I'm Still Not Convinced

Rating: 6/10 (9 May 2020)

The film isn't incompetently made but I found it incredibly difficult to maintain my suspension of disbelief with this one.
The body swapping is fine but I don't understand how sabotaging the other's life while acting as them somehow leads to romance between them. There are two possible scenarios this film offers in terms of the fate of Mitsuha and her hometown: either the comet destroyed it and everyone died or she managed to save everyone from the beginning. Either way, the whole sequence where Taki travels the ruins of her hometown is entirely unnecessary. My biggest fear is that they manage to change the course of history which is the only thing that could give the whole sequence of Taki looking for Mitsuha's hometown purpose but that would only make it worse for me. Ideally the film should have ended with Mitsuha's death or, to compromise, she had always survived the incident and they had both completely forgotten each other and it ends in a scene where they walk past each other completely oblivious to the other.
The magical aspects of films like this are what make Your Name so frustrating for me. Everything about the writing makes the film feel like the God of the Machine can force their bidding so that the outcome remains the same regardless of the circumstances.
Despite the litany of issues I have with the writing of the film, I will say that it is a good looking one almost seamlessly marrying 2D animation with CG animation. I also found some of the gags related to the body swapping plot device to be humorous though there is one particular one that's a bit overplayed.
I don't see where the romance comes from this. The two characters live each other's lives as the other so wouldn't it make more sense if romance happened between them and one of the other characters they met while being the other? I see the emotion and the voice acting is superb but I don't understand why these characters feel so strongly for the other.
I feel like this film could have gone in to more interesting directions than where it did and having given it another chance I'm still not convinced that this is the masterpiece so many others say it is. There's another film that is live action which is very similar to this one that came out the same year which, I think, managed to execute its variation of this kind of story much more effectively with considerably less.
The film is alright in my opinion but I'm in the minority. Most believe that it is a masterwork and I believe that, despite my difference of opinion, it deserves a fair shot for anyone curious about it. Don't necessarily take my word for it, see it for yourself and come to your own conclusion.