Kimi no na wa
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
Mitsuha, a high school girl living in Japan's mountainous Hida region, is bored of country life and wishes she were a handsome Tokyo boy. With her grandmother and younger sister, she makes kuchikamizake sake.
Mitsuha begins switching bodies intermittently with Taki, a high school boy living in Tokyo. Their memories of each other fade quickly, like dreams. They realize the experiences are real when their friends and family tell them they have acted strangely recently. They begin to communicate by leaving notes in Mitsuha's notebook and memos on Taki's phone and intervene in each other's lives. Mitsuha helps Taki develop a relationship with his coworker Miki, while Taki helps Mitsuha become popular in school. As Taki leaves Mitsuha's kuchikamizake as an offering in the family tomb on a mountaintop outside the town, Mitsuha tells Taki about a comet expected to pass Earth on the day of her town's festival.
One day, Taki wakes up back in his body. After an unsuccessful date with Miki, he tries to contact Mitsuha but fails, and the body switching ends. He decides to visit her hometown but does not know its name and his memories of it are fading. A restaurant owner in Hida recognizes the town from Taki's sketch and tells him it was destroyed by a fragment of the comet. Taki finds Mitsuha's name in the records of fatalities and discovers the date of the disaster. He realizes that their timelines were separated by three years.
Taki goes to Mitsuha's family shrine to drink her kuchikamizake, hoping to reconnect with her body before the comet strikes. He sees fragments of Mitsuha's past and learns that her father left the family after his wife died and that Mitsuha, having fallen in love with Taki, went to visit him the day before the comet struck. She met his younger self, giving him her name and ribbon. He wakes in her body on the morning of the festival and reveals his identity to Mitsuha's grandmother; she tells him the body switching is part of the Miyamizu family history caused by the kuchikamizake. He convinces Mitsuha's friends Tessie and Saya to help him evacuate the village but realizes that Mitsuha might be in his body at the shrine and goes back to the mountain.
Mitsuha wakes up in Taki's body at the shrine, and although they sense each other's presence on the mountain, she and Taki are separated by time. They realize it is twilight, travel back to their own bodies and finally meet. As they return to their respective timelines, they attempt to write each other's names on their hands so they remember each other, but Mitsuha disappears before she can write hers.
As Mitsuha races back to town, their memories of each other start to fade. Tessie tells Mitsuha to convince her estranged father, the mayor of Itomori, to evacuate the town. Running to his father's office, Mitsuha realizes that Taki wrote "I love you" on her hand instead of his name. She confronts her father and convinces him to evacuate the town. The comet piece crashes to Earth, destroying Itomori, but most of its inhabitants survive.
Five years later, Taki has graduated from university and is searching for a job, but senses he is missing something important. He recognizes Tessie and Saya in a Tokyo restaurant, now engaged, but cannot identify them. One day, Taki and Mitsuha recognize each other when their trains draw parallel. They disembark and search for one another, finally meeting on a staircase. Feeling as though they have met before, they ask for each other's name.

Review: In a world dominated by stupid sequels, prequels and remakes it is film/anime like this that restores hope in today's entertainment.Not only it is emotional and feels real, it delivers a relevant message.
I love the imagination and palette but also appreciate that it aims to remind us of social issues that we should be paying attention to.The only reason I don't give our heroes and their story a 10/10 is that I still feel a couple of Miyazaki movies (like Kiki, Chihiro and the racoon dogs) were just that much better and showed a little more imagination.Whatever the case I live in fear of the Hollywood announced remake by Hollywood hack JJ Abrams who has never shown any talent or vision.
It is beautiful, tender, modern (watch the film and you will understand) and makes human love interesting again.With that said, it is too bad that Hollywood has picked this up.
The feeling will disappear, the underlying sense of humanity will disappear, the story will be set in (I am guessing) Dallas Texas or some similar dump, the girl will be wearing long prairie skirt like a good Jewish girl and we will all ask why didn't Hollywood learn a lesson from the American remake of Ghost In The Shell which was a mess?Sigh.
