Tentacle-Free Anime: "Your Name." (2016)He walks into the rundown building, the dusty interior covering the empty area along with the webs lining the walls tell him that much time has passed. He imagines it's been roughly five months. Has it really been so long since I've been here, he thinks to himself. He steps one foot into the threshold and suddenly a new world begins to open itself up. Bright colors fill his sense and a moment later he begins hearing the breathing of a creature. The sound is familiar. He looks around and the notices that the room remains the same, yet the design is suddenly new. Shinier, renewed. The creature stands, it's pungent smell bringing back distant memories. He smiles. “I know you, I think. What-- is your name?”
SPOILERS!!!
We're back, folks! It's been awhile. I see we've redecorated... I don't like it. (That's a Doctor Who reference). All kidding aside, it is good to finally be back. We have so much to cover it's not even funny. So we'll begin with the biggest anime film of the last few years. This thing was so massively successful it became the highest-grossing anime film of all-time.
However, instead of space being the divider, or distance, or age, this time it's… time. As in literally it's time. I warned you there would be spoilers. The film begins with two characters body swapping in and out of one another, one boy and one girl, and upon realizing that they can't control it they surprisingly act like really mature adults and figure out the best way to work with the situation. 
Just body swapping things.
Upon doing this they, and we, begin to learn more about one another and they begin to foster a unique relationship toward one another. They both begin to love one another, but at times understand that they cannot be together, so they begin helping the other foster relationships with others around them, that could be compatible partners. It is a very nuanced and grown up look at what two, mature people, could do if they one day woke up body swapped. Hot Chick is officially a poor man's Your Name (and that is a Rob Schneider reference). However, in what is an incredibly clever twist, what we first think of as distance keeping the two from meeting, in fact, happens to be time. And the body swapping is happening simultaneously in two different periods of time. For the girl, Mitsuha, she is from the past. For Taki, he's from the present. And it all wraps nicely together with the splitting of this comet that the two witnessed that symbolizes the splitting of their psyches. There's also this whole family trait thing on Mitsuha's side that has to do with it, but we're not gonna lean into that today. 
Taki and Mitsuha
Where the film almost breaks apart for me is that I feel it stretches the splitting of timelines really, reallllly far into pretty absurd territory. At one point, we learn that Mitsuha died on the day the comet split apart, and when Taki becomes aware of that, the body swapping ends. And it turns into a story of him trying to figure out how he can go back in time to save her life. If you're still with me, thank you. It's a lot to process. I know. The film is even more dense. Anyways, Taki goes on this crazy adventure to get her back and when he succeeds a new timeline is born where she lived and the two can finally meet for real. However, it's one of those time travel events where Taki has all of his memories of the past and things feel unchanged for him yet everything else is changed all around him. And Shinkai stretches the reality of this very unreal thing so far that almost ended up calling bollocks on the whole thing. To his credit, and to the film's credit, I never had to nitpick it enough in order to not enjoy it. Overall, I found the entire story to be solid. As well as the film has as much of an ending as Shinkai will ever give us. Out of the films of his I've seen so far, this is the closest we get to really satisfying conclusion and that makes Your Name one of the more solid anime films I have seen in quite some time. 
The splitting of the comet
It's pretty, the story is solid overall, it has a great twist I never saw coming, the characters are likable and relatable. But unfortunately I don't see how this garnered enough praise for so many people to go back to the theaters to see it time-after-time-after-time and again in order to make it the largest grossing anime film globally ever. As while I enjoyed the movie, I didn't see so much of it as being unique or completely to my style that it had me falling head over heels in love with it. My jam is really cleverly written time travel stories, but maybe just falling out of love with everything having to be a love story. Your Name is a damn good film. And if you haven't seen it, you really should. Final Score: 4.5 Time Travel Antics out of 5 TFA is back, son! What did you think of "Your Name"? Let us know in the comments! 
|
|
|
Social Trash Mutant |
|
Friendly & associated sites
|
© 2012-2020 TRASH MUTANT. All rights reserved. Some materials used are © their respective copyright owners.
