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Very minor spoilers.

So there is a lot of criticism revolving around this movie, mostly due to its blatant plot holes and issues with the character relationship. And yes, I did notice these when I first watched it.

Now, lets take a step back.

What is anime? Its a form of media that is meant to entertain, something that should bring joy to the viewers. That is what most media should do, whether they be music, movies, or television shows.

And Kimi no Na Wa definitely succeeds in that regards.

Yes, some of the plot devices contradicted itself. Yes, the relationship between the character is weakly supported. Yes, a lot ... of the time switching is illogical. In fact, I give story a 6 and character a 7. But none of this takes away the enjoyment of the movie. The enjoyment of this movie comes from one thing: execution. Each and every part of the movie is incredibly well directed and the soundtrack is precisely timed to complement each scene. At times, I guarantee that you will find yourself holding your breath during the movie's major plot reveals and events through amazing animation. You will be rooting for the characters as the director dangles the conclusions of relationships in front of you. The music will absolutely blow you away. At least, that is if you watch anime as it was meant to be watched.

I've read a lot of the reviews on MAL, and they reminded me of my high school AP English teacher. He would pick on the grittiest things, such as MLA formatting and how to use a quotation. He would not even acknowledge some of the interesting insights and opinions that I had written because he was so engrossed in criticizing it. And I understand for all you English majors out there that for English, formatting and quoting are important because it is a form of study and analysis.

Anime is not AP English. It is a form of media that is meant to be fun, and in my opinion enjoyability is the most important factor over plot and character. Sure, plot and character are important aspects of enjoyability, especially if it is so bad as to the point of hinderance. But Kimi no Na Wa is not hindered by plot holes and character faults, and the music and animation make up for those issues.

A "perfect anime" does not exist, and that can be shown by the fact that no show has gotten a rating of 10 by all users. All movies and shows will have faults, as directors are humans too and are bound to make mistakes. Some will make more mistakes than others, but those mistakes may be overlooked by the better aspect of the presentation. Rubbing in the faults just because they exist may be some people's cup of tea, but in my opinion, it is their loss because they won't be able to enjoy much out of the movie/show as a whole. For me, Kimi no Na Wa is indeed the "perfect anime" just because of how enjoyable it is. Not because it is perfect.

Wow, so I see that a lot of cynicism managed to reach top reviews on MAL.

And it's really sad to see some of the things they say.

People criticize the story. That it's bland, totally expected, and common. But honestly, can you find another 6-minute video that manages to achieve what Shelter does without expositional dialogue and text? Is there another show where a father saves his daughter and explores the clash between her emotions and loneliness as a result? Is there a show that questions the worth of survival if isolation is the outcome? If you think that the plot was totally expected, there's a ... psychological term called hindsight bias which means that you thought you knew it all along after an event has occurred. It's a six-minute video, it can happen to anyone who has a negative attitude against it.

I'm pretty sure everyone's on the same page in art and animation. It's amazing.

Music is personal preference. I understand that some people don't like EDM and I'm not a huge fan either. But I do like Porter Robinson because he doesn't rely on heavy bass and instead does interesting melodies and synths.

People criticize Rin for being cute and moe despite Shelter being an emotional story. Well, I'm sorry, but that's A-1's style of art. If that's your argument, then Anohana, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, and Erased must be horrible anime as well. Just because the character is cute doesn't mean that the show is bad.

Besides the common components of anime, the production and result of this show are significant. Rarely has there been a westerner who had the chance to work with a Japanese studio to create original work. Shelter may be the frontier of bridging this gap. The video also achieved rank 27 on Top Trending on Youtube when I checked (it may have been higher), which is most likely the highest any anime video as achieved on a popular video streaming site. The video at the time of this review has 3.6 million views. Guys, that's huge. I live in the U.S. and even people who have no idea what anime is have watched the video. I've gotten several anime-skeptic friends of mine to watch it, and now they're starting to think that anime might be worthwhile after all. This video may be the most influential anime in recent years not only in the anime community itself but outside as well. If you are saying that the video should not be getting the hype it's getting, then you're basically saying that you're against the spread of anime. This video caused a huge commotion online and I'm sure A-1 is interested in doing more of these projects for western audiences (because they are a company after all...), and focus on other audiences is always a great way for the growth of an entertainment industry.

So for those of you criticizing this short, I understand your point. But in context, Shelter is great as a show and as the huge influence that it had on the world.

So you're probably thinking, wow just another everyday hater. No, I freakin loved this anime. The concept, the audio, character development, everything was great. Until the ending. Oh the ending. I actually had to go to the wiki to make sure that National Geographic had not bought the license for this anime. Although I hate the stereotype that all manga-based anime that diverges from the manga is bad, I have to say that they made wrong decisions in this one.

Story - 6
Like I said, the beginning and background was brilliant. It had never been touched before and it was interesting. However, towards the end, it ... started to go downhill. With several obvious plot twists and outcomes, the last arch was a huge disappointment. The conclusion was also unsatisfactory and did not provide closure for fans.

Art - 6
The art was normal. Although I personally disliked some character design, it was fine. Nothing to fret about. Solid Madhouse art as always.

Sound - 10
Dubstep. Need I say more?

Character - 7
The character development was a bit sticky. Some where underdeveloped, some were overdeveloped, and just in general too many characters were introduced and quickly thrown away without doing much. Also, some character interactions were unreal or too dramatized.

Enjoyment - 7
As I previously said, the beginning was very good. The ending was bad. Action scenes are sometimes really lame, but epic at others. Overall, it was a good watch.

Overall - 7
As I previously said, I hated the ending of this anime. If only the ending had not been so off-beat, I could have easily given this a 9 and called it a masterpiece. But because of the soundtrack and the beginning, it is worth watching. Definitely give it a shot.