Director Makoto Shinkai's artistry is something people tend to love or hate, but this film is solid proof to all of his disdainful critics that his movies were never "just eye candy".
I know I sound like I'm fanboying, but as a film student and anime fan for many years, I'm being fully honest here - if Director Makoto Shinkai keeps this kind of quality up, he is going to be an even bigger name in the anime industry for years to come.
In some respect it reminded me of Spirited Away (my long time favorite animation movie), in which both main characters grow thanks to the other, and whose paths had crossed and would cross again, beyond memory or reality.Saying more would spoil the movie, so I have been very, very vague.
Tokyo is more real than the real Tokyo, and the director, animators, background artists, and computer artists seem to have devilish fun playing with lighting and getting some of the most beautiful scenes and moments I can recall in an animation movie.I should mention the music as well, which was very, very good.
I know RADWIMPS (I went to see them live a couple of years back), but was surprised at the tone they achieved, and how well it fit with the movie - the music, along with the visuals, really help in getting a full immersion into the story.However, some of the most hilarious jokes in the movie seem to be untranslatable to English - in particular the "dialects" of the main characters, as well as a specific moment that makes use of several of the ways that Japanese people use to refer to themselves, depending on context and sex (watashi, watakushi, boku, ore).
So I'm looking forward to seeing how those scenes will be handled in the translation!I have since seen the movie one more time, bought the OST, and bought and read the novelization (which is almost like the movie, but does give more insight into each character's thoughts and thought processes.).
(Done as the movie SOMEWHERE IN TIME, 1980).I already gave this the highest rating on the IMDb.The animation is stunning and complimentary to this one-of-a-kind tale.All things considered, I would like to avoid the ongoing arguments about which Japanese animation studio is better, or worse, than the other.
I tend to watch animated movies because they have so much more to offer at the same time it is a tougher competition.The story line is really good, why?
Regarding the character development its spot on, no more information was needed then what was provided, we are limited but at the same time free to make our own thought.I wish to say thank you to everyone who have supported and/or worked with this piece of art, they should feel really proud of themselves, it is an honor that you shared it with us (the viewers).
I have followed Makoto Shinkai's older works and most of them really have a bad ending, though still good, but this movie's sweet.
He really know how to play with our emotion, especially for his work's fans who have followed his works, i'm hoping its not a bad ending during the entire movie.But man, this work is a true masterpiece.
I'm not saying this is better than spirited away, they had a different genre and makoto had his own stunning style.How this piece of animation would turn my emotion really hard?
Together, they must help each other find solution in daily life problems, and solve the mystery of the reason why this whole conundrum started.This may sound like your typical body-swap romantic comedy situation, but you may find yourself on the wrong side of the spectrum as this movie takes you into an incredible journey.
I started watching this movie with high expectations,but somehow this movie managed to be exceed them.Movie didn't just look amazing,which is expected from Makoto Shinkai,but story is amazing as well,it manages to keep attention of viewer from start to finish,and as movie progress it just gets better and better.I think that everyone that loves movies should watch this.Even if someone doesn't like animated movies they should give this movie a try.Also i love how some little things that at first seem meaningless at the end of movie get amazing meaning.
The actual anime capturing the magical essence of the heartfelt story that I don't believe can be replicated as good live.
And it's one of the greatest animated journeys you will ever experience.Watch the review at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7v32c900F4 and / or read along hereYour Name follows a girl from the country and a boy from the city who have never met that switch bodies when they dream.
This film has jaw dropping photo-realistic visuals with beautiful Japanese voice work, great cinematography, laugh out loud comedy, gripping story, insane twists, looming soundtrack, heart racing action, unforgettable quotes.But the best part about this movie is that it has very few mistakes.
Looking around at other reviews and forums, I have a feeling, that this will be regarded as one of the best animated movies ever made.A+10 / 10Watch more reviews like this at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfNozbWd9SJYYwLK2zYn_AA.
The animation is stunning, the story is engaging and the movie complements everything perfectly.Watch it, you'll find yourself captivated..
But this movie is a perfect 10, and if you haven't watched it then you're missing out on so much.The music, the characters, the voice acting, the plot - literally all 10/10.
