'Your Name' Review

Introduction

In summer of 2016, Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai released a film that put tears in the eyes of audiences all over the world. Your Name, or Kimi no Na wa as it’s called in its native tongue, is an animated, supernatural, romance story about two young strangers who mysteriously switch bodies. Since the film’s release over a year ago, it’s been distributed in countries across the globe and has been translated from Japanese into others languages including English, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, German, and Brazilian. Not only has it been praised to death by audiences and critics, but people have even gone so far as to call Shinkai “The Next Miyazaki” (and in case you don’t know who that is, Miyazaki is basically Japan’s Walt Disney… a household name, kind of a big deal)! I saw quite a few articles online talking about how great this film is when it first came out, yet I avoided it for the most part because romance movies were never really my thing. But after all this time, curiosity finally got the best of me. I decided to watch it for myself and here’s what I observed (I’ll avoid any major spoilers)...

Plot

The story revolves around two high school students living in Japan named Taki and Mitsuha, whose lives are essentially the first two lines of the song "Don’t Stop Believing":

• Mitsuha Miyamizu (voiced in English by Stephanie Sheh) is a small town girl living in a lonely world… and by “lonely world,” I mean Itomori, a fictional town in rural Japan where everybody knows everybody. She and her little sister live with their grandmother who has them practicing ancient Japanese traditions such as making ritual sake and braiding ritual cords. Unhappy with the hand life has dealt her, Mitsuha dreams of living in the big city where she feels she belongs.
• Taki Tachibana (voiced in English by Michael Sinterniklaas) is a city boy born and raised in south… Tokyo. He lives in a small apartment, goes to school, works a waiting job, has a crush on one of his coworkers, and dreams of being an architect. It’s not a glamorous life, but he’s content.

As you can see, these two strangers have virtually nothing in common, yet their lives become intertwined due to a strange phenomenon. Every few days, Taki and Mitsuha will wake up in the morning in the other person’s body. They try their hardest to live out each other’s lives and try to figure out what’s causing this and why. Seeing how they’re so far away from each other and they can’t seem to connect by phone, they figure if they want to communicate with each other, they have to get creative. So every time they switch, they write messages on their hands and faces for the other person to see when they switch back. Over time, they begin to grow closer to each other. Taki helps Mitsuha become stronger, Mitsuha helps Taki become more sensitive, and eventually, they even start falling in love with each other. But they later realize that there may be more to their strange predicament than they originally thought.

Body-Switching

Before I go much further, I want to talk about the story-telling element that plays a huge part in this movie: Body-switching. Friendly warning, I’m going to be talking quite a bit about this. But it’s such a huge part of the movie; and since they do a lot with it, I think it’s worth taking the time to talk about.

I’m sure most of you know what body-switching is, but I’ll still explain anyway for anyone who may not know. As the name implies, body-switching (sometimes called mind-switching) is the concept of taking the minds and/or souls of two or more people and swapping them, thus having their consciousness in a body different from their own. Clearly being a complete work of fiction, the concept of body-switching has appeared in many different shows and movies in the past few decades, especially ones made for kids. In most cases, it’s been used for the sake of comedy. In a few instances, it’s been given more of a horror-spin. But this is the first time I (personally) have ever heard of the concept being used for the sake of romance.

Truthfully, when I was young, I used to think of body-switching in TV and movies as funny and even kind of intriguing. But as I got older, I grew to despise the concept. Anytime I heard of an episode of anything involving body-switching, I would just skip it. I’m not sure why I eventually lost interest in it, but maybe it’s because every single possible route a story could take with it had already been done before and had already been done countless times (as far as I thought). Whether or not that is the reason, the idea just became dumb and tired in my eyes and it just seemed like nothing new was being added to it. That is, until Your Name came around. Shinkai managed to take the tired concept of body-switching and actually make it feel fresh again!

