Hi! What did you think of my interpretation of Your Name? Is there anything I missed? Anything I just got wrong? I could see there being a pretty wide range of interpretations of this film so I'm super curious to hear more perspectives. If you're interested in getting early access to my videos and the ability to vote on future video topics, please consider subscribing to my Patreon if you have the means www.patreon.com/skyehoppers ! I'm aiming long-term to build a unique community through Patreon where people can analyze what media communicates but free from the pressure-filled academic setting that makes some people think it's not fun. Cause it's actually a super fun way to engage with art! Here are some discussion questions to build off what I talked about in the video, and what I left out of the script. 1. Birds! There are so many shots of birds in the film. Literally dozens, I think. However, barely any of them last longer than a second and none of them are *really* important, aside from maybe the shot of the hawk soaring over the second crater. Are they symbolic of anything? Or did the animators just like drawing birds? 2. This question is specifically for aromantic people, people who don't experience romantic attraction. Did you still find something to connect with in this movie even though it veered towards being primarily a love story? If my thesis about Your Name is correct, then it should've been powerful even to people with no interest in romance. 3. The comet hits the Miyamizu shrine directly. Like right on the dot. What's that about? It almost would imply that the shrine should be destroyed, or at least was always destined to be but uhhh idk. Thoughts?
3. My guess is that it has to do with the purpose of the lost traditions, the information that they lost in the fire centuries prior. My first thought was perhaps it was a punishment for losing the essence of the rituals, but now I'm not sure about that. They still preserved them even without knowing. I think it might be that, with the town saved, the rituals have lost their purpose. After all, the body swapping is definitely part of the magic, and that's deeply tied to the rituals of visiting the nether-valley and the kuchikamizake. So perhaps the entire reason those rituals were created, in part by the god Musubi, was out of knowledge that the magic would someday be used to save the people of the town. With that purpose fulfilled, the shrine was no longer necessary.
I haven't watched it yet, so I'll have to get back to you on #2, but I would like to point out that while dysphoria is common among trans people, it is not universal. I'm aromantic and genderfluid, and have several trans friends (including people who stick to the binary) who don't suffer from dysphoria. From your description in the start, Mitsuha reads to me as a trans man who wasn't really sure of that fact yet. An egg, as they are often known. The wish to be a handsome boy in Tokyo is oddly specific - as someone who's AMAB, I certainly can't see a cisgendered man making the same kind of wish to be a girl, though since that's my perspective, I can't speak cisgendered women. I'll watch the movie tomorrow and try to remember to get back to you on the aro perspective.
2. Having watched it now, definitely found something that resonated. I'm not really that great at the coherent analysis thing, but the movie's more about romance, it's about connection in general. Connections between past and present, traditions that connect us to a forgotten past. Friends who will come with you on a wild expedition into the countryside to help find a town you drew from memory. Heck, friends who will help you fake a terrorist attack to get a town to evacuate on your say so. Connections between family, loss and estrangement. The importance of memory. And yes, romance: what many consider to be the ultimate form of connection between two people. "Musubi," maybe. And, also being genderfluid, the body swapping resonates with me so much. (And honestly, this movie feels extremely trans, right up until the point where it takes a hard right into cishet love story.) All that said, I will point out that when it's a sufficiently good love story, I can get drawn in despite being aromantic. It's just that it's not a wish-fulfillment story. But, uhh...while this movie is a good story, it's definitely not a good love story. As for 1: Honestly, I think they just gave the animation team free rein to make things as pretty as possible. And one of them was like "well, I know how to do that....BIRDS!" The amount of effort these animators put in is beyond anything I've seen, and I've seen some very pretty anime.
Idk about the other two but for 3. I need to rewatch both, however I feel the comet is both implied to be spiritual and also related to the natural disasters present in Weathering With You, maybe whatever it's "impregnating" the earth with is the seed for those events?