I will end my review saying Your Name is the best looking animated film I have ever seen.
As I stated before, in a movie as heartfelt and intimate as this, the dialogue and the humour should be handled with the utmost care, and most of the time throughout the movie, I felt as if it took you away from the story – by all means, there certainly would be moments of humour when a boy switches bodies with a girl and vice versa, but humour was not the purpose of this movie, and this should have been respected.One last, and slightly more subjective gripe, but I found the music choices to often be contradictory and 'annoying,' to say the least.
I think you should watch this movies with a clear mind, so I won't say anymore, just know that there's more to it than that, and the film takes many unexpected twists and turns.
I have all the songs on my playlists now and I listen to them practically every day during my spare time, it's that good!By the end of the film I felt like I had had such a complete experience.
That being said, Your Name is still a solid movie with stunning animation and I'd recommend you try watching it yourself.
The two learn about one another through various hi- jinks and need to find a way to pair up and stop something from happening.The movie was English dubbed by Funimation and came to select theaters in North America for a week and I have been dying to see this after hearing about all the buzz regarding it, and I'm not going to lie, this was one of my most anticipated films of the year.
I'm just going to leave the explanation regarding the story and characters off right here because it's hard for me not to review this particular film without talking about the film in-depth.The animation is fantastic to look at as well.
We are also gifted with Shinkai's train metaphor, however this time unlike 5 cm per second, they show the protagonist journey diverging down separate routes and coming back together all while moving in the same direction to the eventual end of the line.The two protagonists are Taki, a boy from urban Tokyo, and Mitsuha, a girl from a rural Japanese village.
The films fantasy spin keeps things fresh and prevents the film falling into generic slice of life clichés.The art like all of Shinkai's other works it breathtaking, making the film stick in the minds of the audience for long after the films over.
If anyone has seen the trailer, they know this movie offers beautiful and captivating animation from the very first shot.
With a very well deserved rating of 8.6 and 113th placing on the list of 250 top rated movies of all time, "Your Name" delivers us anything we could ask from it:A terrific artwork, the movie's animation is extremely well made, with beautiful landscape scenes accompanied with an excellent soundtrack; the sky, sun, water and comets are completely astonishing and mesmerizing to watch.
Just like in every of Mokoto's movies, the characters are extremely well constructed and it makes you fall in love with them after 10 minutes into the movie, developing a huge emotional bound to the story.
The reason that I needed to make one because I was astonished with something that I just watched, and I feel that people need to watch it too.Great story line with twists here and there, great characters and development, supported by excellent animation and music.I came to the cinema with the expectation of this movie would be as good as 5 cm per second, in fact it surpassed my expectation.
I could not even remember when was the last time I watch a movie without checking my watch, which means that every single minutes, from beginning till the end, the scenes were very enjoyable and well fit in to the whole flow of the story.This movie also reminded that how great Japanese movies in Asia were before Korean movies started coming to scene.
Having seen other movies (Garden of Words, 5 centimeters per second and Children Who Chase Lost Voices) from Makoto Shinkai, I've been prepared for the visual masterpiece that is Your Name, but the well built, interesting story was a pleasant surprise.While his other movies were a bit slow or uninteresting for me, this one managed to get pacing and plot right, and was successful in keeping my interest, and managed to build a smart story from the corny body-switch basics.I'm hesitating between 8 and 9 stars, as I've felt the story could have been a bit more complex, and there were some plot holes, that are not so easy to overlook.
Think of the most touching and beautiful movie/scene you've ever seen, and loved, and it still doesn't come close to what this film has.
This anime makes me speechless, I watch this movie with very high expectation from all the reviews I have read and it was worth all of the good reviews out there.
The consistent top-notch animation, artwork, soundtrack, directing and even the voice acting was clearly done with love and care to the point that the finished film looks and feels like a passion project without a deadline striving for perfection.Oh and it's not just looks too it's got brains as well.
