Watching 'Your Name'

Your Name. is an anime film that came out in 2016, and it was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, who also took charge of the storyboard duties and the editing of the film. The film was produced by the production company he had spent a majority of his filmmaking career in, CoMix Wave Films. The film came out to universal acclaim from film critics, and at the time of this writing, is the highest grossing anime of all time, sitting at 358 million dollars worldwide. The film had multiple releases in the UK, both in 2016 and again in 2017 for a limited time. Prior to the film's release, Shinkai released a novelization of the film, and in the time since, a manga adaptation had also been released. There is also a live-action adaptation in development from Hollywood that is being produced by JJ Abrams (Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and his production company Bad Robot.

Your Name. is a film that I have watched multiple times over the past two to three years, both in the cinema and at home. I find myself going back to films made by Shinkai at least once, or even twice, a month. There is a magnetism to them I feel that makes me feel as if I must revisit them for different reasons. Whether it be 5 Centimeters Per Second or the fantastic Garden of Words, there is an allure to it that resonates on a personal level. With the two films above, they are incredibly small in scale, involve only a handful of characters, and even fewer locations. There is an intimacy to the characters in spending time with them within these films, yet at the same time, there is a sense of melancholy lingering through every scene; they seem to permeate that love is a tragic emotion.

Your Name. is the grandest of Shinkai’s films to date, a story that involves the supernatural, romance, and aspects of a disaster film. A mixture of genres that if they are not handled in the right way would end up making any film a mess. However, Shinkai manages to weave the narrative in a masterful way that places the focus on the characters rather than the larger events that are occurring around the characters. He does not even give a true explanation to the reason the supernatural events are taking place, only that it does. When compared to the importance of the characters, the reason for an event is not important.

The plot revolves around high school students Mitsuha and Taki, played by Mone Kamishiraishi, who was also a voice actress in Wolf Children, and Ryunosuke Kamiki, who was in Mary and the Witch's Flower, and the live action adaptations of March Comes in Like a Lion, Bakuman, and two of the Rurouni Kenshin films. The two characters find themselves to be switching bodies at an irregular rate until it stops happening. This prompts Taki to find out what happened to her.

One of the first things that need to be mentioned is the quality of the animation in this film. Using a mixture of both 3D and 2D animation, Shinkai manages to create highly detailed landscapes and backgrounds while not making the characters seem out of place in the scene, a tough balancing act that many are yet to master in anime production. A staple in Shinkai’s films. In addition, the colors are incredibly vibrant making every frame of this film a visual treat for the eyes. This time Shinaki has the help of former Ghibli animator Masashi Andou who had worked on the likes of Paprika, When Marnie Was Here, Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, and Princess Mononoke,to name a few, and he gets to really flex his animation muscles with the rest of the animation team when creating the fantastic dream sequence detailing Mitsuha’s life. There is a fluidity to the movement of the scenes and the characters, with such a high level of detail that it is far more impressive than the intimate setting of Garden of Words when it comes to sheer scale.

The characters, in terms of both personality and in character design, manage to stand out in their own way. We get glimpses into the various traits of the supporting cast, both from Mitsuha’s side of the narrative and from Taki’s side of the narrative, yet the focus is always solely on the two leads. This helps when it comes to the character development of the leads as it sets up the stakes when it comes to the finale of the film. That being said, there are instances when there are characters that feel as if they were supposed to play a larger part in the narrative, only to never show up again until the closing montage. By which point, they were completely forgotten about as they are not even referenced again.

The narrative is simple to follow as things are shown rather than told for the most part. There was one instance towards the middle of the film where information was dumped onto the audience by means of exposition, however, it was handled quite well and fit into the narrative in a logical way. Once the information was put across, the narrative returns to a policy of show rather than tell, and nowhere is this done better than in the dream sequence detailing Mitsuha’s life. While watching the film, you would be drawn into the narrative and would be completely engaged in what is happening, however, holes in the narrative would start to appear in the logic when you start to think about it. That being said, these are not holes big enough to rip the narrative apart, but little ones that have little to no effect in isolation.

The soundtrack was composed by the band RADWIMPS, and this is the only time so far that they have composed a soundtrack for anime. Despite this being the first time they have done an anime soundtrack, they managed to knock it out of the park. Each piece of music fit the scene perfectly, and the theme songs are fantastic to listen to. It is a soundtrack that perfectly compliments the anime, and is a great album in its own right.

Since the film had come out, Shinkai had gone on to say that this is a film that is incomplete due to time and financial constraints. This is a statement that I can understand him saying; as stated above, there are instances of minor plot holes and a case of disappearing characters. This gives it a slight feeling that there was a far more fleshed out narrative in mind that never got to be animated. With all that being said, in no way is this a bad film.

The greatest strength of Your Name. is the heart that is present, the romance, and how earnest it is in treating Taki and Mitsuha. It is in a lot of ways an incredibly uplifting film that places love at the forefront of the film, and unlike many other Shinkai films, goes so far as to even celebrate the emotion. There is a sense of satisfaction, joy, and relief every time the credits roll.

This is a beautifully animated film, with a good and engaging narrative, great characters, and good soundtrack, that is accessible to both anime and non-anime fans. This is film that I highly recommend, and can be found to watch on Netflix.