And the city setting is definitely Tokyo (bear in mind what I’ve already said about the realistic presentation of places). The country house and village are highly traditional, in terms of buildings, food, clothing, furniture, everything. The film doesn’t dwell much on the gender difference between Taki and Mitsuha during their switches but it does focus A LOT on the contrast between their two homes.Abrams is reading this (or one of the staff he listens to that would do), there’s a lot more to cultural sensitivity than just the ethnic background of the characters and cast… I’m thinking of two particular areas in the case of Your Name: And don’t get me started on The Ring!Īnd in case Mr. I know: let’s hope this one is done with more sensitivity than Ghost in the Shell, not to mention Death Note. I guess this helps Japanese viewers relate to the story if they can imagine being there: in contrast, it made me want to go there, as I got sucked into the story straight away. It turns out some of the specific real-life locations are very clearly identifiable from their animated counterparts. “Good story, and it was funny too, but mostly the animation.”įor a lot of the time, the animation wasn’t just beautiful, but also strikingly realistic yet I couldn’t have known just how realistic until I read an article when I was preparing this review. It is… Indeed when I asked my son why he liked it, that was the word he used: “because of the fabulous animation,” he said. That said, my son (aged ten) and I loved it for the same reasons: captivating story, humorous and emotional writing, and animation – nay, art! – you can get swept away in. Maybe the pop music soundtrack indicates Your Name was written for adolescents (indeed, the teenage issues are dealt with in a similar style – though not quite as much depth – as in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which almost certainly was written with adolescents in mind) or maybe it’s for everyone it may have found a market in this country a bit more easily if that was clear. In this case, it’s not terribly clear-cut who the intended audience is, and actually that’s the film’s main flaw: It’s a little too sophisticated for children to watch without asking questions, but the treatment of opposite-genered bodies in the swap is so pedestrian (the jokes no more raunchy than those in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) that it surely wasn’t written for adults. You’re right, you can’t always tell with animation and the 12a just means there’s nothing inappropriate for kids, but not that it’s truly meant for them, as such.
So Your Name (Kimi no na wa) is not a kids’ film? It all gets rather interesting when something bad happens in Mitsuha’s town, which means the switching ceases… But Taki has grown fond of her – albeit from a distance – and becomes determined to help. At first, it does seem just like a dream, but they soon put two and two together, and work out that they really are in each other’s bodies during that period. Taki (a young city guy, voiced by Ryûnosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha (a country girl, voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi) find that when they dream they sometimes get to experience the other’s life. Might sound odd, but the body swap thing itself is not the main focus: it’s a device for a story that expands into finding a soulmate and the human impact of a disaster. So it’s a body-swap comedy like Freaky Friday, or something?
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