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Nov 17, 2018
Fuck Prison school.
Don't waste your time on this manga unless you want to experience the most cruel and sadistic joke that an author can play on his fans.
Everything that makes this manga good relies on the suspense and hope that these shitty characters will eventually triumph. For the most part this works. I was invested in seeing things working out for the characters. Unfortunately none of that matters when you don't have any pay off because every relationship and plot thread that is being built up over the course of this manga is completely unresolved or ends terribly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Dec 23, 2016
This is an analytical review on the movie's story, direction and themes. IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, so read at your own discretion.
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DIRECTION & WRITING
The primary focus of Your Name is on love with the main intent of uplifting people’s spirits through entertainment and a therapeutic recovery from the trauma of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan. The entertainment aspect of it is achieved through a well tonally structured script and well paced out climaxes. It leads the audience in with light hearted comedy and intrigue, but progressively becomes more intriguing with its unpredictability. The interesting plot beats of events and revelation are placed throughout the film instead of being clumped together which helps to break up long sequences, preventing them from becoming boring or overwhelming. The script is tight and focused, every scene served a purpose. Either if it’s for establishing characters, character feelings, entertainment, plot or the theme.
The choice of individual supernatural ideas themselves were not really related to the narrative’s through line but was used well for entertainment. The body swap offered comedy, characterization and a fresh take on the way a traditional love story could be developed by having the leads learn about each other in the most intimate way possible though living their life. The time gap/time travel offered mystery, unpredictability and a far more dramatic revelation for the comet disaster compared to if the events were to occur concurrent with Taki’s timeline.
The film is also therapeutic in a wish fulfilment sense. It sharply captures the feelings of shock and sadness that comes from the loss of someone dear but also creates a fantasy in which the audience can find happiness and satisfaction experiencing what it would be like turning back the clock and rescuing the one you love.
In a sense the creative decisions Shinkai made are designed for commercial appeal as oppose to philosophical commentary, but at its core it’s still a very passionate and personal project.
THEME
Your Name tries to evoke the feeling of longing to be with someone you love as well as the yearning to find someone who is fated and destined to be with you. This entire film is conceived with the idea of the leads meeting at the end as strangers but in a predestined way. Just like how we might meet someone coincidentally who may end up to be your life long partner. It captures that feeling that most people dream of, especially when they are in their youth.
Shinkai’s previous films like 5cm per Second is also about love, but has a clearer message conveyed. Conveying the emotions of star crossed lovers has always been a particular interest for Shinkai, the message we take out from it is just a by-product of this particular emotion that he explores. Your name feels like it has a less obvious message simply because Shinkai explores the feeling of external influences like natural disasters separating people this time around. It’s a much more simpler emotion of yearning compared to the internal conflicts personal explored in 5cm and garden of words, and thus has less commentary to it if you choose to interpret. However, this time around the theme of separation is secondary to the yearning of fated love.
The setting and the supernatural elements are used to demonstrate this feeling of longing as devices that create distance between the leads. From contrast of the city and rural, past and present and transient nature of memories from dreams. The braided cord is an allusion to the red string of fate is used to symbolize the leads being connected by fate. The body swapping allows the leads to develop feelings for each other without them actually meet and interact in person. Their interactions are portrayed as dreams and thus their memories of each other would fade easily while the feeling they have for each other stays. I think this film was able to carry through the feeling of longing to be with someone that you are fated to be with without actually knowing who they are when you view it from the character’s perspective. This film guides the audience to feel this way in an easy to understand approach. If the movie only showed the individual lives of Mitsuha and Taki without them interacting and having them meet at the end it wouldn’t capture the idea of fate because we wouldn’t know how if these two characters will love each other. I think the execution was able to evoke this very complex emotion of yearning but unknown love in an easy to understand way.
Your Name is a very traditional love story as it explores love in a very idealistic and romantic sense. The obstacles between them aren’t interpersonal problems, but external forces. It infuses with all these contemporary elements that makes the storytelling feel fresh and relevant and easy to watch for the modern audience. In a way, it feels contemporary and traditional at the same time.
ROMANCE
Your Name isn’t particularly focused on developing a conventional love story between the leads. If you expect it to be a story about their relationship than you might come out feeling unconvinced by their love for each other, because it’s more interested capturing this particular emotion of yearning for connection and fate. It cares about its characters, and it cares about showing that the leads love one another but not much beyond that. It does leave their relationship development more to be desired. I think even a single scene where the leads share a special moment before they are separated would make it far more effective. My most highly rated shows are ones that either builds emotional invest for me from the ground up (Eureka 7, love live) or it was relatable so I can invest in it without that emotional bridge building (shirobako, death parade, oregairu, sakurasou). This film wasn’t able to build the love story from the ground up for me and I wasn’t able to be fully relate because I’ve never been in love in a romantic sense. However, I can see how this would be more emotional for people who has been in love especially during their adolescence, and can relate to lead’s yearning for each other when they are separated. While I didn’t resonate with the nostalgic adolescent feelings that your name tries to evoke in, it certainly made me yearn for love, fate and a sense of journey in an inexplicable way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 24, 2016
Short little special inserted after the performance in ep13 of tari tari and runs in parallel time until the ending. Probably worth watching if you like Tari tari.
