Time after time: a "Your Name" review

Being on the outside of buzz is a double-edged sword. I always get excited when I see praise for something that looks like it's going to be excellent, but then I get the fear I'm missing out on something great. Your Name fell into this category before I decided to sit down and watch it on a Tuesday morning with the same person I binged Angel Beats with. Knowing that my college library had it on DVD from FUNimation and a free few hours tempted my curiosity, and several rave reviews only cemented my decision. I'd have to like it too, right?

The good thing is that I did. Makoto Shinkai has made a name for himself with films that make use of evocative animation, color, and emotion. Although this is only my first project of his I've seen, I'm looking forward to watching more. Your Name is an absolutely breathtaking movie that takes the traditional body-swapping romantic comedy drama formula and makes it something much more sentimental, pointing out the difficulties and memories that accumulate no matter where someone lives, the desire to literally put on someone else's shoes, and the people that affect the very fabric of space and time itself (time seems to be explored in a lot of really popular anime movies). It's just as much a love story as it is a story of the magic of time, of life itself. It may take a while for its true colors to show, but the road to it is soft and understated before swelling to a powerful climax.

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The movie opens with gorgeous shots of a comet falling to Earth before traveling to a girl, Mitsuha, waking up disoriented and confused in her futon. When the next day comes around, her little sister, grandmother, and best friends remark on the strange behavior she exhibited throughout that day, forgetting her name, desk and locker, and signature hair ribbon. Mitsuha, understandably, has no idea why people are saying these things, and anyway, she has more pressing things to worry about. The small town she lives in, Itomori, is slowly closing in on her thanks to her dad's mayoral status and its rural location, and she must learn the duties of the shrine maiden her grandmother wants her to be. One night, she shouts a wish out to the sky: "Please let me be a handsome Tokyo boy in my next life!" The next morning, she wakes up in the body of a handsome Tokyo boy, a high school student named Taki.

Taki's life is very much caught up in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo: big school, fancy part-time job, and a crush on a female co-worker. It's overwhelming and exhilarating, and Mitsuha is glad it will be a one time thing. Or so she thinks. Mitsuha and Taki end up continuing to switch bodies much to their bewilderment, and they come to terms with it by leaving notes for each other on themselves and in the memo apps on their phones. But their switching affects their lives in ways neither one was expecting: Mitsuha suddenly becomes popular instead of shut out, and Taki ends up going on a date with that crush of his. It all seems like it could go on forever, and then it stops. Taki is left to wonder what happened to Mitsuha, and this takes him on a journey beyond his wildest dreams.

I'll be the first to admit that the concept of Your Name is more gripping than the movie appears at first. Mitsuha's development takes up the first 15 or so minutes, and as a result, the body swapping doesn't really happen until right at the first act's climax. But once Taki is introduced, the film starts picking up speed and becomes much harder to gripe about. Shinkai's writing is understated and warm, really evoking the settings into the way his characters interact throughout the film. The friendships reflect the environments they grow in, whether with the crowded intimacy of small town life or the loud buoyancy of the big city. Mitsuha and Taki are both empathetic and endearing characters, and despite their lack of external development, their bond's shift throughout the course of the movie is heartrending to follow in its absolute distilled purity, sometimes rare in other teenage films. And Shinkai's explicit foreshadowing with time, how it can shape all of our memories and how we'll chase it to be with loved ones, is perhaps the best part of all; everything ties back to it perfectly by the end, and I really appreciated that. Sometimes I'll walk away from a film only knowing part of what it was trying to say, but I feel like Your Name's bold theme against its subdued content really made it click in my brain, even a week after watching.

Mitsuha and Taki, like I've mentioned before, are protagonists to root for in their own ways. Mitsuha is soft-spoken and reserved and knows what she wants out of life, but she struggles to voice how to go about that. Her journey to find that courage is in part due to Taki's outspoken tendencies while he's in her body, but it's also strength she earns as she learns she can speak her mind and harness what her shrine maiden teachings have taught her: dedication, grace, and a resolve to honor what she believes. Taki is referenced to have at least some of that strength, although it comes out in short-tempered flares and results in bandages like when we first see him. But he really is a kind boy at heart, going so far as to sacrifice his time just to find this girl he has swapped bodies with so he can say hello (he also does some excellent architect drawings). The other people surrounding these two are just as enigmatic, even though they don't get a whole lot of development. Whether Taki's first crush, Mitsuha's best friends and her grandmother and sister, or both of their distant fathers, there's at least some story waiting to be told for them.

Another highlight is the absolutely stunning animation. I've never heard of CoMix Wave Films before, which is understandable considering I watch a lot of TV anime and don't delve into flicks that often. But some research shows the studio has worked on some of Shinkai's most memorable projects, so I'm expecting their animating skills to be on point given how stunning this was. The use of color (lots of nice blues and purples), character fluidity, and nature shots are all highlights. I don't feel like I can say much about it without spoiling it. It's truly something to see to believe.

I'd be remiss not to address RADWIMPS' score. I've never heard of a Japanese rock band doing the soundtrack for anime outside of openings and endings, and I was very surprised by just how excellent the music was. Listening to it now as I write this review (you can stream it on Spotify and other services, kiddos) reminds me just how lush and beautiful it is, perfectly complimenting and framing climatic and slice-of-life moments. The use of guitar and the blending of keyboards and electronic elements are excellent, and everything works in both slice-of-life and climatic moments. I know I'm a sucker for electro rock, but RADWIMPS really sells it, creating awesome atmospheric background music and insert songs. I'd recommend listening to "Zenzenzense" the most if curiosity strikes, just because it perfectly captures the thematic arc of the movie (it also has an English version alongside the other insert songs from the movie for the English release; I will unfortunately say it's a clunky rendition in my opinion).

The voice acting is also very strong. I thought I recognized the lead actors, but it turned out I had them all wrong when I read over the cast list (although I correctly recognized some of the actors who were playing side characters; it's always nice to hear from veterans like Aoi Yuki, Nobunaga Shimazaki, and Kaito Ishikawa). Mone Kamishiraishi and Ryunosuke Kamiki are names I don't recognize personally, but their work as Mitsuha and Taki matches the subtlety of the writing and the powerful emotions that come from first love and being a teenager. They also had excellent voices during the body swapping (Kamiki's high pitch as Mitsuha in Taki's body was an absolute gem), perfectly capturing the masculinity and femininity getting added on as a result of the switch. I have yet to see the dub (which will no doubt be led strongly by Stephanie Sheh and Michael Sinterniklaas), but I do have reservations about the script being directly taken from the subtitles (at least judging from the clips I've seen). It sounds awkward to me despite being well-acted, and given some of the references and gags may only make sense in Japanese (twilight being referred to as "Kataware-doki" and a scene with Mitsuha as Taki slipping up on what version of the "I" pronoun to use now that she's in a male body), I'm nervous to see how things will pan out. Still, I'm fairly certain since this dub was released theatrically, it should be great.

Your Name received a lot of buzz when it first released, and watching it only proved to me why it deserved it. Although its story and characters may feel underdeveloped, its absolutely stellar use of foreshadowing and intricate subtlety added onto brilliant animation and music makes it an engaging watch. I would be more than happy to watch it again sometime soon just to see the magic all over again. For those looking to get into anime or wanting to see what many will perhaps call a modern classic, this is a title not to miss. Be prepared to be wowed.