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- WARNING: THIS POST HAS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR KIMI NO NA WA/YOUR NAME, DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE MOVIE.
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- YOUR NAME HIDDEN DETAILS
- Hey, since seeing Your Name a few weeks ago, I've fallen in love with the movie and, besides seeing it again in theaters while I had the chance, checked many online discussions about it. During this time, I noticed that there were a huge amount of details in the movie people may miss their first and even second times through, so I decided to collect everything I found into one post, along with some translated content and a word on how the 2011 earthquake influenced the movie.
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- TRANSLATIONS
- So to start, here's a collection of translated text, mostly from Taki's and Mitsuha's phones, that was left untranslated in the English theatrical release of the movie: http://imgur.com/a/C1EeK
- Translators are anonymous.
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- INFLUENCE BY THE 2011 EARTHQUAKE
- Below are two posts I found, summarizing the connections between the movie and the 2011 earthquake, along with sources for where Shinkai said these things, and some related pics from the movie.
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- The film in its entirety is about the Tohoku earthquake.
- What if it had been me
- What if it had been you
- That is the feeling he felt witnessing the aftermath of the disaster, and the feeling he had in mind when writing for this film. The silence during the cut revealing the town-now-lake was exactly from Shinkai's own experience in Natori in the after the quake. What was once a town now nothing, nothing.
- Perhaps in the West we were more preoccupied with the fears of radiation. But the destructive power of an earthquake is incomparable to that of a school shooting or terrorist attack. There will be no loved ones left crying, no momentos to remember you by. Nothing is left of you save a name, a ribbon, and a bottle of sake in a mountain.
- Related interview with Shinkai: http://www.anime-now.com/entry/2017/03/16/230047
- Shot from the movie where Taki witnessed the destruction caused by the comet: http://i.imgur.com/Qz3XwGc.jpg
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- The comet is literally just the 2011 earthquake, and the movie kind of plays into that anxiety of natural disaster, which is why I think it resonated with so many Japanese. But it uses this fear to make a very unusual point for a Shinkai movie, or hell, any anime movie nowadays.
- See, most Shinkai movies are about loss. Losing a lover, losing a friend, losing a passion and whatever due to circumstances outside your control. And they depict people going through grief and eventually accepting that loss, and moving on. But Shinkai himself said he had a change of heart after the earthquake. Before, he felt that Japan was in decline and nothing could be done about that, so the only thing you can do is accept it and enjoy life while the world falls apart. Derive meaning and knowledge from your loss.
- Kimi no Na wa, instead, is his refutation of that concept. After the quake, Shinkai went on about the threat of destruction, and how he wants people to live proactive, fulfilling lives instead. That Japan wasn't doomed. That nothing, not even time, is really out of your control, so long as you have a sake-spitting girlfriend. But it's not pure optimism. Yes, you will suffer. For 8 years, maybe. But be assured that in the end, it'll be worth it.
- Related interviews with Shinkai:
- http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2016-12-20/interview-makoto-shinkai/.110150
- https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/5leizv/spoilers_makoto_shinkais_interview_with_japanese/
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- In the epilogue, when Taki is interviewing for jobs, he makes it clear that he wants to prevent this kind of destruction from happening again. Now a comet crashing into Earth can't really be stopped, but destruction caused by an earthquake can be at least diminished: http://imgur.com/a/KvaJ5
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- OTHER COOL DETAILS
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- HINTS OF THE TIME DIFFERENCE
- So, the earliest hint of the 3 year time difference I've seen in the movie is that in two early scenes, you can see a 2013 calendar in Tessie's room and a poster that says 2016 in Taki's classroom: http://imgur.com/a/5IWIO
- The next hint can be seen by looking at Mitsuha's and Taki's phones - both their designs and what's on their screen. Basically, you can see that Mitsuha has the older iPhone 5 while Taki has the newer iPhone 6/6s, and September 12th falls on different days of the week for them! http://imgur.com/a/0S2ax
- After that, there's perhaps the most conspicuous hint - the time Taki (as Mitsuha) wore her school uniform on the wrong day, likely because he got the days of the week wrong due to the year difference. So what was supposed to be a weekday in Taki's time was the weekend in Mitsuha's time: http://i.imgur.com/7Wg2mBK.jpg
- The fourth hint comes up when, in two different scenes, Yotsuha and Mitsuha tell Taki he should be able to see the comet. This of course leads to visible confusion for Taki, seeing as the comet came 3 years ago for him: http://imgur.com/a/hCila
- Finally, there is the photo exhibit Taki and Okudera go to on their date. It contains a picture of Itomori but the name of the exhibit is... "Nostalgia", hinting that Itomori no longer exists, since it was destroyed by the comet 3 years prior: http://imgur.com/a/D4QbU
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- WEARING THE RIBBON
- One notable detail in the movie is that Mitsuha and Taki only wear the ribbon when they are themselves. Mitsuha wears it in her hair, and Taki uses it as a bracelet. When body switched, neither of them know about the ribbon (plus Taki probably couldn't do the hairstyle), so Taki wears Mitsuha's hair in a ponytail, and Mitsuha doesn't wear the ribbon-bracelet: http://imgur.com/a/hUBqE
- So this makes for an easy way to tell them apart, and of course as shown in the movie, this ribbon is the same exact one shared between them, they just don't know it until the end!
