![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Review: Your Name (君の名は) (2016)
I've only heard good things about this movie. It was fun, it was cute, a nice romance film. It didn't rock my world, but it was still a decent watch.
Spoilers.
Story
The premise of this movie is a bit fanfic-like. Basically, a boy living in urban Tokyo and a girl living in a small town body swapped. The plot twist was that they were also separated by time. The girl, Mitsuha, had died in a comet crash, and she was talking to the boy, Taki, from three years prior.
After this was revealed, Taki tried to help Mitsuha to evacuate the townspeople from the comet crash. They were ultimately successful, but their memories of each other had faded.
It wasn't until years later, when they bumped into each other by happenstance, that they seemed to remember each other again.
The plot was good but the writing varied. In some parts of the movie, the writers relied on anime tropes that took me out. For example, I thought it was slightly cringy when Taki and Mitsuha met for the first time at twilight and instead, the writers switched the conversation to her being worried about her boobs being fondled. It struck me as very anime...They had the opportunity to write something more thoughtful and instead they went with a gag.
As well, I thought the process by which Mitsuha and Taki fell in love was a bit rushed. We barely saw them switch bodies, it was done through a series of snarky conversations and arguments with each other. And after that, it was supposed to be implied that Taki had started to like Mitsuha and vice versa. I know that movies don't need to spend a lot of time on the "falling in love" part of a story to make the romance believable, but I felt that it would have enhanced the romance in this case. Maybe some short moments here and there to show how they fit in each other's lives in an irreplacable way.
Production
As expected, the animation in anime movies is top tier. The actions were very smooth. The lighting was very cool, especially some of the night scenes.
As well, the animators did put effort into animating the characters when they were in each other's bodies. It was very easy to see when Mitsuha was in Taki's body. I guess he was animated with what you would typically call feminine habits, like sitting with knees closed and such.
The voice acting was terrific as well, as expected.
Characters
Miyamizu Mitsuha
Mitsuha was one half of our main duo. She lived in a small town and longed for the glamour of Tokyo, which she experienced as Taki. Her family was very in touch with the spiritual side. Her mother had died from illness, so she was raised by her grandmother, along with her younger sister Yotsuha. One extremely fun thing I found out was that the kanji for Mitsuha's name is "Three Leaf." Her grandmother, Hitoha, is "One Leaf," her mother, Futaba, is "Two Leaf," and her younger sister, Yotsuha, is "Four Leaf." Clearly there's a strong family tradition.
Now that I think about it, I can't say that Mitsuha's personality was very strong. She had dreams, but I don't know very much about what she does to reach them. Her personality leaned towards that of a typical high school girl, which is to say, kind of tropey.
By the end of the movie, I guess she was motivated by that missing piece of her life, her love that she couldn't quite remember. But perhaps we should define her by her trust in her gut feeling, because of her strong spiritual background.
Tachibana Taki
Taki was the other half of our main duo. He was a typical high schooler, going to school and having a part time job. He also had a crush on a coworker called Okudera.
Taki was rougher around the edges than Mitsuha but I guess he softened a bit through Mitsuha's influence. Through her "feminine charm" she got close to Okudera (as Taki). The date didn't go so well as Okudera noticed that his mind was elsewhere, but she didn't take it too bad.
After Taki and Mitsuha lost contact (stopped switching bodies), Taki went on a mission to find Mitsuha using his pictures. That was when he found out that Mitsuha had died three years ago in the comet crash.
He'd swapped back into Mitsuha's body (as a second chance, I guess). Then, he rallied Mitsuha's friends to help him. He briefly went to the crater (in Mitsuha's body) where he met with Mitsuha in Taki's body. At that point, it seemed that Taki was more sure of their love than Mitsuha has. He assured Mitsuha that things would be alright as long as they remembered each other's name. However, he hadn't actually written his name in Mitsuha's hand, only having written "I Love You," and they'd lost contact before Mitsuha could write her name on his hand. He had convinced Mitsuha that the comet was going to kill the town, and Mitsuha believed in that.
But afterwards, they forgot about each other, though both of them still felt a bit empty. When they bumped into each other years later, Taki was the one who bravely reached out.
Teshigawara "Tessie" Katsuhiko
Tessie was one of Mitsuha's friends. It was a bit strange that Sayaka seemed to tease him a bit about him possibly having a crush on Mitsuha, when she clearly had a crush on him. It was weird anime science in action again.
Tessie helped Mitsuha plant explosives at the power station to cause an outage and to get people to leave the town.
After the time skip, Taki sees Tessie and Sayaka talking about marriage, though he doesn't quite recognize them.
