Kimi no Na wa.

Mitsuha Miyamizu, a high school girl, yearns to live the life of a boy in the bustling city of Tokyo—a dream that stands in stark contrast to her present life in the countryside. Meanwhile in the city, Taki Tachibana lives a busy life as a high school student while juggling his part-time job and hopes for a future in architecture.

One day, Mitsuha awakens in a room that is not her own and suddenly finds herself living the dream life in Tokyo—but in Taki's body! Elsewhere, Taki finds himself living Mitsuha's life in the humble countryside. In pursuit of an answer to this strange phenomenon, they begin to search for one another.

Kimi no Na wa. revolves around Mitsuha and Taki's actions, which begin to have a dramatic impact on each other's lives, weaving them into a fabric held together by fate and circumstance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyamizu, Mitsuha Main

Kamishiraishi, Mone Japanese

Tachibana, Taki Main

Kamiki, Ryunosuke Japanese

Yukino, Yukari Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Okudera, Miki Supporting

Nagasawa, Masami Japanese

Miyamizu, Yotsuha Supporting

Tani, Kanon Japanese

Teshigawara, Katsuhiko Supporting

Narita, Ryou Japanese

Miyamizu, Hitoha Supporting

Ichihara, Etsuko Japanese

Fujii, Tsukasa Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Natori, Sayaka Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Takagi, Shinta Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Bezerra, Wendel Producer

Kawamura, Genki Producer, Planning

Itou, Kouichirou Producer

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer

Reviews

Jul 3, 2016

RavarathTV

Recommended

Story: 7
Art: 10
Sound: 9
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 9

I watched this film at Anime Expo 2016 Los Angeles. I'll try to keep my review as spoiler-less as possible.

TL;DR:
... The film holds true to all the expectations of a Makoto Shinkai production, from heartfelt smiles to crying the 5th time within the last 30 minutes. His signature metaphorical use of trains, the idea of a hopeless and distant love, and beautiful scenery really dive you emotionally into the story, even for how generic and simple it may seem.

Story: 7
The story is fairly straightforward; It's very easy to guess where the story will head, but that doesn't mean to say I didn't enjoy it. It warrants a 7 simply because I felt a lack of emotional depth from the characters. This lacking depth makes me constantly question the characters' actions throughout the film, and because I am constantly searching for a motivation for their actions besides purely as plot devices, I am effectively removed from the immersion. However, this does not take away from my overall score which I shall highlight later.

Art: 10
As expected of a Makoto Shinkai film, the artwork is beautiful. The production quality is off the charts. The art in itself is enough to evoke tears, as it did for me during even the trailer. His choice of colors and use of movement and focus within the frame really help you pay attention to what you need to pay attention to, while also not skimping out and leaving out detail if your eyes do decide to stray, which I recommend you do while watching any Makoto Shinkai film for every blur, light flare, and particle floating along the screen really do add incredible amounts of emotion to the scene. My friends and I consider most Makoto Shinkai films as "5 Wallpapers per Second" and for good reason.

Sound: 9
Granted I watched this film in an auditorium with hundreds of people, I can't give an accurate score as of writing this review. I don't know who did the music for the film, but during the Q&A Panel held with Shinkai, he mentioned that he messaged one of his favorite bands that he was working on a film, and wanted them to do the music, to which they said yes.

EDIT 7/25/2016:
The music was done by the band RADWIMPS, a Japanese rock/alternative rock band. Some people have come to me asking whether or not this took away from the cinematic or emotional feel of the film, but in my opinion it helped in a way characterize the characters of Mitsuha and Taki. Rock music carries with it a sense of youth. Bringing that youthful feeling to the film's soundtrack helps to establish the sense of naivety to the characters and their interactions. It really helps establish the characters as teenagers who don't know or care about right from wrong, but rather would do what they feel in their heart is the right thing to do, which is exactly what motivates Mitsuha and Taki in their adventure.

