[Movies] Your Name

[Zen]

I finally got to see Makoto Shinkai's latest masterpiece, over the past two weekends. It was booked for one week as a late-night movie at our local "Art Theater" in downtown Champaign, which has one of the largest screens and the best sound system prior to the IMAX and BigD systems going in, and still probably the best quality sound, since it isn't to loud all the time like our local IMAX. I was kind of sad that my kids wouldn't be able to go with me, it was only one week and they were going to be home right after it left. I went last Friday night for the 10:00 pm showing and had never seen that theater so full!

Then they extended the movie for a week! My son's girlfriend is going to Florida to visit family, so he's coming here for this week. My daughter came home from boarding school on Saturday. So Sunday afternoon, at the 2:00 pm showing (they already had a late-night movie booked, so that added early shows when they extended the time they were showing Your Name), I took both of my kids to see this masterpiece as well.

The movie is amazing! It truly deserves to be the top selling anime film ever, in my opinion. And yes, it IS the top selling anime film of all time, having passed Spirited Away in total international ticket sales BEFORE it ever opened in the United States. Last I heard it was still the #2 move all time in Japan, behind Spirited Away, but it may have passed it by now, since I heard that they released an IMAX version of it this year as well as the standard version. It was, by far, the top selling film of 2016 in Japan.

The story is, basically, a science fantasy. It actually reminds me a whole lot of the type of stuff I write! (At one point one of the characters mentions the "Everett Multiverse"... that made me smile...) The basic premise, that you can gather from the trailers, is that a girl from a small village in the countryside and a boy living in Tokyo suddenly, for no apparent reason, begin to swap bodies when they sleep, living each other's lives for some random period of time, then switching back. That is the hook. The real story is something altogether different that I won't even dream of spoiling, because it is far too well done to dream of spoiling. Let's just say that I'm not often surprised by story twists and this one caught me off guard quite well.

We saw the subtitled version. I look forward to getting the BluRay so I can see the dubbed version. The Japanese voice acting, however, was sublime! All the leading roles were cast extremely well and performed wonderfully.

The character art in Shinkai's films is usually the weakest link, but that isn't the case here because it was excellent. I can't really fault the character design or the character animation at all. In fact, the character animation was probably a step above any of his previous works, with some extremely well done sequences. The reason for the improved character design? The two individuals in charge of it: Masashi Ando and Masayoshi Tanaka, the character designers of such classics as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Paprika (Ando); and Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Toradora, Waiting in the Summer, and High School of the Dead (Tanaka). Obviously, these two are veteran character designers who have made a mark on the industry.

The music is also extremely good. The opening, ending, and insert songs are all performed by RADWIMPS, with music production and direction by individuals with no prior anime credits. Shinkai had been known to write his own music for many of his previous works. It is probably a positive step that he is stepping back and concentrating on more important aspects of the production and delegating more.

Indeed, if you look at the production credits for many of Shinkai's works, you'll find them to be extremely repetitive. They will repeat the name "Makoto Shinkai" over and over again. In his past few films, that has been trending downward. For this film, his name is listed under Director, Script, Storyboard, and Original Creator. That's not bad... And I'd say reducing his workload is working well, because I found that the writing for Your Name was his strongest yet! It is a strong science fantasy story that holds together well without any obvious plot holes and is extremely emotionally satisfying as well as entertaining.

Of course, the thing that is almost always the highlight of a Makoto Shinkai film is: the background art! Your Name is no exception! There is no other word for the background art in this film other than sublime. (Unless you also want to add excellent, radiant, brilliant, and amazing.) It is, in short, a work of art.

It is still showing in various locations around the country and will be released by Funimation on BluRay eventually. The link (above) has a search feature where you can find out if it is playing in your area...