handsome Tokyo boy in her next life which is somehow a funny coincidence. She is pressured to uphold the culture and traditions of their family.
Story: The story was set after a comet hit Japan one month later. Taki and Mitsuha having blurry visions of supposed memories or just dreams which they were confused to determine. They experience an unexplainable phenomena that is they are swapping bodies which they thought they were just dreaming of someone else’s life and later found out that they are consistently swapping with each other randomly within weeks. As time goes by, the swapping-bodies situation gradually made them know each other deeply and later on they fell in love. The struggles starts when they realized that they don’t belong on the same plane of time.
Animation and Sound: CoMix Wave Films, Inc. never ceased to impress me with their close to reality illustrations and animations. The visual sensation is very relaxing and you can observe that almost all the scenes are in bright lighting which adds an uplifting spirit to a funny romantic sci-fi drama.And introducing RADWIMPS! They were the ones who composed the songs which were in absolute parallel towards the emotions in the film. I wonder what will be the result of the movie if they weren’t the ones who made the music. The songs were a great factor making the film emotionally arousing. It’s been weeks already that I’ve been trapped in their time-stopping soulful music. Here are their songs uploaded by Melodic Star in Youtube. Your Name Album (track list) of Radwimps here!
- Yumetourou (Dream Lantern) the opening song.
- Zen Zen Zense (Previous Previous Previous Life)the part when they realized that they were switching bodies.
- Sparkle song on the hair-rising scene of the falling of the comet.
- Nandemonaiya (It’s nothing) after the lines “Kimi no namae wa? (Your name is ?) “the ending song.
His latest movie “Kimi no na wa” (Your Name) shocked all his appreciators because most of them were anticipating a 5 centimeters per second ending which was somehow bittersweet. None of them were staring blankly at the ceiling wondering what could’ve happened if it had a good ending, sympathizing with the main character. Now it’s different, he left his audience wondering what good things could’ve happened next.
At last a happy ending! Thank God!
My overall rating: 9.9/10. Add a gram of drama and I will make it a perfect 10. Till next time Makoto-senpai!, we are waiting for your next big films. 🙂
LiteraThink 
I’ve finished Kimi no na wa myself now, and I’m waiting for the home release to come out so that I may adorn my review with screenshots. I see that you and I are of the same mind: the ending here was rather more enjoyable and optimistic, which is a huge plus in my perspective. Life isn’t always doom and gloom, and it’s high time that Shinkai showed his audience that he’s capable of depicting both ends of the spectrum 🙂
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Exactly! Makoto is still evolving, leaving us thinking the far possibilities and the peak of his potential as a great artist. I can’t imagine my face after an hour watching it, I was just smiling with a teary eye. Satisfying it is! I am looking forward for your deeper and more detailed review 😀
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If you’re interested, I’ve finally had a chance to do a more in-depth talk on Your Name: it only took until the BD release before I could actually write it. Here’s a link to the review; please let me know what you think!
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