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Plot

There once was a girl (Mitsuha Miyamizu) who resided in a small, lonely village. There was also a boy (Taki Tachibana) who resided in Tokyo at the same time. The two had no relationship and were even completely unaware of one another's existence. Each had lived his own life up until a certain point.

We have no idea how or why. But we do know that one of them awoke in the other's shoes all of a sudden. The two spent the day trying their best to comprehend what the other would or should do, before swapping bodies and lives again at night. Although they didn't want it and couldn't control it, it was starting to happen more frequently.

They initially believed it to be a dream, but as time went on... they realized it was reality rather than a dream. In order to communicate with one another over time, place, and distance, they looked for a way to do so. But as quickly as it had arrived, this gift vanished, and Taki and Mitsuha stopped exchanging gifts.
The two will have to fight to meet again (or rather, for the first time!) when a comet passes over the Japanese archipelago, even though their memories of this extraordinary experience progressively fade and they even forget each other's names.

What became of Mitsuha? What has become of her? Taki will take whatever measure to learn more...

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Why you should watch it?

First and primarily because it is a movie made by Makoto Shinkai, who has recently gained the title of "the new Miyazaki" in the eyes of worldwide critics (especially in light of the tragic death of Satoshi Kon).
The movie was almost able to surpass "Spirited Away" (check here my review: A review of "Spirited Away" - a timeless masterpiece from the brilliant mind of Miyazaki ) for what concerns the grossing at the box office.
And because of the comparison with Miyazaki, the poor Shinkai started asking people to stop going it's movie and also hoped that the "master" itself wasn't going himself to watch it:

"I think people are overestimating "Your Name", in fact I think I am definitely not at Hayao Miyazaki's level. Honestly, I would really prefer Miyazaki didn't see my film, because he would immediately notice all the flaws. [...] There were some things I was not able to do [...] As far as I am concerned, this film is incomplete, it is not well balanced. The plot is fine, but the film is not perfect."

I tend to agree with him and I praise him for the honesty and humbleness. "Your Name" has some flaws, especially in the plot development (which I will underline better in the conclusion part), but this doesn't change the fact that is a technically excellent and intensely emotional movie. I'm not sure if it deserves the record at the box office, but it should be seen. It's astonishing how well the setting and animations keep the standard to which Shinkai has accustomed us. There isn't a single frame that isn't beautiful, and because of the dual setting, Shinkai can give his all when describing his favorite situations, such as life in the city and life in nature.

"Your Name" employs the tradition of anime to tell the story of Japan from the heart, metabolizing even Western cinematic suggestions, but doing so in service of a passionate, mystical, and problematic worldview that anyone familiar with the themes of the most well-known anime can easily recognize. Mitsuha's grandmother urges her to maintain religious customs whose significance she does not grasp. These customs are alien to the town where Taki lives, who not only disregards but denies the very existence of that region's cultural heritage.

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The author of "Your Name" cleverly appropriates body swaps and adapts it to his own sensibilities and his own way of reworking the coming-of-age. In contrast to the depiction of the distance separating the two protagonists, whose lives are initially juxtaposed by means of macro-sequences, without the classic use of alternate montage that would have enhanced the comic effect, the sex exchange, for example, is essentially a single and repeated gag. This aspect never assumes thematic centrality.
For Shinkai, the exchange is a fresh method of visualizing his concept of amor de lonh (long distance relationship), the love from a distance that permeates all of his work and culminates in the teenage and post-adolescent yearning of "5 cm per second," which shares several elements with "Your Name." It is clear that the autocratic director has his own idea of the world and of life and is building a cohesive narrative and stylistic world, work after work.

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The city and the countryside, modernization and tradition, reality and dream, are just a few of the contrasts that make up Your Name's setting, themes, people, and events. Internal proximity and separation. Shinkai's approach, which tells us everything with meticulous care and great attention to detail, contrasts this juxtaposition with a visual composition and plot development that let us connect with the two heroes and learn about their world. The narrative voice in Your Name is vivid and dreamlike.

The "name" is another factor. Similar to Death Note, another well-known Japanese manga and anime, where knowing someone's face and name—which were thus recorded in the mortuary notebook—made it possible to unmistakably identify the intended victims and kill them— for Shinkai, the essence (the perfume) is unequivocally defined by the Name. In "Your Name", if lost, it even becomes impossible to distinguish oneself from the other. Similar to how the two lovers lose themselves after shouting each other's names (both inside and outdoors) and unsuccessfully attempting to stamp them on their bodies. However, Musubi, the force that unites everything, is more powerful than Time, which is Musubi itself, fooling (or perhaps fulfilling?) itself in a loop that embodies its paradox.
It uses editing and parallelisms to depict its heroes with a few powerful images and the words that follow them off-screen. By doing so, it establishes itself as an author who can arouse curiosity and elicit strong feelings in readers.

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Conclusion

So, as I said in the beginning, this is a good movie but with some very critical defects (at least in my opinion).
The theme of amnesia, for instance, occasionally seemed me as absurd and solely necessary to reinforce needless teenage drama, especially given the fact that Mitsuha can still recall her goal to save Itomori, but not Taki. This has no meaningful justification, and it lessens the characters' and the story's believability. Thus, both the amnesia and the timing problem were handled in a cursory, inadequate, and extremely perplexing way. Additionally, it is not made clear to us how Mitsuha is able to persuade her father and the locals to leave the town.

The characters were again another delicate subject.
Although none of the characters particularly stood out at first, they were initially engaging. However, as the movie progressed, they lost their attraction and grew increasingly flat and monotonous. They lacked depth and interesting character development.
Taki, for instance, has no personality, and it is quite challenging to identify with a guy that has such an aseptic nature. Nothing was improved by the supporting cast in this movie. Miki might have been completely eliminated from the narrative, and it would not have mattered!

This is why I agree with Shinkai when he said that this movie shouldn't be compared with the masterpiece from Miyazaki.

But in spite of this, the film is still enjoyable and entertaining, and if you turn a blind eye to certain aspects, it is very enjoyable.

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Rating

My personal vote is:

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7.5/10

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