if you know your anime, don't expect too much

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2016)

To be sure, "Your Name" is now at a domestic B.O. of $140 million among the 50 most successful traditionally animated films of all time, it establishes Makoto Shinkai firmly as the new great hope of animated film, and it does feature the most brilliant lighting effects ever produced. If you don't know any previous works by Shinkai and his company Comics Wave, chances are you'll be blown away. If you are, however, familiar with his work, you may catch yourself wondering what all the fuss is about.
There isn't anything new here - the intertwined time-lines were the main feat of his "5 Centimeters per Second" (2007), and the asteroids and fantastic themes dominated his debut feature "The Place promised in our early Days" (2004), which I personally hold to be his best work.
Why then this sudden enormous success? Well, Miyazaki has stopped directing, and Ghibli has been on hiatus for two years. The equally brilliant Mamoru Hosoda's films have topics more domestic to Japan, and because of this his latest film "The Boy and the Beast" had only a limited US release. I'd still say that his "Wolf Children" (2012) and "The Girl who leapt through Time" (2006) are far superior to Shinkai because of their complex story lines, and because you can watch those over and over again. His style is also more reminiscent of Miyazaki.
But right now, it's Shinkai's hour, and to be sure, it's well deserved that he finally gets so much international exposure. Only I very much doubt that he will be able to replicate this success, because the novelty first-time viewers may experience now will surely wear off if he sticks to his well-established themes.