Recently the hit Japanese love story, which has usurped the title of highest grossing anime film of all time worldwide from the famous “Spirited Away”, has received an english dub and is now being shown in the US. And it is easy to see how this story of star-crossed lovers full of twists and turns is as loved as it is. Now this movie is not necessarily groundbreaking in the plot. As it has recognizable elements of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “The Lake House”, and “Freaky Friday”, but the way in which the director, Makoto Shinkai, plays with these is nothing short of a beautiful dance. Taki and Mitsuha are two teenagers who wake up one day to discover that they have swapped bodies with each other and then continue to swap back and forth at random times whenever they sleep. They then find themselves trying to handle the very different lives they live, as Mitsuha lives in the fictional simple rural town of Itomori while Taki lives in the sprawling cityscape of Tokyo. All the while the two attempt to figure out how to fix this whole mess, and in doing so they find themselves falling for each other. Before I continue I should establish I have felt that recently love stories involving two teenagers have become cheesy and mediocre at best such as “The Space Between Us” so I was somewhat skeptical going into this as I have been in the past when I go to see a romantic movie. However “Your Name” ended up blowing me out of the water. One thing that it seems to do different is that it focuses more on how far our protagonists Taki and Mitsuha will go to find, and even save each other rather than how much they just want to make out. Now of course one can also see this as a slight downfall for the movie as it never fully explores the lovers chemistry with each other except in a few scenes. Saying this, those scenes are arguably some of “Your Name”’s highlights. The montage where the two swap bodies, establish rules about how to act in the other’s body, and argue over foolish things the other did was outstanding and I found to be funny, and the scene where they met on the mountain was touching. One thing I appreciated “Your Name” doing is that it keeps it lighthearted with some small jokes peppered in throughout. My favorite example of this is the recurring joke of Taki grabbing Mitsuha’s breasts every time he woke up in her body. Some might write off as immature, but I found it to be a good way to keep the mood positive at times, as there are some rather tense and dark moments in this movie even if it is rated PG. One thing I must point out in this movie is how well Taki and Mitsuha are developed. By the end I felt like I knew how they’d react in any situation and they both got to know each other very well too, after all they are swapping lives. By the time they met each other on the mountain I felt like I could have engaged in a conversation with the two of them like an old friend. I understood what they liked, feared, and everything inbetween. I did feel like Taki’s friends left something to be desired though. Asides from Miki Okudera at a few small parts they did nothing much other than exist to help the plot along and didn’t feel like proper friends to Taki. Mitsuha’s friends on the other hand I liked having on the screen. They just felt like genuine friends to her and didn’t take up too much space or get brushed to the side. Another point I had issue with was merely how they explained the body swapping. I won’t spoil it, but I felt as though they just made it up out of nowhere and then had it brushed off to the side. One could say that there is a deeper meaning to it, but if there was one I missed it. Moving away from the plot the question of the animation itself now stands. And I absolutely love it! This movie is beautiful like few others. When there were scenes where the camera panned up to the star soaked night sky it filled me with awe. This movie takes the phrase “Every frame a painting.” to heart and did just that. I’d gladly hang up a picture of the comet that streaks across the night sky in “Your Name” on my wall. In the end I loved this movie for what it did. It’s clever, beautiful, and outstanding. This will definitely go on to be remembered as an anime classic to rival that of movies from Studio Ghibli.

Now normally this is where the review ends. But I have a few more things I want to add but they are all things that would be considered spoilers. So if you haven’t seen “Your Name” yet. Go and see it, then come back and see if you agree with me or not. This is your final warning. Ok,on with the spoiler stuff. I will start off with saying that something this movie did amazingly well was make me mad, but in a good way. After Mitsuha and Taki grow up and forget each other breaks my heart to see them pass by each other, but never start a conversation until the very end. To go off that my biggest problem I have with the entire movie is the incredibly romantic, but simultaneously foolish move where he wrote on Mitsuha’s hand on the mountain. Rather than writing his name for her to remember so she doesn’t forget he just writes “I love you.” Of course as I said this is very romantic and beautiful, but to me I’d be thinking that I want to see this girl again and I don’t want to have her forget me. Therefore I ought to write my name so she won’t forget it and have at least that to go off of. I’ve talked to others about it and everyone seems to have their own opinion on his decision with it. The other thing I want to say is merely the feeling of pure terror I felt as I saw the comet drop. Seeing the massive rock blazing colorfully towards the earth right in front of Mitsuha combined with the music choice was intense, scary, and yet majestic. Nevertheless, with all of these small issues I have with the movie they can be seen as nitpicking. I still stand to say that this is an amazing and notable movie that tells a wonderful story.