"Your Name" is a sweet, engaging and beautiful, but confusing and somewhat loopy movie.

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2017)

Sit back, relax and let me tell you what I think of Your Name. No, not your name (that would be way too personal) I'm talking about the Japanese anime fantasy feature film "Your Name" (PG, 1:46). Now, if you're not familiar with Your Name, you should be. In the first place, who doesn't know their own name? (Okay, enough bad puns.) The MOVIE "Your Name" opened in U.S. theaters on April 7, 2017, a little over seven months after its release in Japan. Before it even reached the U.S., the film had become the fourth biggest film ever at the Japanese box office, their top-grossing film of 2016 AND the #1 anime worldwide to date! Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Makota Shinkai (who also wrote and directed the screen adaptation), there is much to distinguish this film from previous anime features.
The film's roots are a combination of the traditional and the contemporary, as it forged a fresh path both in Japan and beyond. This is the first anime not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to make over $100 million (about 10 billion Yen) in Japan. "Your Name" also became the highest-grossing Japanese release in China and was the first Japanese film in a dozen years to attain the top box office spot in South Korea. Not bad, for a film that is singularly Japanese. One of the reasons given for the film's success is the soundtrack, which includes songs from Yojiro Noda, lead singer for the Japanese rock band Radwimps. Critics and audiences have also praised the film's animation, as well as the plot and its emotional impact. According to Wikipedia, "Inspiration for the story came from works including Shūzō Oshimi's 'Inside Mari', 'Ranma ½', the Heian period novel 'Torikaebaya Monogatari', and Greg Egan's short story 'The Safe-Deposit Box'." The film's main location, a town called Itomori, is fictional, but the buildings and landscape are based on Japan's Gifu Prefecture. Itomori is where the central character in this story lives.
Mitsuha Miyamizu (voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi in the Japanese version and by Stephanie Sheh in the dubbed English-language version) is a high school student who wants more out of life than what her tiny hometown has to offer. She's not very self-confident, she doesn't have many friends, she cares little for tradition and is even less enthusiastic about being the daughter of the town's mayor. While her tough, traditionalist widowed father is busy mayoring, Mitsuha and her young sister are being raised by her traditional, but kind grandmother. All of Mitsuha's frustrations boil over one day when she shouts into the sky that, instead of a meek country girl, she wishes she were a handsome boy living in Tokyo.
Then it happened – Mitsuha wakes up one morning to discover she has mysteriously switched bodies with just such a young man named Taki Tachibana (Ryunosuke Kamiki / Michael Sinterniklaas). Both high schoolers are understandably disoriented and upset by finding themselves in the body of someone of the other gender, in a house with a family and going to a strange school in a different place and with friends whom they don't know. Mitsuha and Taki each believe they're dreaming, so they just get by as well as they can and wait to wake up. When they do each wake up the next morning, back in their own beds, they're relieved until their family and friends comment on how strange they've been acting.
These body swaps continue happening, about every other day, but the memories of what Mitsuha and Taki each do in the other's body quickly fade, much like a dream. To keep track of what's going on, the two teens start leaving each other notes, first in paper notebooks, and then on their smartphones – and they start intervening in each other's lives. Mitsuha, as Taki, helps Taki start a romantic relationship with his supervisor at the restaurant where he works part-time, and Taki, as Mitsuha, helps her become more popular. When their body swaps suddenly and inexplicably stop, Taki tries to make contact with Mitsuha in real time, but cannot reach her by cell phone. He takes a train to her district, armed with sketchy and fading memories from his days as Mitsuha, and learns something which affects him profoundly and causes both he and Mitsuha to embark on separate, but parallel and highly significant tasks.
"Your Name" is a sweet, engaging and beautiful, but confusing and somewhat loopy movie. The animation features especially vibrant colors and it is creative and skilled, often giving the impression of depth, even as a 2-D production. The movie also provides an interesting window into the world of modern Japan, through the juxtaposition of urban and rural environments. The main characters and supporting players are likable and fun to watch, but sometimes act illogically. More problematic, however, are dealing with the movie's plot holes and keeping track of who is who, when, and what is happening during some of the body swaps. But all of that aside, "Your Name" features an interesting story, which includes elements of humor, excitement and even suspense and charms its audience. It combines influences from many sources, but still feels fresh, creative and vital. This film is "Freaky Friday" meets "The Lake House", with the look of an updated "Spirited Away", and it's visually and emotionally pleasing in spite of its shortcomings. "B+"