New Japanese animated film, "Your Name"

Been awhile since I saw a Japanese animated film that started out with a Toho logo instead of Studio Ghibli.

Anybody here seen this wonder of a story? Has all your classic tropes of the genre: overlong gazing at young girls (or, a girl), dumb looks on the boys who are not the lead character, manga-faces (not nearly as obnoxious as TV anime though), a fantastical plot thread you're supposed to buy into from the git-go...and, the teens appear just a liiiiitle too immature. At first.

Dude's vaugely aware of a girl; girl's vaugely aware of a boy. Early on, seems they're waking up in each other's lives. There's the city-mouse/country-mouse thing going on, and an I'm-gonna-help-you-with-your-shyness sub-storyline, but eventually, we find out...there was this cataclysm (dunt-dunt-DUUUNNN!), and one has a chance of helping the other one out. But...turns out they're out of sync, and, suddenly not able to do that thing they do so well. Also, Grandma lets the female lead in on a sub-plot that's totally wasted, whittled-down to just a sub-plot-point.

It's not easy to keep up once the real plot kicks in, but not as obvious or as lightweight as it seems. Great date movie, it turns out - my 60+-year-old "date" loved it! The great thing about animated stuff for an entire audience instead of a target demo is, the stuff you don't expect, doesn't keep you interrupting each other to get an explanation while the movie barrels merrily along with out you; you'll get it.

As I said, it's not Miyazaki, so it's bright, colorful, contemporary, yet not obsessed with wind through the grass or really-out-there creatures. Just a good, sorta-romantic, (mostly-) contemporary story about a couple of teens. And the thing that connects them. Rotten Tomatoes is treating this one really well, so seek it out!

 

Nice to see another fan of anime in this forum. Seems like there's little interest in the genre here. Haven't watched Your Name yet but really want to. Just got done watching the entire Death Note anime series and throughly enjoyed it. The soundtrack was really good too. Have you seen Death Note?

 

Death Note on the surface is the type of anime that made me tired of the genre ; twisted, dark, serious in a forced campy way, where things are made to look cool. I don't even need to see it to know what's about. I've seen so many clones of that style that I'm bored.

Your Name is the complete opposite. Emotional depth and an original story flawlessly directed from start to finish. 20 years ago, I'd say Your Name was OK but Death Note was super cool. Now, it's the opposite.

 

Your Name is lovely. Visually superb, like all of Makoto Shinkai's films, but emotionally involving too. The fact that Hollywood are currently producing a live action remake of this just goes to show how little they understand or respect anime.

 

I picked this up on Blu-ray over the holidays and enjoyed it very much. It's flat-out gorgeous, but I did find some aspects of the story failed to engage me. Your Name is definitely worth watching, but I don't think it can supplant some of my favorites by the likes of Miyazaki. I'm not dumping on Your Name - just being honest. I don't think it is the "greatest anime ever" or anything like that.

I plan on a re-watch soon, so we'll see if I feel differently after a second viewing.

 

So I just watched Your Name today and absolutely loved it. Incredibly well made, both the anime and the story. I still have to disagree with you though, Death Note still holds up as one of the best detective stories I've seen not just in anime but in cinema period.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. I don't shower praise on just anything.

Death Note may benefit from solid writing but the dark and supernatural stuff is something I'm pretty much done with in all styles, anime or not.

 

(quote is from the Miyazaki thread but I think the post belongs here)

My wife (who is Japanese) and I saw this when it was in the theater last spring. It was recommended to her based on the story, the visuals and especially the music. We tried to see it in its original language and the schedule said it was the Japanese version (and having 2 small kids we arranged a baby sitter based on that time), but when it started, it was the English version. We were there already so we stayed, but were a bit miffed.

I agree that for animation, there's less of an issue with dubs than with live action movies. However, with this movie, even the lyrics of the music were in English! And I felt that the they were pretty rough. I can't remember specifics right now, but they sounded clunky. Perhaps the instrumentation was changed or rerecorded too. The story and the visuals have a lot of potential, but I felt like I was distracted by the songs. I fully admit that I may have been biased by not getting to see the version I was hoping for, so the problem may have been me.

I definitely want to give this movie another chance, but I ask you guys that are giving it high praise: did you see it in English, and if so, did you feel the same about the music?

 

I watched it in Japanese. I loathe Japanese singing. It's awful and grates my ears. Having said that, they weren't nearly as irritating as with other anime and didn't detract from the overall emotional impact of the movie.

 

I tend to like either old Japanese cartoons, or things done in that style (like Metropolis). So much after the '80s seems to be copies of copies of something by people who learned to draw from comics or anime by looking only at the work of other people who learned to draw from comics or anime. Obviously there are great exceptions. Pom Poko and Oblivion Island were fun, Grave Of the Fireflies moving, and the Last Exile had enough going for it and some breathing room to make it involving. And then there's Miyazaki.

I wish they would get some of the best tv series of the past onto DVD in English like Princess Knight, Orguss, Votoms, Giant Gorg, Catseye, and Dirty Pair rather than most of these flat-faced daft jagged hair giant mouthed things with stories made up of bits of everything and the kitchen sink thrown together haphazardly.