Animeman73 on Anime: Your Name review
All pictures and videos used in this review are legal under the terms of the fair use agreement of 1976.
Welcome to another edition of Animeman73 on Anime. A series that looks at anime movies and shows. And this edition has a mellow tempered anime movie. This edition will look at a fascinating romantic fantasy from 2016 called Your Name.
Have you ever had that feeling you’ve met someone before? Have you ever had that feeling that you’ve seen someone in say another life? For a young Japanese teen boy and girl that will prove truer than they think. In a journey that will not only cross physical distance but also the vast sea of time itself.
Of note this movie received very good critical acclaim in Japan. The story focuses round two high school students. One is a boy named Taki Tachibana from Tokyo. The other is a high school girl named Mitsuha Miyamizu. She lives in a small town far from the hustle and bustle of the city named Itomori. Ho boy the Japanese have names that are a real mouthful.
To be fair this movie can get kind of confusing for many. But it’s still a good movie and it cleaned up at the box office. Though many would assume it’s a slice of life movie…until the events of the story come into full play. Now without further ado on with the review.
The movie starts with two people on a train lamenting over someone who they can’t remember. Those people are Taki and Mitsuha. The female character got voiced in the dub by voice actress Stephanie Sheh. Taki’s voice actor is Michael Sinterniklaas. Yikes another name that’s quite the mouthful.
After the intro to the movie things pick up. Both think back to the events that changed their lives. Mitsuha is a high school student in the small town of Itomori. She and her sister live with their grandmother. And it’s evident that there’s friction with their father who is the mayor.
She’s rather bored with her life and wishes she could be a Tokyo boy in her next life. Hey Mitsuha anyone ever tell you be careful what you wish for?
Afterwards the scene shifts to Tokyo. Mitsuha wakes up in the body of a boy named Taki. She then goes through the events of a day in his life. Including discovering the boy has something of a crush on a lady named Miki Okundera. Laura Post is the dub voice of Miki.
Mitsuha in Taki’s body helps Miki out. It seems one perverted customer cut a slit in Miki’s dress. Wow class act, note the dripping sarcasm. Mitsuha in Taki’s body sews up the slit while making sure to let Miki know she/he is not perving out. Talk about an identity crisis.
Soon the two realize that they’re switching in and out of each other’s bodies every other day. The teens decide to set some ground rules for being in each other’s bodies. I can understand wanting that. It doesn’t change the fact that switching bodies is a rather awkward experience. The two communicate with each other via messages on paper, their phones, and on their skin.
Well at least it’s not tattoos, that would be very awkward.
Mitsuha in Taki’s body sets him up on a date with Miki. well-well, matchmaking much Mitsuha? Taki meanwhile helps Mitsuha become more popular in school. Not easy considering she wants nothing to do with her father.
While in her body Taki accompanies her grandmother and little sister to a Shinto shrine. One on a mountain near Itomori. Glynis Bell voices the part of Hitoha Miyamizu. Yotsuha Miyamizu got voiced in the dub by Catie Harvey. There they leave an offering of Kuchikanizake.
This is one of the oldest types of sake produced from fermented rice and human saliva. In this case the offering has some of Mitsuha’s saliva. No offense but isn’t that kind of well…unsanitary? And this is coming from someone who has tried their fair share of sake.
Getting back to the movie Hitoha explains something. Their god is the ruler of both time and the connection between humans. Whoa that’s deep stuff.
Mitsuha explains to Taki that a comet known as Tiamat will pass close to Earth soon. To be specific the day of a local event known as the Autumn festival.
When Taki returns to his own body, he gets quite the surprise. He finds out Mitsuha set him up on a date with his coworker Miki. She enjoys the date but it becomes clear that Taki’s mind is someplace else. After the date she lets him go home.
It’s become quite clear that Taki is falling for Mitsuha and attempts to call her. To his surprise he finds he can’t reach her. Also, the body switching has stopped. On the one hand it would be a relief, but it also gives Taki a bad feeling.