Natori Sayaka
Sayaka was one of Mitsuha's friends. Like Tessie, she followed her lead with regards to the evacuation plan. As mentioned, she did seem to have a bit of a crush on Tessie though she didn't really act on it.
During the evacuation, she was responsible for broadcasting the evacuation message from the high school's broadcast room. She was caught and stopped. However, the evacuation message had helped as many residents had already moved out of the crash zone.
After the time skip, it was implied that Sayaka and Tessie were going to get married.
Miyamizu Hitoha (Grandma)
Grandma looked after Mitsuha and Yotsuha. She was extremely spiritual, which was something her son-in-law (adopted into the family) cared nothing for. However, she instilled those spiritual values into Mitsuha and Yotsuha. They diligently carried out their shrine maiden duties, despite getting made fun of by classmates.
Grandma also took Mitsuha and Yotsuha to see the body of the god of their Miyamizu shrine. Taki was in Mitsuha's body at this time, which is how he had such a vivid memory of the place.
Grandma could also tell when Taki was in Mitsuha's body. She'd mentioned that she'd had such dreams when she was younger, but never really expanded on it. It's implied that this is something that happens to those in the Miyamizu lineage because they're so spiritually connected.
Miyamizu Toshiki
Toshiki was Mitsuha and Yotsuha's father, and the town mayor. He had a bad relationship with the rest of the family.
Basically, he'd married into the Miyamizu family, taking on his wife's surname. After she passed away from illness, he didn't want to take over the spiritual duties, which caused a falling out with Grandma. Afterwards, he pursued a career in politics, while also keeping distant from his children.
During the movie, Mitsuha and Toshiki had a poor relationship. Taki saw this when he went to Toshiki's office trying to get him to evacuate the town. When Taki really lost his temper, Toshiki realized that Mitsuha was actually another person. I think this furthers the theory that Futaba had also experienced this body switching, and Toshiki recognized it.
In the end, we didn't see what became of Toshiki and his relationship to the family. I remember Taki seeing an article about him since he was the mayor, but I don't think anything else came of it.
Miyamizu Yotsuha
Yotsuha was Mitsuha's younger sister. As she was younger, she didn't really have the same troubles as her older sister did. She was content with carrying out shrine maiden duties, and following Grandma's spiritual practices.
By the end of the movie, after the time skip, she was in high school, and I guess she might start experience body switching as well.
Fuji Tsukasa
Tsukasa was Taki's good friend. When Taki decided to find Mitsuha, he'd told Taki and no one else. Taki had told Okudera so that they could go and support him together.
After the time skip, Tsukasa was doing quite well, having 8 job offers in hand. But most importantly, Tsukasa and Taki were still friends.
Takagi Shinta
Takagi was the third friend in the trio. He didn't have as big of a role in the movie.
Okudera Miki
Okudera was Taki's senpai at work. She was very beautiful and a lot of the guys at work had a crush on her.
While Mitsuha was in Taki's body, she'd decided to help out Okudera after she'd gotten her skirt ripped by an angry patron. From then on, Mitsuha had helped Taki to get closer and closer to Okudera, to the point that they had a date.
However, over time, Okudera started to realize that Taki no longer had a crush on him, and that whoever this new person in his life was had changed him.
She joined Taki and Tsukasa on the trip to find Mitsuha, though ultimately the two of them were told to leave first by Taki as he wanted to go to the crater himself.
At the end of the movie, Okudera was married but still remained a friend to Taki.
I did feel that Okudera was awkwardly handled. Even though she had turned down Taki after the date, it seemed like the writers still wanted to portray her as a possible love interest. When at the motel, she'd told Tsukasa that she did like Taki, though I'm not sure what that like meant. Were we meant to believe that now Okudera had unrequited love for Taki? It seems too....unnecessary. Does Taki need a beautiful woman to be in love with him for us to believe that he's a hot commodity? And at the end, when we got a flash of Okudera's wedding ring, what was the point of that? I had never expected Taki to love Okudera again so why did we need to know she was taken?
She could have been a great character still after she turned down Taki but still became a friend to him, without the weird possible romance stuff.
Themes
Most of the themes in this movie are a bit more spiritual, particularly related to the red thread of fate, but interpreted more as a connection than as actual fate.
The connection between Taki and Mitsuha spanned time and space, so there was hope that no matter what, they'd always feel each other, even if they forgot about the other's existence. This connection was symbolized by the cords that Mitsuha would weave. She had one in her hair when she went to Tokyo to see Taki. Only, Taki didn't know her then. She'd given him her cord, which he'd then worn on his wrist as a bracelet. When they met at the crater at twilight, he'd returned the cord to her to wear in her hair.