Character: 7
I wouldn't say I have much of a complaint about main characters Taki and Mitsuha. We all can relate to the high school phase of our lives, it appeals to us because stories we read or watch in books or films set on characters that are going through this remind us of our own springtime of youth. Shinkai did a good job at portraying them and their relationships. My main gripe is that I feel they weren't explored enough to feel a strong sense of emotional attachment. Their lives, personalities, traits, habits, friends, lifestyles, etc are all explored in the first ~20 minutes, I personally felt that we only skimmed the surface of these characters and are forced to go further into the shallow end of a pool, only hoping that it gets deeper to actually swim around in this world of possibilities. I wanted to laugh, cry, and even relate more with the characters, but I felt that I only read about them in a story, or saw them in a film (which I did).

I wanted to feel they could have actually existed, but the film seems to be a bit too reliant on cliche tropes to incite certain emotions. The feeling I felt is similar to seeing characters smiling and laughing with each other, and having to individually accept that this is enough to establish their inner motivations, time spent together, individual goals, etc. I felt like it wasn't enough, and just had to accept that Taki and Mitsuha were the way they were. It felt sometimes that their actions were baseless and lacking a strong motivation to be deserving of the emotion the characters poured into their actions. As if acting on a limb to do something as insane as climbing a mountain alone. I will admit that this can be disputed, however, as they are still children/teenagers, and we all do weird things for no reason growing up.

Enjoyment/Overall: 10/9
As little as I felt I delved into the personalities of the characters, I did enjoy the film a lot. Shinkai's metaphorical use of trains just continuing to go along their routes that diverge in several ways really applies in this film, as much as it did in 5 Centimeters per Second. Everyone's lives diverge in different ways, things happen in dreams and are forgotten the next day, things happen in reality and are forgotten over a lifetime. I enjoyed Taki's and Mitsuha's struggles throughout the film to help each other, and as much as it made me well up tears in my eyes, I enjoyed his questioning of how much our memories make up who we are.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 14, 2016

bmoore07

Mixed Feelings

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be an author. I’d write for days on end, using every ounce of my imagination, and then stored my works away in some secret drawer when I finished. Frightened to death of sneers and condescending laughter, I rarely shared my writings with anyone, only submitting them to a contest or two over the years. A couple of months ago, I heard that there was going to be a prestigious writer’s conference, known as Books Alive, in my town, where literary agents would search high and low for the next great author. Despite having a small amount ... of time to prepare, I pushed aside my fears and toiled furiously on a brief sample for a murder mystery that I was planning to write (you can read it at the end of my review). On the day of the conference, I approached one of the most famous agents there and, with a stutter and shaking hands, I presented my sample to the agent. She thoughtfully looked over what I had and, with as much grace as she could, turned me down. Before advising me to come back next year, she complimented my writing skills but said that I was too focused on establishing the setting rather than developing the characters in it.

That, my friends, is Your Name in a nutshell.

I thought that, after the disaster known as Erased, the good people of MyAnimeList would be more selective in what they label “great”, more reluctant to flock to whatever’s the biggest and brightest. I, of course, was wrong. Your Name, in no time at all, skyrocketed to the first spot on MAL’s Top Anime, and this fact is depressing. Apparently, anything that happens to look fantastic, and has a combination of time travel and “feelz” is automatically adored by the masses. Looking from afar, I thought there has to be more to this film than what’s on the surface. There has to be a reason why Makoto Shinkai, the director of Your Name, is hailed as “the next Miyazaki”. This is why I decided to watch Your Name and the result?

Well…….

The first few minutes are a work of art, with the story shifting the perspective back and forth from one character to the other, and the gorgeous animation overwhelming your eyeballs. If there’s one thing that I’ll remember about Your Name, it’s that this film is scenery porn at its finest. The cinematography won’t exactly captivate you but practically every frame in this work is shot with an impeccable eye for detail, making sure the smallest pieces of the environment don’t go unnoticed. It is this specialty that shines in Your Name’s greatest scene, where the protagonist scurries into a cave, running form the cold, constant, and unforgiving rain (It’s simply a beautiful sequence to witness). When it comes to camerawork, Erased clearly soars beyond the likes of Your Name. However, in a contest to smother the audience with its looks, this film is unrivaled.