First of all, I know this movie does technically follow one of these tired routes, the route in question being two people with different genders switching places. But I give the story credit because it doesn’t overplay the idea. Normally, you would see tons of awkward scenes of the two leads learning to live as the opposite sex, but that’s not what they do in this case. Now that’s not to say they completely ignore the differences: when in the other person’s body, Taki does make Mitsuha look more masculine and Mitsuha does make Taki look more effeminate. It’s not intentional, of course; it’s just their natural mannerisms showing through. Also, there’s a bit of a running gag throughout the movie where every time Taki wakes up as a girl, “she” grabs her breasts; and every time Mitsuha wakes up as a boy, “he” puts his hand in his lap. However, in both instances, it’s done in more of a confused or shocked kind of way and not in a perverted sense. And that’s really as far as the film goes with it. Really, anytime they switch places, the focus is more on them trying to live as a different PERSON, not as a different GENDER. While some may see this as a missed opportunity (as the gender-differences could lead to a lot of humor), I personally like this change. Normally when you see two people of the opposite sex swap bodies, they focus TOO heavily on the gender-differences. And along with leading to the aforementioned awkward scenes, it also makes the two leads feel less like three-dimensional characters and more like stereotypes of their respective sex. The guy always has to be super manly and tough and cool, the girl always has to be the beautiful and popular bombshell, so that way the change is more drastic and it seems funnier. But instead, Your Name treats its characters as characters, not as cardboard cutouts of whatever gender they happen to be, and I think that drastically improves the story being told.

But the way this story really makes the concept feel fresh has more to do with what they add to it. First of all, the two people who are switching places aren’t friends or enemies or relatives. They’re complete strangers, strangers who live in entirely different regions. True, the concept of swapping places with a stranger has been done before, but not very often. Normally, the two people who switch already know each other in some way. So seeing the characters learn about each other as a result of the switch is interesting to see.

Another thing they add is a concept I’ve never seen done before: Constantly switching back and forth. Normally, the characters just swap places and spend the whole movie/episode trying to return to normal. Every now and then, you get a show or movie that adds an unnecessary time limit, saying, “If you don’t change back in X amount of time, you’ll be stuck like that forever!” But in Your Name, they spend a day in the other’s body, switch back the next morning, and the cycle repeats; so they don’t spend the entire movie dwelling on how to get back to their own bodies like in other movies. So while the body-switch is a major part of the plot, it doesn’t make up THE ENTIRE plot.

They do add a couple more things, but there’s only one more addition I’d like to talk about (the other additions include spoilers). The last addition I’d like to talk about is the fact that every time the characters return to normal, they forget all about the switch! When they wake up in the morning in their own bodies, they have very little memory of being the other person. So at first, both characters think the experience was just a dream; and it’s only through seeing the small things the other has done in their place as well as the reactions of their peers that cause them to realize the truth. The more they trade places, the more memories they’re able to hold on to; but even then, holding onto those memories isn’t easy for them. And without going into specifics, this memory loss plays about as big of a role in the story as the body-switch.

So yeah, this movie did a great job at refreshing a plot-device that I felt had been done to death; and I have to give credit where credit is due. Does this mean that this movie got me to start liking the body-switching theme again? No. It’s still tired and unoriginal in almost every other instance. But if a movie were to try and add new elements to it like Your Name did, I may be interested in seeing what they do with it. But I’ve dwelled on this long enough.

Animation

Seeing how this is an animated movie, it only makes sense to talk about the animation. The animation for the characters seems pretty good all-around. The designs of the characters have smoother lines and curves compared to most of Japan’s other animated works; and the movements of the characters are also more smooth and flowing by comparison. That may be a result of the budget, but I’m not sure. And don’t get me wrong, I have no problems with the sharper looks of other anime; at times, I even prefer it, but this style does give the characters a cleaner look and it suits the atmosphere of the movie a lot better. On the other hand, despite their smooth look, the lines on the characters aren’t too curved or too rounded, like you would see in a Studio Ghibli film. Again, not to say that doesn’t look good, but it just wouldn’t work as well for this particular movie. The animators managed to find a nice middle ground. It’s smooth, but not too smooth. It flows nicely without appearing slow. This style works very well for the movie no matter what the atmosphere is. Whether the moment is supposed to quick and comical, dark and serious, or slow and romantic, the art style is great at complementing them all.