Overall
This was an interesting movie, nicely animated, but I think some of its anime tropes stopped me from fully enjoying it.
Spoilers.
Story
The premise of this movie is a bit fanfic-like. Basically, a boy living in urban Tokyo and a girl living in a small town body swapped. The plot twist was that they were also separated by time. The girl, Mitsuha, had died in a comet crash, and she was talking to the boy, Taki, from three years prior.
After this was revealed, Taki tried to help Mitsuha to evacuate the townspeople from the comet crash. They were ultimately successful, but their memories of each other had faded.
It wasn't until years later, when they bumped into each other by happenstance, that they seemed to remember each other again.
The plot was good but the writing varied. In some parts of the movie, the writers relied on anime tropes that took me out. For example, I thought it was slightly cringy when Taki and Mitsuha met for the first time at twilight and instead, the writers switched the conversation to her being worried about her boobs being fondled. It struck me as very anime...They had the opportunity to write something more thoughtful and instead they went with a gag.
As well, I thought the process by which Mitsuha and Taki fell in love was a bit rushed. We barely saw them switch bodies, it was done through a series of snarky conversations and arguments with each other. And after that, it was supposed to be implied that Taki had started to like Mitsuha and vice versa. I know that movies don't need to spend a lot of time on the "falling in love" part of a story to make the romance believable, but I felt that it would have enhanced the romance in this case. Maybe some short moments here and there to show how they fit in each other's lives in an irreplacable way.
Production
As expected, the animation in anime movies is top tier. The actions were very smooth. The lighting was very cool, especially some of the night scenes.
As well, the animators did put effort into animating the characters when they were in each other's bodies. It was very easy to see when Mitsuha was in Taki's body. I guess he was animated with what you would typically call feminine habits, like sitting with knees closed and such.
The voice acting was terrific as well, as expected.
Characters
Miyamizu Mitsuha
Mitsuha was one half of our main duo. She lived in a small town and longed for the glamour of Tokyo, which she experienced as Taki. Her family was very in touch with the spiritual side. Her mother had died from illness, so she was raised by her grandmother, along with her younger sister Yotsuha. One extremely fun thing I found out was that the kanji for Mitsuha's name is "Three Leaf." Her grandmother, Hitoha, is "One Leaf," her mother, Futaba, is "Two Leaf," and her younger sister, Yotsuha, is "Four Leaf." Clearly there's a strong family tradition.
Now that I think about it, I can't say that Mitsuha's personality was very strong. She had dreams, but I don't know very much about what she does to reach them. Her personality leaned towards that of a typical high school girl, which is to say, kind of tropey.
By the end of the movie, I guess she was motivated by that missing piece of her life, her love that she couldn't quite remember. But perhaps we should define her by her trust in her gut feeling, because of her strong spiritual background.
Tachibana Taki
Taki was the other half of our main duo. He was a typical high schooler, going to school and having a part time job. He also had a crush on a coworker called Okudera.
Taki was rougher around the edges than Mitsuha but I guess he softened a bit through Mitsuha's influence. Through her "feminine charm" she got close to Okudera (as Taki). The date didn't go so well as Okudera noticed that his mind was elsewhere, but she didn't take it too bad.
After Taki and Mitsuha lost contact (stopped switching bodies), Taki went on a mission to find Mitsuha using his pictures. That was when he found out that Mitsuha had died three years ago in the comet crash.
He'd swapped back into Mitsuha's body (as a second chance, I guess). Then, he rallied Mitsuha's friends to help him. He briefly went to the crater (in Mitsuha's body) where he met with Mitsuha in Taki's body. At that point, it seemed that Taki was more sure of their love than Mitsuha has. He assured Mitsuha that things would be alright as long as they remembered each other's name. However, he hadn't actually written his name in Mitsuha's hand, only having written "I Love You," and they'd lost contact before Mitsuha could write her name on his hand. He had convinced Mitsuha that the comet was going to kill the town, and Mitsuha believed in that.
But afterwards, they forgot about each other, though both of them still felt a bit empty. When they bumped into each other years later, Taki was the one who bravely reached out.
Teshigawara "Tessie" Katsuhiko
Tessie was one of Mitsuha's friends. It was a bit strange that Sayaka seemed to tease him a bit about him possibly having a crush on Mitsuha, when she clearly had a crush on him. It was weird anime science in action again.
Tessie helped Mitsuha plant explosives at the power station to cause an outage and to get people to leave the town.
After the time skip, Taki sees Tessie and Sayaka talking about marriage, though he doesn't quite recognize them.
Natori Sayaka
Sayaka was one of Mitsuha's friends. Like Tessie, she followed her lead with regards to the evacuation plan. As mentioned, she did seem to have a bit of a crush on Tessie though she didn't really act on it.
