Your Name (君の名は) - Detailed Impressions

Your Name (君の名は) - Detailed Impressions (WARNING: Unedited rambling that may contain very minor spoilers)

Advance Disclaimer: I just came out of this film, and moreover, I watched it with Chinese subtitles (which I am not overly familiar with), so I haven't really had time to mull over things yet. However, I feel that if I don't type it down immediately, it'll all begin slipping away, bit by bit. Like a dream.

I'll admit that I'm not much of a stickler for Makoto Shinkai movies. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that while his animation is utterly, absolutely stunning and unparalleled, while the sound design is ridiculously detailed and exhaustive, while the soundtrack is fitting and tugs at your heartstrings, while the voice acting is convincingly and emphatically performed, and while the direction is bursting with style and done with a flourish --- the story itself... leaves me with mixed feelings.

The only other Shinkai movie I've seen is The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭). While that movie was much shorter, I feel that it left me with a similar feeling. How should I put it? I feel that the sheer production quality of the movie itself is stopping me from criticizing it too much; yes, that is how good the animation is.

Shinkai's films really defy categorization in these impressions (I refrain from calling it a review because I don't do this often enough to be good at it at all), I'll attempt to go through them via category. In reality, the movie blends them all cohesively together.

I'll start with the animation, because it's obviously what stuck out to me the most from this movie. It alone, I feel, elevates the movie into a true work of art. I have never seen artwork so beautifully done, simply glistening off the screen with pure detail. It shines in a way that blurs the line between reality and animation, while making you well aware of its drawn nature. This film is proof that computer-generated animation has a long, long, long, long way to go before it will *ever* dethrone or outpace hand-drawn animation. The art breathes life into the movie with every frame, proudly and gracefully coloring in with stunningly beautiful detail the otherworldly country that is Japan. If this movie's goal is to make me want to live there, it has exceeded that target to great effect. The art simply defies description. I'd say that this movie is worth watching alone for that aspect.

Next, the sound design. You can immediately tell that the amount of Foley in this movie is off the charts. Everything from the crinkling of paper, to the squeak of a marker cap being twisted off, to wind (yes, even wind!) all sounds lifelike. Feel free to correct me, but the very fact that they sound realistic enough that I mistook them for Foley is significant. The sound design complements the animation expertly and deserves huge praise.

I'll touch on cinematography briefly, because this movie shows off Shinkai's talent like no other movie before. The camerawork is elegant, sweeping from place to place, with very few shots out of place. However, at certain times I feel that Shinkai is merely inserting shots without too much substance to them, and though I would advocate them to be trimmed, their production quality is so high that I just cannot bring myself to do so.

Soundtrack is handled by a J-Rock band named Radwimps. I'd never heard of them before, but they seemed to have done quite a nice job. There are a few insert songs that work rather well (better than I initially expected, actually) and complement the story nicely. Nothing to write home about, but simply well done.

Voice acting is performed by actors who usually work with live action material. I've noticed this seemingly becoming more of a trend in anime movies, with a notable case being the upcoming *Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale*. It is very well done and emphatically performed. Nothing special to note here.

Now, I'll talk about Shinkai's direction and the story together, because I feel that they interact with each other the most. This movie took me a while to understand as I was watching it. I was focusing on reading the subtitles most of the time, and since I couldn't really pause the movie to re-read them, I might have missed some details, but I did get the general gist of the story. The first half of the film was more easily understood, while things began to get hazy in the second half. I blame this on the frequent switching of POVs, and the fact that sometimes you really weren't sure who was who. I feel that the story was nice, but the presentation was almost purposefully oblique and melodramatic at the same time. I noticed a very similar style in Garden of Words, and I'm not entirely sure it's for me --- or maybe it simply needs to be watched a few more times before it can be fully understood. Shinkai's directorial style is simultaneously a good and less-than-good fit for this sort of story, since it can be melodramatic and seems to try to convey a message that it never fully articulates, but then again, I can't imagine anyone else attempting this sort of stunt. The story is simply... good. I am of the opinion that it needs to be experienced more than once. The second half, and the ending, is something you would come to expect from this sort of movie, even though it seems to attempt to convince you otherwise in the first half and bits of the second half. Maybe I'm not the sort of person meant to enjoy it. Who knows?

Many people have referred to Shinkai as "the new Miyazaki", a title that he himself has rejected, and to be frank, I somewhat agree. Your Name is thankfully almost completely free of fanservice, but it has no shortage of common anime tropes, such as humorous sections with breast-grabbing, tsundere behavior, and so on. However, this is a step up from Shinkai's previous works. The man has interesting thoughts in his head that he wants to share, and I invite him to please continue.

Your Name leaves me dazzled, dazed, and somewhat confused. I walk away highly appreciative of the visuals, but need time to think about the story more, unsure of whether it is worth thinking about, or whether I should simply drop it all and appreciate it for what it is.

I will be watching this film again with English subtitles when it releases in the US, and will write up a proper review when that time comes, with hopefully renewed interest. I will not be scoring it this time. The good thing about this movie is that, unlike some works, it seems to unconsciously encourage a rewatch.