Of course, just because something looks great doesn’t qualify it as the Citizen Kane of anime unless it has something beneath the glitz and glamour. You need something substantial that can provide a foundation for your film, like a quality cast of characters, and Your Name just doesn’t have it. Now, before you start dubbing me a hater, just wait – wait! – a second. Below, I have three requirements that I think a show should meet in order to have a quality cast.

1. Does the personality of the protagonists change at all?
2. Do the protagonists stand out?
3. Does the supporting cast matter?

These requirements aren’t long-winded or multi-faceted, and yet there’s no way you can tell me that Your Name meets any of them.

1 and 2. Taki and Mitsuha are our walking clichés of the day. There is no difference in who they are from start to finish. There isn’t one trait about either one of them that would make you remember them at all. I will give you a million dollars if you can prove me wrong on this one.

(Before I type any further, I want to talk about amnesia for a sec. It’s been the quintessential plot convenience device since, like, forever; while some writers were able to use amnesia in a realistic and convincing fashion, it has often required a copious amount of suspension of disbelief to make it work but here it borders on ridiculousness. Let’s say I met someone I haven’t seen in a while. We talk and then that person walks away. You seriously can’t expect me to FORGET THAT PERSON’S NAME A MINUTE LATER, right? Moving on…..)

3. Ummm, let’s see, there’s that one guy with a crush on Mitsuha, that restaurant chick with the torn dress, and Mitsuha’s family: her dad, sister, and grandma. Not one of them is someone you’d regard as memorable or important, and I just can’t understand for the life of me how that’s forgivable (Well, the grandma does have a pretty solid knowledge of what’s occurring in the plot).

“Character flaws, huh? You might have a point ther- OH MY GAWD THOSE STARS ARE SO PWETTY!”

To be completely honest, I became really bored when the animation ceased to amaze. The romance isn’t funny or interesting in the slightest. The characters are dull and boring. The plot is horrendously slow and uninspiring. This is what I thought while about to fall asleep…… and then the plot twist happened. It slammed into me like a sack of bricks, instantly breathing life into something that was on the verge of becoming forgettable. For those of you that weren’t half-conscious while watching Your Name, you might’ve seen the twist coming. For me, however, as soon as I saw the words “three years ago” at the bottom of the screen, I thought that the film was about to justify the hype. Instead of putting their heads together to create a finale for the ages, Your Name’s writers collectively shrugged their shoulders and settled for the cop-out of cop-outs: true love conquers all.

**and now for the writing sample that I promised to show you in the first paragraph**

Drenched in the all-consuming blanket of rain, leaning over the bridge’s rust-speckled rail, Don exhaled the whispery dark gray smoke that hailed from his wiry thin Newport cigarette, his fifth of the day. Don gazed thoughtfully at his reflection that appeared on the surface of the town’s heavily-polluted river, a mixture of juniper green and the darkest brown from the steady flow of the chemical waste from the most environmentally ignorant factories. Bystanders rushed to and fro, this way and that, attempting to escape the oppressive downpour of the sky’s sadness. Not Don. With the utmost carefulness, he ever so slowly rotated away from peering into the river; with his back and elbows resting on the rail, he observed them in their futile war against the natural elements. Attempting an informal method of saluting their efforts, Don’s hand scoured through his thoroughly soaked pocket before clenching an ancient but capable lighter. The hand glided out of Don’s pocket with the lighter in its clutches before illuminating the previously extinguished butt of the Newport that slouched limply on the private eye’s mouth. As the fire burned bright, Don was ready to inhale the remaining contents of the already-used cigarette when a particularly vicious gust of the chilly midmorning wind snuffed out the Newport’s flame. With an empathetic shrug of the shoulders, Don allowed the Newport to float gracefully from his lips onto the ground, where he boredly drilled the heel of his penny loafer into the cigarette and stirred from his position on the rail. “Stop trying to show off your writing skills already and let me get my work done,” grumbled Don. As bystanders panicked, running to and fro, this way and that, attempting to retreat from their war with nature into a secure building to rest, Don effortlessly strode slouching, his hands jammed in his dampened pockets, through the crowd. Then, the private eye was gone.

