Your Name. [SUB] (2016) Review

 Your Name. [SUB] (2016) 8/10

[THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Hello and welcome to another movie review. Today’s review is going to be a bit special, at least to me. Your Name premiered at the 2016 Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016, which then got a theatrical release in Japan on August 26. The movie was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, who had previously done 5 Centimeters per Second and The Garden of Words. Your Name is regarded as not only one of the best movies of 2016, but one of the best anime movies ever made. The film broke many box office records and won numerous accolades. To say the movie shook the anime world is an understatement.

Your Name is a movie that I’ve been wrestling with for many many years now. I’ve actually watched and reviewed this movie at least three times now. Each time I watched it, my views on the film would change, making my criticisms not hold any weight lol. I’ve been wanting to tackle this movie one last time to put my mind at ease, but I’ve been waiting until I’ve gotten better with my reviews before I do, to prevent any more changes lol. Your Name has always played a significant role in terms of how I critique things. This movie helped me open the door to a bigger world of movies, in terms of production, scope, and availability.

The first time I watched this, I instantly put it in the 10/10 masterpiece category. The second time I watched it, I dropped my rating and even somewhat dismissed it because of a potential plot hole. The third time I watched it, I raised my rating again, bringing up the argument that this plot hole ruins the movie and if you ignore it, everything happens how it should and things are hunky-dorey. Watching it now, now that I’ve been able to view the movie with clearer lenses, I can safely say that this is indeed a great movie, but I don’t feel comfortable putting this in the masterpiece category. I’m sorry I just don’t think it’s a strong enough film, despite how much was going for it. Let’s dive into this mess. Let’s begin.

This is the story of high schoolers Mitsuha and Taki. Mitsuha is an ambitious girl who lives in the small town of Itomori, who helps out her grandmother at the shrine. She hopes to one day leave the countryside and live in Tokyo, hoping to add more excitement to her rather boring life. Taki is a kind, but aggressive person who works part-time as a waiter. He doesn’t really have any ambitions or goals in life, but he’s still searching for a potential career. He is quite interested in architecture and drawing, which will help him in his quest later on. These two have never met before, but one day, they wake up in each other’s bodies. At random, they will swap bodies, which is triggered whenever they go to sleep. They have no recollection of the swapping at first, but fragmented memories and diary entries will drive them both to make the most of this new situation. As time goes by and many many body swaps later, they eventually stop body swapping, and Taki is left wondering what had happened to the girl he has fallen for. In his search for Mitzuha, he’ll discover a grim reminder of a tragedy that happened three years ago. But that won’t stop Taki and journey to find the person he loves, even through time itself.

This is a great story with great characters. I love both Mitsuha and Taki, and all the side characters are pretty solid too. The movie has excellent pacing, with the editing keeping you intrigued as some events are out of order, forcing the viewer to pay attention. I also really love the movie’s theme: Musubi aka knotting and union. I really love the whole “red thread of fate” and how this also ties into Japanese mythology as well. The movie has a lot of layers that you can pick apart, which I greatly appreciated.

So that plot hole I mentioned earlier, let me address it. As Mitsuha and Taki are body swapping, you’d think they would eventually realize they are years apart. The Tiamat comet, the destruction of Itomori, and simply seeing the year 2013/16, you’d think they would eventually catch on to this fact. When I was rewatching this now, I kept this in mind and just figured that they were just too busy with their daily lives to tell, but don’t you think that at some point in their daily lives that something would trigger either of them to look at what year it is? Like in passing, Taki could have heard someone say “...that tragedy that destroyed that small town three years ago…” Idk a part of me wants to suspend my disbelief for this, but for such a huge tragedy (and its anniversary coming up), you’d think this would prompt Taki to do something earlier. Or even on Mitsuha’s side, have her learn of her town’s horrible fate. I know Shinkai deliberately kept this information from our main protagonists so that his story could unravel the way he wanted to, but this does bother me to an extent. Regardless of this, the movie is still pretty tight in terms of exposition and plot progression.

Your Name, just like with Shinkai’s other films, is easily one of the most visually striking anime movies ever made. I can see why his films are compared to Ghibli masterpieces, even after watching three of his movies. The way he fully utilizes both hand-drawn and digitally animation is truly extraordinary, and of course the bright, colorful, and hopeful color palettes make this movie really pop. It’s honestly a nice 180 compared to “5 Centimeters per Second”, which had a more drab color palette. Truly goes to show that Shinkai is a master of coloring and color theory.

Music is great. Easily one of the better soundtracks to come out of the 2010’s. Headed by the Japanese rock band Radwimps, Your Name sports a more contemporary rock sound with the lyrical songs, as well as a more traditional score with the classic Radwimps signature. I first discovered Radwimps back when I first watched this movie and now as a fan of their music, hearing it again in the movie was a really cool experience.

The Japanese dub is pretty good. Best performances go to our main protagonists Mone Kamishiraishi (Mitsuha) and Ryunosuke Kamiki (Taki). Not only are their regular voices for their respective characters well done, but when they were body swapping, you can tell they changed their pitch to address the change. Kamiki-san went with a higher, more feminine voice for when Mitsuha was in Taki’s body, and on the flip side Kamishiraishi-san went with a more masculine voice for when Taki was in Mitsuha’s body. Brilliant voice direction that needed to be commended.

Your Name is a legendary movie for many different reasons. About 8-9 years ago, if you asked me what my favorite anime movie was, I would’ve told you Your name. But watching the movie now, I still enjoyed it and gave it a high rating, but I don’t think I would put this in my top ten. If you like Your Name and are a diehard fan of the film, more power to you, but personally this didn’t hit as hard as it used to. Until my next review, stay frosty.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.