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- KUCHIKAMISAKE KNOT
- The kuchikamisake bottle is tied up with a red ribbon, and the kind of knot used to tie it is the same kind of knot Mitsuha ties her ribbon in when doing her hair: http://imgur.com/a/Rsvgo
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- COLORS OF THE RIBBON
- Continuing on the ribbon, when Mitsuha meets Taki on the train and gives it to him, we can see something notable about the ribbon: it's not pure red, but rather fades into orange and yellow, with a bit of blue and white in the middle... the same colors of twilight, kataware-doki! So it seems that twilight brings them together not once, but twice: http://i.imgur.com/42uVIEX.jpg
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- KATAWARE-DOKI MEANING
- As said in the beginning of the movie, kataware an older term that is derived from "who is that", so kataware-doki can also be read as "who is that time" in Japanese: http://imgur.com/a/bkQ1A
- Now, "who is that" is said in several different ways throughout the film, such as during the same scene of the kataware-doki explanation: http://i.imgur.com/SxxLqBV.jpg.
- In other words, "who is that" is a recurring motif throughout the film! Also the fact that the kataware-doki explanation has Mitsuha seeing "who are you" in her notebook can be foreshadowing that they meet at twilight!
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- KATAWARE-DOKI TIME & TIME FOR THE EVACUATION
- Decided to calculate what time kataware-doki actually took place. To start, it does seem that it is during standard twilight hours, the time after the sun sets but there is still light in the sky: http://imgur.com/a/3CXcm
- So while Itomori is a fictional town, it seems that it exists around Hida and Takayama, so I'll be going off the time dusk was there in October. So on October 4th, 2013, twilight was from 5:29 PM to 5:55 PM, so Taki and Mitsuha got to spend around 25 minutes together: http://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/en/sun/japan/takayama/2013/october/4. And while this is only the 2013 time, the 2016 time would have been similar on that side.
- So at 5:55 PM, kataware-doki ended and Mitsuha went to execute the plan. The comet didn't hit until 8:42 PM, 2 hours and 45 minutes later. We also have an approximate time the comet split, 7:50 PM: http://imgur.com/a/O534Q
- As for how the plan went down, the initial plan to blow up the power supply and whatnot failed by the time the comet split, Tessie was seen being caught by his dad the same time the split happened. Sayaka was caught a bit earlier than that. So this plan lasted from 5:55 PM to 7:50 PM, a bit less than two hours, and at 7:50 PM Mitsuha was on her way to convince her father to have a real evacuation. So in the span of 50 minutes, Mitsuha convinced her father and they were able to safely evacuate at least the area hit by the comet.
