The story centres around two teenagers, Taki and Mitsuha. Taki is a school boy living in Tokyo who also has a part time job in an Italian restaurant. Mitsuha is daughter to the mayor of a small town called Itomori who is unhappy with her boring traditional upbringing. One day Mitsuha prays that she could come back in the next life as a handsome Tokyo boy. Guess what – the next day Mitsuha and Taki wake up to find that they have switched bodies. Confused and shocked they begin to live each others’ lives thinking they are dreaming. The switch is not permanent however, and they would go back and forth between bodies from night to night. When they realise this isn’t a dream they begin communicating with each other by leaving messages on their phones or written on their arms. After a while the duo decide they need to find each other and this brings about even more surprises.
Outside of Studio Ghibli productions, I believe this has been the most successful anime ever in Japan. Director Makoto Shinkai is being dubbed by some as the new big name is anime, taking over from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.
This is quite a difficult film for me to review because I was unsure what to think for various reasons.
The story itself I thought was sort of sweet. I guess essentially it’s a love story, except it takes place on a more metaphysical level. The story crosses genders, locations, cultures and times. The way Taki and Mitsuha react when the swap bodies is interesting. There are lots of movies based on body swapping. ‘She’s the Man’ & ‘Freaky Friday’ come to mind. As expected they are fascinated by their new ‘parts’ shall we say. The first time this was slightly amusing but moments like this that continued throughout had the screen I was in in hysterics. The film did make me smile a few times, but at no point did I break out into a laugh, despite the hilarity that everyone else seemed to be experiencing.
What surprised me was how much I enjoyed the score. In particular there were songs near the beginning and near the end that (although I hadn’t a clue what the guy was saying) I really enjoyed. Maybe this says more about the film that I preferred listening to the singing or maybe it was the way the music complimented the animation that was shown during the songs. I’m not sure.
I’m sure if you’re a massive anime geek then you’ll probably love it.
- Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/553301-your-name?language=en-US
- Movie Critic: AA