Your Name is an animated film directed by Japanese director Makoto Shinkai. It is about the extraordinary relationship between two young souls, time and fate. For Makoto Shinkai, they say that he is Japan’s new Hayao Miyazaki and it is easy to see why. In fact, I could not stop myself and watched another film of his; I will write about it as soon as possible.
Your Name is a difficult film to talk about without spoilers. If I’m watching an anime, I don’t even read about the plot. Because I know I’ll learn something from it and (generally) I know I’m going to love it, so I just watch the film without any distractions. I will suggest the same to you; especially for this film. The only thing you’ll encounter anywhere and no longer a spoiler is that two young people swap bodies.
Mitsuha Miyamizu, a high school student, lives in a fictional town called Itomori in the mountainous region of Japan called Hida. Taki Tachibana is a high school student living in Tokyo. Their lives will transform in the most untraditional way, and this change will also change them forever.
Your Name was released in 2016 and made $358 million in revenue, a substantial financial success. It ranks fourth in the most profitable films in Japan and also ranks second in non-English films around the world. Also, it is the first anime film which made more than a hundred million dollars that wasn’t directed by Hayao Miyazaki in Japan. You see, this film is not just for anime lovers, everyone loved it.
In fact, despite all the success and much praise received, the film’s director, Makoto Shinkai, thinks the film is not good enough, it could be much better. He said: “There are things we could not do, Masashi Ando [Director of animation] wanted to keep working [on] but had to stop us for lack of money … For me it’s incomplete, unbalanced. The plot is fine but the film is not at all perfect. Two years was not enough.” in an interview in The Japan Times. One wonders how great the film would be if they had the time and money cause it is incredible as it is.
Oh and there is also a book! Director Makoto Shinkai released the book a month prior to film. It would be a great experience to read it first and then watch the film.
While you are here, you may want to check out Japanese Literature – A Literary Journey.