Thanks for this video. I have a million thoughts about this movie, but would like to provide a little insight on question 3. This movie has a lot of underlying tones of cycles and I believe it's even stated by Mitsuha's grandmother that her and her husband met under similar circumstances. The shrine is literally in the middle of a crater of where the last meteor struck. Similarly, for the sequence after Taki drinks the wine, I feel as if it is showing how life and death act in the same way. Mitsuha's mom (correct me if I'm remembering wrongly) dies at childbirth. As you said, the meteor, a cosmic ball of death and destruction, turns into a sperm cell. Idk I always have a hard time writing critical and logical explanations of art 😅. Also the depiction of gendered behaviors, especially when I saw this in 2016 when I was a teenage boy, and not a twenty something girl, was something that was incredibly impactful on me. Overall amazing video, and I think your conclusion hits the nail right on the head. I'm curious what you think of Weathering with You, Shinkai's following film that actually included both Mitsuha and Taki in it. (They play a minor role but their screentime, at least to me, is very important for both the plot of Weathering with You, and giving a little more closure on their journey after Your Name.) As well as overall having a very interesting look at personal choice, freedom, and human resilience. I'd even be bold enough to say it feels almost like the antithesis to Your Name.
I think the general idea was this: Mitsuha is already a fleshed out character at the start with a backstory, wants and needs, and a clear life goal in mind. Taki on the other hand is a blank slate. A faceless, normal big city boy, nothing special, no real purpose, just living because that's what you do. So while Matsuha wanted the body-swapping because she figured it could give her life meaning, Taki was in it because of happenstance at first - but as it turns out, he also needed the body-swapping to actually grow, develop a character and individuality. The experience gave his life a meaning other than being one of thousands of architecture students in Japan.
he thought he was complete as is so much he didn't realize the things he might be miserable in until he was in a new perspective, a new body he might envy, and finding new aspects of himself he may have felt too ground down by life to fully consider until he had someone to love and something to hold onto
Tbf, on the thread thing, the romantic subplot is pretty obvious from a japanese cultural perspective. The symbolism of thread binding two people together, especially red thread, is a classic trope to symbolize romantic relationships, of love that is to come beyond space & time. We see it in a bunch of other shows as well such as Tenchi in Tokyo, and even pokemon uses it in the form of the item Destiny Knot, which is used to make the pokemon who holds it more infatuated with their trainer. For a western translation, it'd be like if there were arrows with heart shaped arrowheads in the motif the whole time. It's not a perfect translation, but the signposting is similarly obvious.
Oh see there you go. Ive definitely seen red threads pop up here and there in japanese media but didnt know it had specifically romantic connotations. Thank you! The ambiguity created by not knowing that symbolism definitely altered my perception of your name's first half
The reason why taki slowly forgot about mitsuha other is, when taki (in mitsuhas body) entered the musubi alter, he did not offer anything to the god, so when taki (in mitsuhas body) left the shrine, he unknowingly gave up his memories of mitsuha. And thats also why taki didnt write his name on mitsuhas hand, and instead wrote „i love you“, because if he wrote his name, it would probaly disappear just like mitsuhas diary entries, because of musubis offer. The musubis offer was the memories from taki and mitsuha of each other, but when taki writes „i love you“, the moon god tsukoyomi (japanese culture) intertwined and didnt completely cut their connection. Thats why even though at the very end taki had no red string, but still had a faint memory of his time with mitsuha. The reason why taki still had the feeling of an empty void was because of the red string mitsuha gave him in the train when she was in tokyo (3 years ago) „the strings twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break but then connect again“ -grandma, so he didnt remember mitsuha, but his soul knew something was missing, thats why he woke up crying every day. There is also a saying in japanese culture, that everyone had a red string attached to their pinky finger, and the string, one day, will lead them to their soulmate.
Beautiful analysis so far, but PLEASE read this as you were mislead by the translation. 10:52 Mitsuha is looking at the mirror and only says “I’m jealous…. They must be together now”. And she never mentions he nor she. Mitsuha set up a date between the two, but realizes her feelings for Taki, which then makes her want to go see Taki so badly. She then gets heartbroken by the fact that the feeling is not mutual and decides to cut her hair. (In Japan, women tend to cut their hair short after a heartbreak, which is directly mentioned by Tessie in the movie)
On the how their relationship would work question, I feel like the answer is that they both see & find the joy in the thing the other finds confining, and that because they both care for one another, they can have a window into that joy, allowing them to share that in a way they couldn't find alone or anywhere else. It's like when you share a hobby with a partner and they love it as much as you but for different reasons, and their enthusiasm from a different perspective feeds your love of it, or how a hobby you lost interest in a long time ago can be reignited when your kids or a young relative suddenly shows interest and you fall in love again. Cause I think they both want to be in love with where they are too, but hate that they cannot find it and that their world seems uninterested in meeting them where they are, but since both of them have now literally been where each other has been, they have a shared common ground & understanding that even transcends their memory loss that would allow them meet and meld their loves & experiences with their very different worlds.