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- WEARING A KIMONO
- Early in the movie, we see that Mitsuha, Yotsuha, and her grandmother wear kimonos when making braided cords. However, when we see Taki trying to make braided cords as Mitsuha, he's dressed in her school uniform - He may not know how to wear a kimono: http://imgur.com/a/HtkUB
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- HEDGEHOGS
- Mitsuha seems to like hedgehogs, or at least a certain pink one, as she has a lot of merchandise of it! http://imgur.com/a/sxXWA
- Also some fans have said that Taki's brown and slightly spiky hair reminds them of these hedgehogs, so seen some fanart where Mitsuha thinks of Taki as one of her hedgehogs and whatnot.
- UPDATE: Two more hedgehogs found: http://imgur.com/a/kzclj
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- NEVER A REAL FULL MOON
- One thing that someone noticed is that there's never a real full moon in the movie, though we get close: http://imgur.com/a/gcb6O
- As can be seen in that gallery, there's stylistic crescent moons, normal gibbous and half moons, bisected full moons, and Taki wearing a half moon shirt. Now, if this has any meaning, it's probably meant to represent the how the characters (with more of a focus on Taki) feel incomplete without each other, like they're only half full.
- As for the different kinds of moons seen, here's my theory: the stylistic crescent moon is when they're close but separated in some way. Like the first shot from the opening has that moon over them back to back, and while they're together during kataware-doki, it's temporary and they're still separated by time. I'd say the bisected full moon is similar, except less stylistic and more grounded. We first get that one when Taki messes up the date but is comfortable and thinks he'll get to see Mitsuha again when he swaps (yes the line being said doesn't quite fit, but at the end of the date that's how Taki may feel). We see it again later when Mitsuha is alive but he just can't remember her. Finally there's the normal partial moons, where we only see the lit areas, and both of these show up during the time Taki is out of contact with Mitsuha and finds out she's dead. It's also during this time he wears the half moon shirt.
- UPDATE: Found an alternate explanation for the moon imagery here: https://www.reddit.com/r/KimiNoNaWa/comments/5wxfwr/spoilers_two_major_theories_a_new_metaphor/
- "According to Chinese legend, the deity in charge of "the red thread" is believed to be Yuè Xià Lǎorén (月下老人), often abbreviated to Yuè Lǎo (月老), the old lunar matchmaker god, who is in charge of marriages."
- "By no coincidence, the shinto Kami "Musubi" referenced in the film refers to the same god, Yue Lao."
- So basically, traditionally Musubi is the god of matchmaking and is associated with the moon. Now while that does work to some extent (and better in some ways than my theory above), Musubi as described in the film has a more broader definition involving time, while the traditional Musubi the reddit poster talks about is usually only associated with matchmaking: http://imgur.com/a/gQq1e
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- MUSUBI
- So, here's the explanation Mitsuha's grandmother gives for musubi: http://imgur.com/a/gQq1e
- As I say there, Mitsuha's grandma states the braided cords are connected to time, and she notes that they can unravel and come back together, which means so can time. So basically any questions about the time travel and memory loss can be answered by musubi, things came apart and time tried to repair itself.
- And something else with Musubi, Mitsuha's grandmother says that consuming something and tying it to their soul is musubi too. So when Taki drinks Mitsuha's kuchikamisake, which is said to be half of her, that can be seen as an ultimate act of musubi. That's why Taki sees Mitsuha's memories and the last swap works, their souls are connected there: http://imgur.com/a/B9i3a
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- TAKI & ARCHITECTURE
- Throughout the movie, there are multiple hints that Taki is very much into architecture, such as books and sketches in his room. These can be seen here: http://imgur.com/a/LMJU4
- Additionally, as said in the earthquake section above, at the end of the movie Taki wishes to use his architecture skills to create good memories and prevent future disasters, showing how the Itomori disaster affected him: http://imgur.com/a/KvaJ5
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- DRAWING THE SAME STRUCTURES
- To look for Itomori, Taki went into his memories of the place and drew what he remembered. However, there was something that made it easier: he had already drawn/worked on some places, and this is reflected in some of what he draws!
- Notably, he draws the same large building in Mitsuha's art class and his main Itomori sketch. He also redrew the shrine gate, which he first drew in Mitsuha's notebook, and the wood furniture he built for the "cafe": http://imgur.com/a/FMpZc
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- STOPPING ON THE SAME BRIDGE
- Taki and Mitsuha end up stopping at a certain bridge in Tokyo several times, which can be seen here: http://imgur.com/a/EySTl
- Seems like a place where things don't quite go right.
