Red String of Fate: Your Name

“That day when the stars came falling, it was almost as if a scene from a dream. Nothing more, nothing less than a beautiful view”

I know a lot of people like to think that there is someone out there for them. That one destined person just for you, and you for them. The idea of a soulmate, you could say. Someday you’ll meet someone, and get along with them so well, that you thought you already met. While it’s only a romantic idea in real life, Your Name/Kimi No Nawa is a story between 2 people that tackles the idea of soulmates being intimately connected to each other.

And by that, I mean literally, because the synopsis of story is how our two main characters, Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, suddenly woke up one day and found themselves in the others bodies! Although this happens infrequently, and it only lasts for a day. And the rest of the movie is them trying to figure out the reason why they keep swapping, while learning more about each other each other

So let’s dive into the story. While the premise is supernatural and involves a bit of mystery, Your Name, as its core, is a simple love story. With all it’s grand mystery of the body swapping hijinks, it’s really just a simple coming-of-age story between Taki and Mitsuha, who begins to learn each others quirks and personalities, but instead of the usual conflict of two people meeting each other, etc the way this movie tackles that part of the relationship developing is through the body-swapping. While both are in each bodies, they essentially have to live that persons life that day. So Taki in Mitsuha’s body has to deal with her life in the fictional rural area of Itomori, learning how to interact with her friends, sister and grandma. Whilst Mitsuha in Taki’s body gets to explore the city of Tokyo, at the same time going to school and having to do Taki’s part-time job as well. It’s an unorthodox method for sure, but Your Name does is so well, constantly showing us the effects of the swap back and forth, and it is also how we, the viewers, learn more of the characters.

In this part, I will tackle both the animation and music/score together. The reason for that is because RADWIMPS, the band that made the score for the movie, created the songs, background music to perfectly suit the scenes it is being used on. While that’s usually the case with every score, the main reason Your Name became such a popular hit was because of its perfect blend of music and animation, whether its Mitsuha walking down in the Streets of Tokyo, with its ever loud amount of people, or Taki trekking through the mountains of Itomori, the soundtrack behind it carries the emotional weight of the scene so well, whether its a happy, sad or a nostalgic feeling. RADWIMPS score is instrumental into making the movie as special as it is.

The voice acting is superb as well. The VA’s of the two main characters were able to bring about different sides of emotions, and the best part is when they are trying to voice the other person (Mitsuha’s VA talking like Taki and vice versa). Like the soundtrack, the voice acting captures the moment of the scenes they do as well, whether it’s a happy scene or a sad one. Or even a bittersweet one, or a hopeful scene. The amount of emotions they are able to project is so outstanding that it never stops to bring me to tears every time I watch it

I have been gushing about this movie for a while now, while i might have been a bit subjective, there are some key points that can make the movie hard to watch. First of, while it can be viewed and enjoyed through list of points i just made, Your Name‘s overall story and themes are deeply rooted in Japanese Mythology, with ideas such as the “red thread of fate”, (The one Mitsuha uses to tie her hair up, you’ll also see Taki wearing it) the idea of two people being connected through “fate”. Your Name’s story is told on un-chronological order, which can make the first viewing a bit difficult to watch. Randomly showing scenes of Taki in Mitsuha’s body, while the next scene shows Mitsuha back to her original body. It shows lots of scenes like that, which adds more to the confusion.

Makoto Shinkai, director of Your Name, have made anime movies in the past, but none have reached the success Your Name has, becoming the 4th highest grossing film all time in Japan, and also surpassing Spirited Away another very popular anime movie.

All in all, while it does have it faults of being a bit hard to watch and understand the themes of, I welcome everyone to watch this movie at least once. Your Name is a beautiful orchestra of animation, music and story that melds perfectly, creating a sweet but rather grand love story that transcends time and space.