We also have to remember that a huge part of this is not so much the romance during the movie, but what will come after, as they get to know the person who they feel an uncanny connection to. The goal is less to establish that in the movie, but more establish what musubi is, and why it matters, and how things like love and connection transcend the concept of time and space.
@@Treblebeatgames Exactly! And they clearly live in the city and probably visit the country often. It's normal for most couples who don't want to live in the country but enjoy it when they want to live the city. Makes sense to me.
Yeah it’s frustrating that he missed b/c that’s what makes this such a beautiful & unique love story. They fell in love with each other through experiencing each other on an ethereally intimate level. It’s extremely deep & moving:
i think the movie does a good job at explaining the kind of love that is hard to explain at all. instead of meeting a person from the outside and later finding out more about them, they literally become that person before meeting that outer version. when it comes to real life, these kind of relationships remind me of online friends meeting and connnecting through a version they don’t usually show in their daily lives before meeting each other irl. i think there are definitely issues with the way it was portrayed but something about the way it was felt very familiar to me and i think that example would be the best way i could describe it. they even draw a connection to it in the movie.
Another fantastic analysis. I wrote a lot of thoughts in the discord but I wanted to summarize my ideas here - 1. I really love your honesty in your analysis. You don't take on big weighty sociocultural topics that you don't exist in, but you still give them fair light, where a lot of essayists would try to Be the Expert or just ignore them outright. 2. I'm deeply stubborn and slow to change opinion, but I think you really swayed me on how I feel about Taki. I never thought he was *great*, but I still saw him as, well, worthy of being a main character, maybe a bit blind to some of the flaws he has. In a lot of light I see some of my old self in him, in wanting to escape monotony, noise, and expectation, and being willing to ignore his ignorance of the feelings of others to do that. There's something funny to think about that. 3. wow, even short clips without the accompanying music in this movie still make me tear up a bit. 4. Your editing is top notch, and your comedic timing matches it. Every time I stopped to point out a joke I liked then unpaused, another, funnier joke made me stop again. 5. re: transness - Like I said in the discord (and elaborated there) - They didn't intend to make a trans metaphor, but they made one, for all the ups and downs. Can't wait for the next one!
i think the way the movie introduces taki’s personality is through mitsuha’s friends telling her what “she” was doing that she didn’t remember. he felt free feeling that it was a dream, he stranded up for himself when the others kids were talking trash and he was just generally doing what he wanted, but when he’s on his own body he isn’t able do that. all that before we even really meet him. then the movie intensifies those aspects with their “talks” through writings before body swapping and his trip to the shrine with granny
38:19 i think this is shown more through mitsuhas character more than anyone else. But I think her saying she wants to be a handsome boy reflects what is expected of a woman and man. Men do have more freedom and less expectation from family in most families (I speak from at least my experience), so I think her saying she wants to be a boy is her rather saying she wants the freedom to choose different from what is expected from her rather than hinting she’s trans. Though, the film does also show her enjoying being a boy. I see both ti be honest.