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- LOOKING AT THE SAME BOOK
- Partway through the movie, after Taki sees the destroyed Itomori, he goes to a library and researches more about the incident. One of the books he looks at is called "Itomori, the Town that Vanished". Later on during the epilogue, he ends up reading the same book as he subconsciously remembers his connection to the town: http://imgur.com/a/MWAWl
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- DIARY MISTAKE
- Early in the movie, Mitsuha (as Taki) finds that Taki keeps a diary on his phone. We get a quick view of this and see there are a lot of entries, going back months. However, when Mitsuha's diary entries were deleted from Taki's phone, he was left with absolutely no diary entries - So what happened to all the ones from before? http://imgur.com/a/jVTJq
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- MIDDLE SCHOOL TAKI RESEARCHING
- During the epilogue, when Taki talks about how he researched Itomori in the past, we curiously see middle school Taki, not the high school Taki who had the experiences with Mitsuha. We can tell because he's wearing the same jacket he had on the night the comet fell, and it's his middle school uniform hanging up, not his high school one: http://imgur.com/a/YYSnx
- Now either this is a nasty mistake, or the timeline changed so that Taki got interested in Itomori earlier. Maybe the townsfolk being miraculously saved was more interested than a bunch of them dying to him.
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- CAMEOS
- At the beginning of the movie, there's an early bird cameo of the ramen guy who helps Taki find Itomori and drives him around the area, we first see him listening to Mitsuha's dad: http://imgur.com/a/LEuwW
- During the epilogue, there are also a bunch of shots of Mitsuha's classmates (such as the bullies and some background characters) and Yotsuha in high school. There may have been one or two background classmates I missed, but I wasn't sure: http://imgur.com/a/NeP2d
- And of course, there's the most notable cameo for fans of Shinkai's other films as we see Yukino Yukari, one of the main characters of his previous film The Garden of Words, as Mitsuha's teacher: http://imgur.com/a/bkQ1A
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- FUTURE PHONE DESIGN
- As the epilogue takes place in the future, it seems they made an original sleeker-looking iPhone design. Seems Taki really likes to have the newest stuff: http://imgur.com/a/SjoB6
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- TAKI LIVES IN THE SAME APARTMENT
- In the epilogue, when Taki is applying for jobs and is about to/has recently graduated from college we see that he still lives in his same old room, presumably still living with his dad. Truly living the millennial life: http://imgur.com/a/NvKnc
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- LOOKING AT THEIR HANDS
- At the very beginning and during the epilogue, we see that Taki has a habit of looking at his hand, obviously due to what was meant to be there, and we see at the very beginning that Mitsuha does the exact same thing. And during the epilogue, when Okudera says goodbye and wishes Taki happiness, the first thing he does is look at his hand again. Even if he can't remember anything, he subconsciously knows what it all means and associates Mitsuha with happiness: http://imgur.com/a/MR3aN
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- EPILOGUE DURATION
- The epilogue actually takes place over the course of 6 months, starting at the beginning of October 2021, then going to the start of December, and finally ending in early April 2022. During each of these time periods they come close to meeting, finally doing to at the end. So rather than being apart for 5/8 years, Taki and Mitsuha are apart for 5.5 and 8.5 years respectively: http://imgur.com/a/PDN1x
- Also, Mitsuha's birthday is April 28th so she's about to turn 26 at the end, and Taki's birthday is May 9th so he's close to being 23 at the end.
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- THE STAIRCASE
- During her day trip to Tokyo, Mitsuha gives a short monologue that foreshadows what happens at the ending, about how they'll instinctively know when they see each other. However, it's also notable to see where she says it. During the monologue, she walks up a certain staircase with red railing. Yep, it's the same staircase where Taki and Mitsuha finally reunite! http://imgur.com/a/e3Sa6
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- JUST A LITTLE LONGER
- It seems that in the novelization, Taki often says to himself "just a little longer", and that same line is repeated multiple times in the ending song, Nandemonaiya! As Shinkai said, the soundtrack was written together with the story itself!
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