Your Name: An Animated Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (19 June 2018)

Makoto Shinkai's Your Name is my third favourite animated movie of all time, only being surpassed by Kaufman's Anomalisa and Miyazaki's Spirited Away. It is a masterfully crafted film that tells a simple story that manages to be fresh, intriguing, and beautiful throughout the entirety of its hour and fifty-two minute runtime. Shinkai somehow takes an idea that has been done a million times and gives it a fresh, new take that hasn't been done before. Some people will call his films melodramatic or petty, but what some people see as pretentious, I see as a stroke of pure genius. I am not only going to discuss why I believe that Your Name is masterclass filmmaking, but why Makoto Shinkai is a legend in the works. Firstly, I am going to go over my history with the film, and my initial reaction to seeing it.
The first time I heard of Your Name was back in late 2016. I watched a movie review on the flick from one of my personal favourite film critics, Chris Stuckmann. I've always respected him and trusted his opinion, as we share the same fondness for movies and have a similar taste in film. I was quite surprised when he gave Your Name his highest score, an A+, and recommended it highly. I was very intrigued by his synopsis of the film and immediately sought it out. To my dismay however, I could not find the screening for the movie anywhere. Since I couldn't go see it in a theatre, I decided to wait for the DVD release of the movie, which was in April. I put it on my IMDB watchlist and patiently waited until I got my hands on the film and got to finally watch it. I didn't know much about the film going into it, although I was excited to see it, I deliberately kept myself as far from marketing and discussions on the film as I prefer to go into a movie as blind as possible. When I did get to see it, not only did Your Name meet my expectations and live up to the praise, but it did something more. Something else I didn't expect it to do. It wasn't only a good film, it was a phenomenal one. My hopes for the movie were quite high, and it still managed to be even better than I originally thought.
Your Name starts with a fantastic scene that hooks the audience immediately after the movie starts. It's a scene that on first watch doesn't really make any sense, but upon revisiting, the movie, it is foreshadowing for the twist and end of the movie; the end is in the beginning. The next scene follows a girl going through her daily life, but everything seems off. Even though you've never seen this character, you still understand that there is something strange happening from hints from other characters and the girl's reaction to them. Shinkai puts the viewer inside of the shoes of this girl, in which we are in the same confused state as this girl. This makes the first scene feel like a dream which I am pretty sure is what he intended. The same scene is repeated, but instead it is a boy. We eventually learn that the boy (Taki) and the girl (Mitsuha) are actually swapping bodies, and they try to live their lives as the other person would want them to but there are conflicts. This makes for some really inventive and unique humour that gives the film levity. Later in the flick, the plot twist is revealed and it really works since it is not only creative and unexpected, but as handled really well. You feel the impact of those events on the characters, as well as the audience itself. On paper, this film has been done before, but execution-wise, this movie really nails it.
Your Name is an idea that we have seen time and time again, but thanks to Shinkai, it has been done fantastically. Everything about this movie is great, from the animation to the cinematography. I'm going to go over why these things and are as great as they are. Firstly, the animation. This one is pretty self-explanatory once you see the movie. Every single shot is drawn gorgeously, especially the scenery. Shinkai is proven time and time again that he knows how to make some great looking backgrounds, and this film is no exception. This movie uses both hand-drawn and CG animation, and they are both used expertly. There isn't a single frame where I thought they were being lazy or not trying, the animation is on par with something like Studio Ghibli. Everything from the character designs to the scenery, looks phenomenal. Secondly, the story. I've already gone through it, so I won't say much other than it could have been a terrible movie, but thanks to Shinkai, it doesn't suck total balls. Next, the cinematography. The cinematography was pretty good in this movie. Even if it didn't blow me away, it was still really good looking. There were a lot of interesting shots in the film that weren't just for show, but actually had some meaning behind them. I really enjoy when directors add those few extra layers for film fans to dissect. That brings me to my next topic--the hidden meanings in the movie. As a big movie fan I love having more to chew on after the movie is over, and having to rewatch it to get everything. Some of my favourite movies are The Holy Mountain and Synecdoche New York, films that have tons of symbolism and need multiple watches to get everything. However, you can still enjoy these movies even if you don't understand everything, which is why I love them so much. Your Name may not be as deep as these movies and have as many layers as those movies, but it still has enough that analysing the movie is still a fun task. Finally, the score and soundtrack are absolutely breathtaking in this movie. This is one of my favourite japanese musical compositions in a movie since Hausu. I adore the music used in this movie and listen to it constantly. The music was done by a group called Radwimps, and although I haven't listened to their other music, I definitely want to check them out at some point. Those are the best parts of the movie. I didn't cover everything like the voice acting or characters, but that's because, though they were also good, they weren't as great as the other aspects of the movie. Nevertheless, there is still one more thing I would like to cover, that being the man behind the camera, Makoto Shinkai.
Makoto Shinkai is an absolute madman. He went from making short films by himself to directing feature-length movies in the span of just two years. For comparison's sake, Hayao Miyazaki worked in the business for almost 20 years before his first feature. Shinkai isn't just really lucky, but also very talented and creative. All of his work that I have seen of his been pretty outstanding, even though I haven't seen all of his work. I really enjoyed Voices of a Distant Star, but I especially really liked both 5 Centimeters per Second and The Garden of Words. I still have yet to check out The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Children Who Chase Lost Voices, but they are really high up on my IMDB watchlist and I am really looking forward to watching them. People say that Shinkai could be the next Miyazaki, and to that I say, "Yeah, maybe." Even though he's not currently working on a new project, I seriously can't wait to see what Shinkai cooks up next.
In conclusion, Your Name is a masterpiece in terms of film making and if anyone other than the man himself crowned the director's chair, it probably wouldn't be nearly as good as it was. In short, Makoto Shinkai is a goddamn legend.