During the evacuation, she was responsible for broadcasting the evacuation message from the high school's broadcast room. She was caught and stopped. However, the evacuation message had helped as many residents had already moved out of the crash zone.
After the time skip, it was implied that Sayaka and Tessie were going to get married.
Miyamizu Hitoha (Grandma)
Grandma looked after Mitsuha and Yotsuha. She was extremely spiritual, which was something her son-in-law (adopted into the family) cared nothing for. However, she instilled those spiritual values into Mitsuha and Yotsuha. They diligently carried out their shrine maiden duties, despite getting made fun of by classmates.
Grandma also took Mitsuha and Yotsuha to see the body of the god of their Miyamizu shrine. Taki was in Mitsuha's body at this time, which is how he had such a vivid memory of the place.
Grandma could also tell when Taki was in Mitsuha's body. She'd mentioned that she'd had such dreams when she was younger, but never really expanded on it. It's implied that this is something that happens to those in the Miyamizu lineage because they're so spiritually connected.
Miyamizu Toshiki
Toshiki was Mitsuha and Yotsuha's father, and the town mayor. He had a bad relationship with the rest of the family.
Basically, he'd married into the Miyamizu family, taking on his wife's surname. After she passed away from illness, he didn't want to take over the spiritual duties, which caused a falling out with Grandma. Afterwards, he pursued a career in politics, while also keeping distant from his children.
During the movie, Mitsuha and Toshiki had a poor relationship. Taki saw this when he went to Toshiki's office trying to get him to evacuate the town. When Taki really lost his temper, Toshiki realized that Mitsuha was actually another person. I think this furthers the theory that Futaba had also experienced this body switching, and Toshiki recognized it.
In the end, we didn't see what became of Toshiki and his relationship to the family. I remember Taki seeing an article about him since he was the mayor, but I don't think anything else came of it.
Miyamizu Yotsuha
Yotsuha was Mitsuha's younger sister. As she was younger, she didn't really have the same troubles as her older sister did. She was content with carrying out shrine maiden duties, and following Grandma's spiritual practices.
By the end of the movie, after the time skip, she was in high school, and I guess she might start experience body switching as well.
Fuji Tsukasa
Tsukasa was Taki's good friend. When Taki decided to find Mitsuha, he'd told Taki and no one else. Taki had told Okudera so that they could go and support him together.
After the time skip, Tsukasa was doing quite well, having 8 job offers in hand. But most importantly, Tsukasa and Taki were still friends.
Takagi Shinta
Takagi was the third friend in the trio. He didn't have as big of a role in the movie.
Okudera Miki
Okudera was Taki's senpai at work. She was very beautiful and a lot of the guys at work had a crush on her.
While Mitsuha was in Taki's body, she'd decided to help out Okudera after she'd gotten her skirt ripped by an angry patron. From then on, Mitsuha had helped Taki to get closer and closer to Okudera, to the point that they had a date.
However, over time, Okudera started to realize that Taki no longer had a crush on him, and that whoever this new person in his life was had changed him.
She joined Taki and Tsukasa on the trip to find Mitsuha, though ultimately the two of them were told to leave first by Taki as he wanted to go to the crater himself.
At the end of the movie, Okudera was married but still remained a friend to Taki.
I did feel that Okudera was awkwardly handled. Even though she had turned down Taki after the date, it seemed like the writers still wanted to portray her as a possible love interest. When at the motel, she'd told Tsukasa that she did like Taki, though I'm not sure what that like meant. Were we meant to believe that now Okudera had unrequited love for Taki? It seems too....unnecessary. Does Taki need a beautiful woman to be in love with him for us to believe that he's a hot commodity? And at the end, when we got a flash of Okudera's wedding ring, what was the point of that? I had never expected Taki to love Okudera again so why did we need to know she was taken?
She could have been a great character still after she turned down Taki but still became a friend to him, without the weird possible romance stuff.
Themes
Most of the themes in this movie are a bit more spiritual, particularly related to the red thread of fate, but interpreted more as a connection than as actual fate.
The connection between Taki and Mitsuha spanned time and space, so there was hope that no matter what, they'd always feel each other, even if they forgot about the other's existence. This connection was symbolized by the cords that Mitsuha would weave. She had one in her hair when she went to Tokyo to see Taki. Only, Taki didn't know her then. She'd given him her cord, which he'd then worn on his wrist as a bracelet. When they met at the crater at twilight, he'd returned the cord to her to wear in her hair.
Overall
This was an interesting movie, nicely animated, but I think some of its anime tropes stopped me from fully enjoying it.