The designs of the two leads seems to be something of a paradox. On one hand, their designs are distinct enough that if you saw them together, you’d immediately know what movie they’re from. On the other hand, their designs are so simple and so plain that they don’t seem like they SHOULD stand out. They look like you could photoshop either one of them into the background of any anime and they would blend right in. While this may seem like a flaw on the surface, this actually strikes me as appropriate. Individually, there is nothing special about these two. They’re just average people; they don’t seem that special when they’re separated. But they’re not supposed to be separated. This story is about the both of them and they’re supposed to be together in order to stand out. Maybe that sounds cheesy, maybe that’s not what the designers were going for, but that’s how I view it.

As for the rest of the characters, well... I already said that the designs of the two main leads look simple and plain, so as you can guess, the side characters are even more so. I mean, they’re distinct enough when compared to other characters in the movie; you can easily tell them all apart. But much like the leads, they’re not as distinct when compared to characters from other movies. But again, these don’t seem like they’re supposed to be special characters. It’s a movie about average people living their average lives until something not-so-average happens. In that sense, again, the characters designs work very well.

So my final opinion about the animation of the characters is that it’s pretty good all things considered… but the animation of the setting, the movie’s scenery, is flat-out GORGEOUS! I love looking at the scenery in this movie, especially in the rural area. Throughout the movie, there’s this whole big deal about a comet passing over Japan at night, and when you see that comet—the animation, the colors, the lighting, the backgrounds—it’s so captivating! You could take a screenshot of it and frame in an art museum; it’s that good! You can tell the animators put a lot of effort into this movie and it did not go unnoticed. So let me just sum up the animation of Your Name like this… The art style is great, the character designs are uniquely simple, and the scenery is amazing to look at. Truly… that effort did not go unnoticed.

The Side Characters

This section won’t be as long as the others. The list of side characters in this movie is relatively short and for an understandable reason. The side characters aren’t bad... but they’re just not memorable. I feel like the three side characters I remembered the most were Mitsuha’s grandmother, her little sister, and Taki’s coworker; but even then, I had forgotten each of their names by the end of the film and had to look them up again afterwards. Some of these characters do end up playing an important role at some point in the film, but some of them could be cut from the film entirely and it would make no difference. For example, when we first see Mitsuha in Taki’s body, “he” talks to someone who lives in Taki’s apartment with him. The man leaves shortly after and we never see him again! I don’t even know who he was supposed to be; was he Taki’s brother or just a roommate? Did he even have a name? Why even have him in the story at all? I don’t know… It’s not like anyone is going to watch this movie for the side characters, so I guess it’s not really a problem. Most of them serve their purpose in the story and that’s what really matters, I suppose.

The Emotional Impact

This part may be pretty tricky for me to talk about. On one hand, I already mentioned that this movie left a strong emotional impact on many people who saw it. And while I didn’t find myself tearing up at any point, I’d be lying if said it didn’t affect me emotionally. This story is very good at surprising you, making you feel happy, making you feel sad; it tugs at your heartstrings. But on the other hand, I’m trying to avoid the major spoilers as much as I can. And the way I see it, the entire second half of the movie is filled with the major spoilers I’m trying to avoid; and the entire second half of the movie is where it gets very emotional. So if I’m going to talk about this, I’m going to have to try and be vague and detailed at the same time.

