your name. ( 君の名は.) first caught my attention with it's miraculous records on the Japanese Box Office. This anime stayed on the top of Japanese Box Office for 12 non consecutive weekends and was the second largest domestic film in Japan (behind Spirited Away). This movie kept getting mentioned on the Japanese News sites that I frequent and I am curious why did this anime about body switch would fare so well.
Later on, I found out that the director Makoto Shinkai also directed the Garden of Words. Garden of Words was one of my fave anime that I saw in recent years and that made my anticipation for this movie grow even more.
The Plot
Taki, a Tokyo city boy woke up in an unfamiliar room and in a body of a girl. Meanwhile Mitsuha, a teenage girl from a mountain village wished that she living a life of a handsome Tokyo boy instead and got her wish. They soon realized that they are not dreaming and they have been switching bodies intermittently. The problem was that their memories of each other fade away like dreams. They begin to communicate by leaving notes to each other, helping each other tide over the mysterious phenomenon.
As the bright blue comet passes Earth, their body switch comes to a sudden end. Taki tried to call Mitsuha for the first time but wasn't able to reach her. He decides to visit her hometown but he doesn't know his name and his memories are fading away. Will this star crossed lovers ever get to meet each other?
The Perspective
your name. was an enjoyable anime. It started off as a fun body switch movie that kept me glued to the screen while subtly setting up the foundation for an unexpected twist in the middle of the movie. The twist worked as it accelerated the pace of the anime and the desire to see the two main characters get their happy endings.
But however the final resolution of the movie was a little let down. It came rather suddenly and lacked the grandeur that it seemed to be promising through out the movie. The emotional draw for the two main characters was also slightly weaker than The Garden of Words. It could had been the anime of the year for me but it just lacked something in the end to make it a home run.
***1/2
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