Jul 6, 2016
Visually stunning, masterfully written, and amazing performances in animation, sound, and voice acting, "Kimi no Na wa." ("Your Name." in English) is an absolute masterpiece. Makoto Shinkai has once again delivered a piece so beautiful, so heartwarming, so tear-inducing, and in no way less than what you can expect from him. As for those unfamiliar with the name Shinkai, this would be the movie I'd recommend first to watch from him.
I'll be honest that as I walked into the hall at AX to watch the world premier of the movie, my expectations of the film were different. Prior to watching, the supernatural element of the
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movie never really clicked to me, as I knew Shinkai more for his art of capturing the essence and beauty of a single moment in a slice-of-life setting. When you add supernatural elements in a story, an argument comes up where "mysticism" can become favored over "logic", and as a result you can make an audience lost over these eccentricities. However, Shinkai made it work. He used the supernatural as a way to amaze the audience and his art further created that mystifying feeling. I found myself so heavily invested in the movie, shaking in my seat as I and many others watched.
Makoto Shinkai is known as being incredibly talented at many things, one being his artwork. The production quality of his work is unparalleled, and as we've seen in the past his art alone is the most visually appealing in the industry. There is a reason why most of us have some sort of desktop wallpaper of Shinkai's works and it is because it truly is that breath-taking. "Your Name." may be less focused on art than his previous work "The Garden of Words", but that doesn't make it less fascinating than any other piece he created.
Big mentions have to go out to the other names that played a huge role in this movie's production. Masayoshi Tanaka (Toradora, Anohana, Anthem of the Heart) is the character designer of the film. His characters are all visually appealing. Prior to the premier I had no idea he was the character designer, but very quickly I recognized the aesthetics as something familiar. Tanaka's characters are beautiful and full of personality, a definite present for sore eyes no matter which series you watch. The two have collaborated in the past in "Cross Road" and I was hoping when I would see that combination again.
Masashi Andou (multiple Ghibli films) is the animation director for the film, and while it is difficult to find distinct characteristics of an animator, you can still see elements of Ghibli-esque animation in "Your Name.". The most notable would be when you notice a character open their mouth a lot wider than normal, something noticeable in Ghibli films. Aside from that there are some scenes where the animation quality is simply extraordinary: scenes where the use of panning or a hand-drawn 3D camera rotation are used in impressive fashion. It is truly captivating and engaging for the audience.
Radwimps did the music for the film, and while I'm not all too familiar with their music, their songs were exceptional in the movie. During the panel Shinkai mentioned he worked with them for about 2 years to produce the music in a back and forth exchange to fit the mood of the scenes in the movie. That shows massive dedication, and it definitely shows in the film. While you may recognize Tenmon's music direction in "5 Centimeters Per Second" best for being as emotionally engaging as it is, Radwimps provide their own craft in "Your Name.", and it fits the film well for its genre. If I were to give an example, think of Galileo Galilei's OP in "Anohana" and how it fits the theme of that series.
Overall, this is a must watch movie from Shinkai. And for anyone relatively new to his films it would be this that I would recommend first. It is incredibly beautiful, and a true masterpiece which is what you can expect from films with a name like Makoto Shinkai. You will find yourself laughing at its humor, mystified by its remarkable art, knees shaking at its high tension scenes, and most notably you will yell 2 particular directional words at the characters as your eyes water during the climax of romance scenes. I can only give the highest recommendation for this film as it is truly Makoto Shinkai's best yet.
As of the time of this review, this film here, "Your Name.", is Shinkai's magum opus.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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