Your Name blends beautiful animation with a heartwarming story and fleshed out characters to deliver a solid overall film.
Although more complex, the story essentially revolves around two teenagers, Mitsuha and Taki, who magically swap bodies one day. It’s a fascinating premise as it allows the writer to not only give standard character development to the leads, but tinker with how each character acts while in the other’s body. It’s complex, but works well.
Your Name has an art style I adore. It’s akin to classic Ghibli movies, but modernized with certain visuals that are simply spectacular. Shots of things like the sky and open fields are incredibly well done, and I can tell that the animators worked endlessly on the detail.
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In terms of score, the film has a subtle, but good one. The music isn’t overpowering, but definitely adds flare and meaning to certain scenes that otherwise wouldn’t have it. When I look at some of my favorite anime films of all time, like My Neighbor Totoro, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Akira, the music is a major positive, rather than a supplementary filmmaking device; to me, this is what sets the amazing apart from a picture that is good, or even great.
A major flaw in Your Name comes at the end. I won’t spoil anything, but the ending didn’t give fans enough credit. When a movie allows the audience to think about what happens to character, rather than giving them a drawn out and cliche ending, it’s more effective. Your Name falls trap to not letting its audience think about the story they had just seen, its details, and make a hypothesis on what might’ve happened based on that knowledge.
Overall, the film is pretty great. It’s not the greatest anime movie of all time, like My Anime List presents it as, but it’s definitely a solid film for anyone looking to watch an uplifting, and funny, story between two relatable teens.