*Before you go, allow me to give you a few final words on Your Name*

It wasn’t the top-tier animation that made Hayao Miyazaki a household name. It was the combination of childhood nostalgia and an innocent sense of adventure in his films that elevated his success. It was the ability to include an array of social statements and dark elements to movies made for children without coming across as pretentious. More than anything else, it’s the feeling that you witnessed something special that established Miyazaki as a legend. Someday, I’ll be 90 years old, peeing on myself and losing my memory, but I’ll still recall the impact Miyazaki’s films had on me. Obviously, Your Name doesn’t contain that appeal. As soon as the anime community realizes this, they’ll move on from this film and idolize yet another time travel rom-com/tragedy with great animation and glaring flaws. It won’t be next week or next month but it will definitely be soon. When the time comes, there will be others like me, who scratch their heads in confusion and ask, “Wait, we’re doing this again?”

One of these days, MyAnimeList will get it right.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 9, 2016

Jex

Not Recommended

Makoto Shinkai's latest work goes even further to support the theory that he's fantastic at directing a visually brilliant movie, but lacks the writing ability to tell a good story.

Plot:
An absolute mess. Without spoiling it, this movie fails to get into the main plot until roughly halfway through. Before that point, it views like a teenage slice of life; nothing to be disappointed by. After the halfway mark, the plot becomes incredibly contrived with no logic, reason, or thought put into its creation. There were at least 4 separate climaxes (which is inexcusable for any movie which is not Return of the King) and ... an overly drawn out epilogue sequence. The main climax happens off screen, which negates the entire build up to it, because Shinkai wanted to have a reveal with little weight. There are an unacceptable amount of plotholes, mostly due to the concept of Musubi. There's little coherence, and amateur directing/writing displayed frequently throughout. To differentiate this from his other movies, Shinkai infused supernatural elements with romance, which fails horribly at enhancing the movie and instead detracts very significantly. Even amongst the people who love this movie, there is a large percentage that find the plot messy.

Art/Animation:
It's Makoto Shinkai. If movies were judged by aesthetics alone, this would be one of the best ones. There are no issues with the art. Scene composition is mostly great, the animation was very high quality, and the art style was beautiful. While there are not as many wallpaper opportunities as in 5cm/s, the quality of them is significantly higher. Watch this in the highest possible quality you can find. Worth watching for the art alone. The animation is what you'd expect from a high budget movie, but it's not anything revolutionary. There are several scenes that move beautifully and feel like magic to look at. The animation quality isn't quite up to Ghibli standards but it is nothing to scoff at.

Sound:
Voice actors were quite good and played different roles effectively. The change in voice aesthetic was notable during the first half when they were body swapping. The soundtrack was unmemorable, but set the scene adequately, and it may help to broaden your horizons and expose you to new music. Sound FX and general background noise was well produced and sounded natural. The opening sequence song in particular stood out and is worth a listen, but I can't say that for most of the soundtrack.

Character:
The mains were adolescents, which meant there was a lot of adolescent stuff going on in the first half. The characters were interesting initially, though none stood out as incredibly well written and became less and less captivating as the movie went on. The main positive about the characters was that they mostly felt natural, save for when they were clearly not meant to. Side characters were certainly more natural than the mains, and contributed well to the atmosphere of the movie. They develop plot stupidity and have no depth or drive other than the forced romance, and plot amnesia is introduced for added gratuitous drama. There is no reason for the characters to become stupid, or amnesiacs, and it detracts from the believability of the characters and the plot.


Buy this on bluray because it looks stunning. Don't expect good characters, or a remotely good plot, but do expect to salivate at another of Shinkai's wallpaper opportunity movies. Worth the watch for the visuals. It's an awful movie that looks good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Kimi no Na wa. Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) checkdafool - Jul 3, 2016	1,433 replies	by selweQ »» Yesterday, 3:18 AM
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