Seeing how this movie has the whole body-switching element, you’d think that the constant switching is going to be the primary conflict of the movie. And well, it is for the movie’s first half. But during the second half, the switches sort of take back seat. A little after the halfway point, the movie has a really big twist; one that basically says, “Oh, you thought you knew what was going on? Well guess what, there’s a lot more to it than that!” When this twist finally rears its head and the movie drops its bomb on you, you can’t help but feel the emotional weight of the moment; and you can practically hear the thoughts of the characters: “What does this mean?” “Why is this happening?” “What can I do?” “CAN I do anything?”

And I’m sure you read that last paragraph and thought, “Okay, I think I can tell what’s going to happen.” Trust me, you can’t. When watching this movie for the first time, I think a good rule of thumb would have to be this: “Your first instinct will always be wrong.” Even when I reached that halfway point and the tone of the story started to change, my mind immediately went to what I thought was the most obvious conclusion, but there was still much more to it than that. I’d rather not talk much more about it, but suffice it to say that this story is an emotional roller coaster; and the ride doesn’t end after the credits roll.

Problems With the Movie

So as you can tell from what I’ve said thus far, this is clearly a positive review. That said, I do feel like it’s only fair to bring up the problems I had with it. I only had two real issues with the movie; but even then, they aren’t really problems so much as they are nitpicks. But I feel I should go over them all the same.

The first of these nitpicks has to deal with the main male lead, Taki. Taki is a great character, however… how do I put it… he’s not stupid, but he has stupid-moments, moments where he does something or maybe doesn’t do something and you just find yourself going “Taki… what the heck, dude?!” The two biggest ones are on the spoiler half of the movie (and are practically back-to-back), but there is one I can bring up. At one point in the movie, he decides to go meet Mitsuha for himself. Problem is, he doesn’t know where she lives; so he comes up with an idea. He uses what memories he was able to keep of Mitsuha’s home town, combines it with pictures of Japan’s landscape from the internet, sketches them down on paper (thanks in great part to his profession for architecture), and creates a hand-drawn picture of Itomori to help narrow down his search. That seems like a pretty good idea, but you know what would’ve been a better idea? ASKING WHERE SHE LIVES!!!

They had already swapped bodies countless times by this point. He could’ve used the trick of writing messages on themselves earlier on in the movie. Something like “Hey, you know I live Tokyo. So where do you live?” Or he could’ve taken the opportunity of being in her body to walk around town. Maybe look for a welcome sign? A newspaper? Something? Heck, he went to her school almost every time they switched; he could’ve looked up the name of the school! I’m sure that would’ve narrowed things down a bit. Taki… what the heck, dude?!

So that’s one thing and here’s the other thing: The movie doesn’t seem to know the best way to distribute focus between the two characters. Here’s what I mean: The first third of the movie focuses mostly on Mitsuha; either in her own body or in Taki’s. Meanwhile, the focus for the last two-thirds of the movie is mostly on Taki; either in his own body or in Mitsuha’s. Is this really a problem? I guess not; the character focus does seem to work out for the most part. I just can’t shake this feeling that the movie could have and should have spread the focus out a bit more. But hey, maybe that’s just me. Again, these two things are more nitpicks than they are actual critiques, so take this with a grain of salt.

Conclusion

So is this movie worthy of all the praise it has received over the past year and a half? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: The main characters are both very likable. Many of the side characters (while not very memorable) can be pretty fun to watch. The new spin they add to the whole body-switching trope is surprisingly refreshing. The animation not only highlights the tone of the film nicely but is also just beautiful to look at. And it will take your heart for an emotional ride in all of the worst and best ways.

Admittedly, I’m not sure if I’ll rewatch this movie again anytime soon, but you shouldn’t take that as a bad sign. Some movies, be it romance movies or otherwise, are meant to be seen multiple times; while others (for the most part) are meant to be seen once. This movie is mostly meant to be seen once. But whether you’re an anime fan or just a typical movie-goer, Your Name will definitely leave an impression in the warmest, strongest, and most emotional way.