Random personal rambling: I think i watched the tv series in 2013 and its quite an weird experience going back to this after 3 years. Makes me wonder why they bother making such a short after the anime's been done for quite a while. The short gets quite sentimental and reiterates the bittersweetness of graduation and parting ways, and it makes me wonder if I would've gotten sad had i watched it back then or perhaps that effect
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works better after the fact. Because, I was in university back then, and now I don't keep in touch with the friends i had back then i anymore, so in a way the timing in which I watched this short with 2 different perspectives time fits more appropriately.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 9, 2016
I recommend watching the full tv series first before watching this because it involves all the characters from the tv series and does not provide any introduction to them. The time frame seems to be set before introduction of the witches but Yamada and friends already knows most of them. The plot doesn't really build onto the main one nor does it expand on any of the characters much. The comedy is present mostly in the first OVA with sight gag similar to the tv series. The second episode focuses more on tracking people down and showing the characters going from one place to the
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another instead of developing them, similar to the tv series which I don't find that aspect to be particularily interesting.
If you've seen the tv series and you really liked it, I would say it's probably worth a watch. But if you are you on the fence here are synposis (Minor spoilers): The school's cultural festival is happening soon, and with it the performance festival. There's a hefty monetary prize for winning and the supernatural club wants to participate to win. And so the Yamada and friends spends their time to think of what to perform and proceeds to participate in it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 27, 2014
As a fan of sora no otoshimono's anime but also seeing all other reviews of how terrible this movie is, I watched it with a grain of salt. The whole experience was an obligation for closure rather than enjoyment.
This movie contains no structure or coherency, and it felt more like a youtube compilation of funny moments with some more serious moments sprinkled in. Which you should ignore completely if you wish to enjoy it because there is no resolution or development for them. The only thing that had some resolve was the romance between Tomoki and Ikaros, but it's hardly anything emotionally deep. I also
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struggled to understand the logic behind their emotions and actions.
At the end of the day, this movie is more or less a advertisement or trailer for what's to come in the manga. So watch it if you want that completion but otherwise it's not worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 8, 2014
SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 6 YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
How P.A. works disappointed me:
When I started watching this I was confused why this show received such an undeserved horribly low rating (even kiss x sis had a better score, srsly ppl?). However episode 6’s drama really unclouded my judgement as a PA works’ fanboy and made me realizes how much of a mess this is.
STORY
Each episode generally composes of scenery porn, walking, the occasional chicken, and the show diligently trying to keep the plot from progressing. We are half way through and nothing has been revealed about the tacked on supernatural element whether its importance to
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the characters or why do those characters have it. You would think they would develop at least SOMETHING if they are not developing the characters. I wish they had spent less time for the characters attempting to meet up somewhere to talk, because apparently the theme of saving your mobile credit is more important.
I actually quite enjoyed the earlier episodes because of its relaxing slice of life nature along with living vicariously in a perfectly gender balanced group of friends that I never had. Alas, that peace was ruined thanks to the poorly executed drama followed by the revelation of why these characters are bad.
In the followings list I will attempt to explain why:
CHARACTERS
Yukinari – Possessive, jealous, sulky and somewhat violent. Seriously needs to learn to accept things and control his emotions. His emotions are probably one of the most forced and overreacted and thus became a catalyst for this bad melodrama.
David Kakeru Stoic-kun – The show tried so hard in making him mysterious that there has been absolutely no backstory about him, his family situation, his childish back-yard camping habits, his foresight ability and its significance to him as well as his ability to tolerant listening to the same song over and over again. I was thoroughly disappointed to realize he had feelings for Touko despite my denial of their romantic undertone. His interest for Touko wasn’t evident in his emotions at all. His advancements towards Touko such as inviting her to that forest were straightforward but misleading and that I honestly couldn’t tell what his intentions were romantic or is he just interested in her power. His way of thinking also makes no logical sense to me from his wise philosophy of chickens’ feelings to his roundabout way in provoking Yuki with the race to receive a reaction from Touko. Even he himself admitted he had no clue why he did that. Probably one of the messiest characterization of the show.
Hiro – A slick and smooth talking sonuvabitch that’s scoring chicks left and right. Maybe if he didn’t wear a girl’s hair band he would get even more girls. Honestly what’s his and sachi significance in the show?
Sachi – Emotionless yuki nagato clone but actually not emotionless because she likes to constantly smile politely? But we all know she’s secretly and sadistically stringing along Hiro with the friend zone leash
Yanagi – Her actions actually made logical sense and I could understand her intentions as well as her emotions. Although her unwavering affection for yuki displayed in Ep 6 despite his aggressive tendencies brews concern as a domestic violence victim.
Touko – Your everyday oblivious moe character. She is the type of girl to tell a nice guy to not change because she likes them for who they are but then friend zones them and run off in the sunset with the bad boy on a motorbike. Although I can’t say that Yuki is a ‘nice’ guy but just her urging Yuki to confess but backfiring and her not knowing what to do annoys me. Mainly because of how contradictory she is and that using the excuse of a character being overly oblivious to other people’s feelings is getting quite old. Another example in episode six is that despite the fact that Kakeru treated her friends like crap and wagers Touko and Yanagi like possessions with Yuki in a race, she still decided to side with him. Her lack of ability to understand her own feelings is frustrating and really slows down the pace of the show. Her interest for Kakeru is not justified well enough even if she shares a similar ability with him.
To conclude in a tl;dr version of why I am disappointed. Characters are poorly established, there is no chemistry or justifications for their affection for each other. Kakeru is a very poorly written character with zero percent emotions and background thus making the audience difficult to understand him and his motivation. The pacing is also very slow. However, that animation and kawaii desu anime girl designs tho.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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