Whoa, I haven’t posted a My Thoughts in over a year? Well, what better way to get back into the game than with the 2016 non-Studio Ghibli anime hit, Your Name?
At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to our main characters, Mitsuha and Taki. Mitsuha is a high-school girl who lives in a small town in Japan. Despite being part of an important-ish family and doing well in school, she is bored of living in the country. Taki is a high-school boy who lives in the city of Tokyo. He is friendly, but also has his personal problems such as losing his temper at times and trying to make ends meet by working at a restaurant. So what exactly is the plot of the film? Well, the two of them randomly switch bodies every now and then!
One day, Mitsuha wakes up in the body of Taki and Taki wakes up in the body of Mitsuha. At first, they both think that it must be a dream and “enjoy” the thrill of living a different life. But they soon come to realize that this is actually happening! In order to coordinate each other’s lives without messing them up, they both leave notes for each other on their smartphones. The notes tell the other person what “they” did while they were in the other body as well as a list of “dos and don’ts” that they each must follow.
It’s not long before the two start developing feelings for each other in your typical romcom romantic drama style. Now all that I have explained is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the plot! There is SO much more that happens that I don’t really wanna give away too much in case you haven’t seen it. You may think this is a simple Freaky Friday story, but I can assure you that you’re completely wrong! There are twists and turns, a comet, higher dimensions, it’s just too good to disclose more!
All I’ll say is what I thought of the film overall. I honestly feel that this film should have been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar and probably should have won (I haven’t seen The Breadwinner yet, so I can’t say for sure)! It’s a wonderfully-made romantic drama with amazing animation that not only has your typical sweet romantic relationships, but also evokes multiple themes! Some of these themes include masculinity and femininity, what it means to be male or female, not necessarily saying men need more feminine qualities or women need more masculine qualities, and being connected with others despite seemingly insurmountable barriers.
I’m glad that I decided to check out an anime film that wasn’t made by Studio Ghibli for a change! Seriously, if you haven’t seen this film yet, please do so!
The Animation Commendation 
I completely agree with you on this one. I also love the music
Thanks for recommending it to me!
Agreed! I was very impressed with this film!
Same! I’m so glad I saw it!
I only really “know” this film from a few frames included in this video tribute to hand-drawn animation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU9mnbMJnpM), but I’m really keen on checking it out!
Please do! I’d love to hear your opinion!
I love this film, the story and characterisation are wonderful and the animation is stunning. The Breadwinner is superb as well, I think I might actually choose it over this.
I still need to see The Breadwinner!!
UPDATE: I just finished watching this film, and I was just FLOORED, not just by the story and characters, but also by the art direction! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a vibrant, richly colored anime film in all my life!
(As a postscript, I now realize that there weren’t any clips from this in that hand-drawn animation tribute video at all, but from another film which I somehow associated the title; my mistake…)
Glad to hear you were FLOORED! The art is definitely gorgeous!
Oh, ok @ your postscript. Do you know what the other film was?
Couldn’t quite tell, I’m afraid…
I think the clips you are talking about are from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Great review. This is one of the best animations I have ever seen in my life. It should have been nominated and won an Academy Award. I mean The Boss Baby was nominated and not this one. This is something that goes beyond ridiculous.
Exactly! It’s all about money and promotion, in the end.
It is a wonderfully made film!
I hope you’ve seen “The Breadwinner” by now. It’s incredible.
I have! I was thinking of reviewing it for the blog, but didn’t get time to. I really love it!
Your Name was good, but I wouldn’t call it my favorite Shinkai work. I feel like a hipster because I saw his older films when I was in my teens and would’ve never thought he would get super popular.
This is the only Shinkai work I’ve seen so far, lol!
Oh, okay. Haha! For real, I would recommend his other movies, too. Some other films I would recommend would be The Place Promised In Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and Children Who Chase Lost Voices.