Not only because I have thoroughly enjoyed Makoto Shinkai's previous films, but also because it has been doing incredibly well at the Japanese box office the past few months.While I think Shinkai's previous films are great, none of them quite reached masterpiece levels for me, but I'm very happy to say that Your Name did that, because not only is this without a doubt Shinkai's best work to date, this is easily one of the best Anime films I have ever seen.I don't want to go give away too much detail about the plot, but all I will say is that this is an incredibly written and very original story, with fantastic animation (as you would expect from Shinkai), along with lovable characters, funny humour, a great music score and a final act that will surely have you waiting to see what transpires with deep emotional investment.What starts off as a funny body-switch comedy turns into something much more deeper and emotional in the 2nd half, but I won't give anything away!It's now one of my top 5 favourite Anime films and I encourage everyone, regardless of whether you're an Anime fan or not, to check out this masterpiece..
Moving from enjoyment to stunning emotion, Your Name is ultimately an enthralling and powerful tale, one told with great visual beauty from Makoto Shinkai.Shinkai, the director and writer of the likes of The Garden Of Words and 5 Centimeters Per Second is being dubbed as 'the new Hayao Miyazaki' by his third fantastic outing with Your Name.
Mixing the images of classic landscape paintings with some exceptional photo-realistic macro-focus shots, there's no doubt that Shinkai is a master of anime when it comes to pulling off pure visual beauty.Also, the second half of the film is evocative of a great Miyazaki picture.
I'll get into the specifics of the latter half in a minute, but suffice to say at this point that Shinkai definitely has the ability to match the likes of the great Miyazaki when it comes to bringing across both blissful and devastating human emotion, something that's always even more powerful in animation.Before I get into that, however, I want to talk about the first fifty minutes of Your Name.
Frustratingly, there are about two or three musical montages throughout that make the film feel like a TV movie, and each time they appear, they're more and more jarring, proving a hugely disappointing break in the film's generally impressive elegance.I understand that Shinkai has his own style, but his previous films haven't ever used so many of these montages.
Stepping up from an interesting but not always emotionally riveting first act, Shinkai dramatically turns the film into an emotionally stunning and powerful experience, with so much poetic elegance and sheer unpredictability that you can't look away from the screen.It's difficult to discuss the second half without spoilers, but the way that the film manages to grab you so much by taking such a drastic turn, moving away from the fantasy of the body-swap to an incredibly human and tender story, Your Name is definitely worth the wait to get to the best bit.Overall, I was hugely impressed by this film.
About halfway the movie switches into a pretty convoluted romance story, that just doesn't work, because the whole second half is built around wanting to give the audience the "feels".
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.
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.
This movies contains a real simplicity in complexity , it takes you through an extraordinary love story , during the first period of the movie you will be feeling like its an ordinary story and even guessing the end of it but in the middle of the movie things takes an unexpected sadly beautiful turn that would leave you in a shock but it will also give you the best time of your life..
Even you may wonder how beautiful living in the town where one of the main character lives.It's such an experience to watch an animated movie of this kind.
There's no experience of the perfect combination between graphics, effects, characters, story that filled with many of emotions, in Non-animated movie.
I would absolutely re-watch this movie to feel those emotions again.
Never in any kind of movie (live action, animated) have I ever felt this way about any of the characters, and that really says a lot of about the writing and voice acting.
Ok, this is my first review of a movie, so maybe I'll be brief.The story is very well written, it just somehow feel like it does make sense.
I'm not Japanese myself, but I've been to Japan quite some times, and it feels very nostalgic to watch the scenery in this movie.The soundtrack is very nice, the music is very heartwarming and just click very well with the love story in the movie.Overall, I highly recommend this movie not just for anime lovers, but also for everyone..
The animation is spectacularly done in every scene, the characters are really alive, the scenery is beautiful, in general it is just a really fun movie to look at.
Your name (Kimi no Na wa) is one of the most beautiful animated movies out there and is worth watching!.
"Kimi no na wa" in Japanese or "You Name" in English is an animated movie realized by makoto shinkai , came out in summer 2016
Look, pretty much, this movie's great all round - just give it a watch.Actually, I almost forgot to mention that it's also good on the emotional side of things, so much so that I glimpsed tears in my friend's eyes towards the ending...Pretty much infinite praise for this anime.