Mainstream anime movie

Rating: 6/10 (25 August 2018)

It's indeed a visually stunning movie that has a wonderful depiction of japanese landscapes and architectures, it's well directed as well and uses symbolism well. These are the strongest points that keep the movie from being mediocre.
My main issue with this movie comes from the fact that its fantasy aspect doesn't make any sense and falls apart as soon as you start thinking about it. I'm supposed to think that Taki, despite that he spent quite some time in the body of Mitsuha, having been to her school, having used her phone, never attempted to know or even noticed by mistake that he was in the past ?
Same goes for the name of the town, which he should have noticed at least accidentally, and should have remembered since a town being vaporized by a meteor is a national catastrophe. He could of course forget once he wakes up, like for her name, but this would mean that this rule only serves to artificially create conflict.
Makoto Shinkai wrote other similar scripts and doesn't seem very interested in more fleshed out love stories, it's often heavily based around a single feeling of lovelorn melancholy. This movie has indeed a taste to it but it's pretty naive and he's clearly not interested in creating a complexe story, even though he came up with a good premise. The problems with the script wouldn't be an issue with me at all if it was more than just convenient for the narrative, but it didn't create a lot of moments that gave depth or perspectives to the characters.
I'm giving a lot of crap to this movie here but apart from what I'm criticizing, the rest fits well altogether, it's a good movie but it doesn't take much risks, and I don't see how some can compare it to Eternal Sunshine or Satoshi Kon's movies...