Language : Japanese
Director : Makoto Shinkai
Writers : Makoto Shinkai
Cast : Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryô Narita, Aoi Yûki, Nobunaga Shimazaki
Genre : Drama | Romance | Fantasy | Sci-Fi
Streaming on Amazon Prime (might have to use VPN).
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Anime
/ˈanɪmeɪ,ˈanɪmə/
noun
a style of Japanese film and television animation, typically aimed at adults as well as children.
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America has Disney, Japan has Studio Ghibli, Toho, and CoMix Wave films. This one’s co-produced by Toho and CoMix Wave films.
Kimi no Na wa is easily the best anime movie I have watched (even though I am guilty of not watching many). Personally I am not the biggest sci-fi fan, I have a lot of friends who hold intense discussions about physics, time-travel, methods of time travel, space travel, colonizing mars, and so on and so forth. I personally enjoy smaller things in life generally, watching a great movie, reading a good book, having a good time playing football, having a tea in the cold or while it rains, spending time with loved ones, and if there’s anything I’d love to change on the macro scale, it would be 1) showing more love and protection to the environment and repair Earth rather than going towards the next planet and repeating the same mistakes that got us there in the first place. 2) showing more love and kindness to humans to heal, make better decisions for the collective good of civilization 3) Making Earth cleaner, happier and a better place to live in.
For a person like me, this movie still totally won me over, because it examines the interesting relationship built between two characters, Mitsuha Miyamizu a high school girl living in the rural town of Itomori, Japan and Taki Tachibana, a high school boy in Tokyo. Interestingly Mitsuha, bored of the town Itomori, wishes to be a Tokyo boy in her next life. An event happens after which life would not be fully the same for both these characters, despite the distance and never having even met, their lives become intertwined forever (or the foreseeable future at least, I was probably being a bit too dramatic, or was I?). How? Why? What role does time play in the movie? To get answers to all these questions and to enjoy a sweet, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable movie, watch Your Name (2016) as soon as possible. It has a relatively slow pace in the beginning, you grow accustomed to the characters and then the events start to unfold. I’m 100 percent sure the characters will stay with you long after you have finished watching the movie.
How is Kimi no Na wa different from all the other anime movies?
Many Studio Ghibli movies, by Hayao Miyazaki have way more fictional elements in it, a lot of imaginary creatures and characters are used to tell the tale. But Kimi no Na wa by Makoto Shinkai uses real humans to tell this story. It’s a very human tale that touches your soul.
The script is so good, refreshing, the characters are really delightful, and the story is very real and you feel like it’s presented in a very real form, you feel the events are happening in our universe. I just got to laud the amazing soundtrack which gives the movie an extra dimension and a lot of depth.
I heard the rights of the movie have been bought to make an English live action remake of the same. It may do well (which is rare for live action remakes) and has a huge probability to be a really good movie because of the amazing story, but again I’m 100 percent sure it won’t outdo this. This movie is perfection, redefined, even if you consider it as an anime or as a movie.
Verdict: 7/7 Stars.
Bloody Brilliant.
Trivia:
The film was also a commercial success, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time in Japan. Then by 2019, the film became the highest-grossing anime film worldwide of all time, overtaking Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
The red braided cord that Mitsuha wears represents the invisible red string of fate that is said to connect someone to their fated person, according to Japanese tradition.
Although Itomori is a fictional town, it was majorly based on the existing Japanese town of Hida.
The restaurant where Taki works is called “Il giardino delle parole,” which is Italian for “The Garden of Words.” Makoto Shinkai’s previous film was called The Garden of Words (2013), which translates as “Il giardino delle parole” / “The Garden of Words.”
The teacher who teaches Classical Japanese at Mitsuha’s school, Ms. Yuki, is Yukari Yukino, the heroine from Makoto Shinkai’s previous film The Garden of Words (2013). Her partner Takao Akizuki makes an appearance near the end of the film in a crowd.
Japanese band Radwimps worked closely with director Makoto Shinkai on the script and story to create complementary music. The process of them working together led to the initial script changing.
This film is in the Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films on Letterboxd.
Guides to understanding this film better (Yes, it’s not a simple film):
1) Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) Ending Explained | This is Barry . (I loved this, highly recommended).
2) Your Name Explained Fully | Film Colussus (Quality alternative).
P.S Read only after you watch it.