Taki, Miki, and their friend Tsukasa voiced in the dub by Ben Pronsky travel into the province of Hida. Hida being the northernmost part of the Gifu province in Japan. Taki can’t remember the name of the village that Mitsuha lives in. But a stop in the city of Takayama leads to a breakthrough. A local restaurant owner explains that the sketches Taki made are of the village of Itomori.
The owner agrees to take them there. The trio arrive to find the village decimated. When the comet Tiamat passed over fragments of it broke off and one of them struck the province. 500 people died when it hit…and that was three years ago! That’s when Taki realizes he’s not only been travelling over physical miles but across time itself.
Ah time travel stories are always fun. In an I'm confused and aren’t you worried about the time/space continuum kind of way.
Taki begins to lose his memories of Mitsuha as her messages on his phone begin to disappear. In a panic he heads to the Shinto shrine he still remembers. And there he finds the Kuchikamizake he helped deliver when in Mitsuha’s body. The young man then proceeds to drink it. Again…isn’t that a little unsanitary?
After that he has visions of Mitsuha. He sees the truth of the issues she has with her father. It seems that Mitsuha’s father chose to distance himself from his children. All because they reminded him of his dead wife. It’s also the reason he left the Shinto faith and became a politician.
Well, I guess even Japanese people can make bad mistakes and be irresponsible too. Mitsuha’s grandmother wasn’t happy with the decision.
Taki also sees that he’s met Mitsuha before. It was three years ago when she came to Tokyo to find him. She gave him a red kunchimo she wore. Kunchimo being a type of traditional Japanese ribbon. Thus, Taki has a connection so he can get to her.
Then Taki wakes up in the past. At first, he’s overjoyed because now he has a chance to set things right. Yotsuha gets surprised by her sister’s strange behavior. Then Taki in Mitsuha’s body comes downstairs and meets Hitoba. The older woman recognizes that someone else is in her granddaughter’s body.
She proceeds to explain the body switching ability has been in their family for many years
Recognizing the chance to save Mitsuha, Taki goes to work. He/she enlists the help of Mitsuha’s two best friends. The first being Sayaka Natori voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris. The other being Katsuhiko Teshigawara voiced by legendary voice actor Kyle Herbert. Meanwhile Mitsuha awakens in Taki’s body and finds out what happened to her village.
The two meet one last time as their timelines cross at a lake. After that it’s a race against time to save the people of Itomori village from a horrible fate. Can Taki and Mitsuha defy time itself? And will the two even be able to find or remember each other?
Now it should be of note this movie starts out kind of slow. But to be fair romance movies have a penchant for taking a more mellow pace. But as things pick up it gets interesting. And it’s quite the emotional ride for the two young people traversing both distance and time. With all the time travel this might confuse some viewers.
People who are into a good solid romance film with a touch of fantasy would like this movie and the characters in it. They’re quirky and unique. One of my few complaints with this movie is Mitsuha and her father never had any final closure. It stands to reason that a crisis would force the two to come to some kind of final reckoning. Either a reconciliation or a final sundering of bonds.
Unfortunately, this film doesn’t do that. And I would’ve liked to have seen some closure between father and daughter.
Also as stated earlier the time travel thing can make this film hard for some people to understand. When time travel gets involved things always get complicated. That’s how it goes in such matters.
Now about performances where to begin? Stephanie Sheh kills it as Mitsuha, that is she gives a superb performance. Michael Sinterniklaas starts out a little bit on the bland side. But he picks up his performance over the course of the movie. Kyle Herbert as always turns in a great performance.
Laura Post shines in her performance as Miki Okudora.
The dub voice cast does a pretty good job in this movie. The story was very compelling and emotional. The sort that makes people want to cheer for Mitsuha and Taki to get together. So, I give Your Name a B minus. There were some things this movie could’ve worked on, but it did a pretty good job.
I recommend this movie to any fan of good romance anime.
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