Personally I felt that the movie having only 1 protagonist originally was a little more intentional. After a quick shot of the time they met in Tokyo, the first scene we get is Taki in Mitsuha's body for about 20 seconds, followed by Mitsuha waking up in her own body the next morning, then in Taki's after that. We get some scenes of Taki in Mitsuha's body involving the Shinto shrine, but these all serve as another perspective on Mitsuha's existence. In fact, we get only very short snippets of Taki as himself before the switches stop, and I can't help but feel this was intentional. Even when Taki was in Mitsuha's body it was still an exploration of Mitsuha's character, not Taki's. The sudden shift of perspective helps add to the shock of the realization of Itomori's destruction. With these being said though, despite almost never actually being on screen, we get a lot more indirect character development than I think you give him credit for. Sure we don't *see* him do things, but we do thoroughly see bits of his life through the eyes of Mitsuha, and I think, like the Shinto shrine scenes, this shows more about the character who's life is being lived than the character actually performing the actions. Though we don't see Taki's actions specifically, we see both the statements from other characters, and, more importantly, the circumstances of Taki's life. His father, though not aggressive, is certainly somewhat distant seeming. Whereas Mitsuha got woken up by Yotsuha and told that breakfast was ready, Taki(Mitsuha in Taki's body) got out of bed on his/her own, showing a different family dynamic that says something about Taki's character just by proxy. Taki is shown to go to school, have friends, and hold down a job that is extremely hectic. Characters seem surprised at Mitsuha's mannerisms, and angry over things like her/him being too quiet, too slow, or sloppy at work. Though we never see Taki in these situations, we can infer quite a lot about his character through this. Later on when the perspective shifts to Taki for a good chunk of time, we aren't quite left with a blank slate because of this. Taki has changed through his dream encounters with Itomori, and though we never knew him before that directly, we are given many context clues up to this point. Though never stated as directly as with Mitsuha, his circumstances themselves imply that Taki enjoys the life he switches into partially just because of the breathing room it allows him compared to a relatively fast paced life back at home, and while Taki experiences a relatively distant relationship with his family, his experience in Mitsuha's body, with a sister and grandma who she's close to, similarly probably felt like a welcome change from in real life. While on a certain level I, like you, struggle to view this a romance, I think that depends partially on how I'm projecting my expectations based on other romances, as well as my idea of romance in regards to my own life. Taki and Mitsuha certainly aren't the 'fall in love and live happily ever after on a romantic getaway beach' kind of couple. They are first and foremost, best friends, even if they only met once, but I don't think that means they can't also grow to be romantically involved as well. I think, furthermore, that the characters themselves are at least partially aware of that dynamic. I personally don't view any of Mitsuha's actions in a necessarily romantic sense. And as for Taki, his talk with Okudera after their date when he's accused of having a crush on 'someone else' seems to imply that neither 'yes' or 'no' fit his feelings for Mitsuha precisely right. Their one and only time meeting face to face (before the epilogue) shows a lot of trust between the two. They care deeply about each other, but perhaps more importantly, they have a lot of faith in the other's ability to handle themselves. Taki's pre development personality is as aforementioned only really implied, but I think it was implied strongly enough that his willingness to go seek out Mitsuha because he believed she'd be more capable than him at evacuating everyone was a big character step for him. While I do find their relationship believable, I also don't really tend to think of this movie as just a 'romance anime' because I believe their relationship, even at the end, was a lot more than 'just' a romantic one. Edit: (Because I'm still thinking on it) I love this movie, but, I also find it hard to recommend it. It's hard to give brief summary of the premise without spoiling the movie or making it sound like a comedy plot. While I love the movie it's symbolism of the two characters mirroring each other is so not subtle that it's hard to talk about even if I could talk without caring about spoilers. Additionally, as you mentioned, the gag of Taki touching Mitsuha in her body is definitely not the greatest, being played as a joke and only being borderline funny one time (though I get the feeling it was partially done as a way to signify who was occupying her body), but it certainly doesn't help that it's the first scene in the entire movie aside from scattered 'memories' of when they met on the train 3 years ago from Takis perspective. Even aside from this, the movie starts off feeling a little 'awkward', and the pacing feels a lot faster on subsequent viewings because of the number of moments of foreshadowing and call backs that you're now aware of. I always tell people how much this movie makes me sob, but then if I watch it with them they usually spend the whole first act not 'bored' or anything, but confused as to how this movie could possibly get such a strong reaction out of me. (I hope this doesn't sound like I'm stomping on your criticisms, this was a well made video and I'm just a girl in the comments section, I just wanted to offer up why these certain elements don't fall as flat for me as they do for you)
See I actually see a lot of beauty in Taki's development being inferred rather than shown. We only get to see things mostly from Mitsuha's perspective so the moment she is gone we feel the same feelings Taki feels and we immediately enter his shoes. I think the negative space Taki leaves not only says a massive amount about his character of just going though the motions in a dense city and a distant father who does the same but it also gives enough space for Mitsuha's disappearance to really show just how lonely and empty his life was with how he was living it. Taki's fight to remember her and his determination to save the town for the sake of her and everyone else he grew fondness for shows how much he's changed that he no longer just wants to live on auto pilot. Taki's arc is one of negative space in the text which contrasts the dense city while Mitsuha's is one of positive space in the text but she lives in a small town.
I wonder if part of Taki's underdevelopment is part of his character, that he doesn't feel like he is a lot of a person and doesn't know who or what he is and how he wants to or should develop. So where Mitsuha's problem is she knows what she wants but not how to get it at least initially, his is that he has no clue and no idea where to start, stuck in a life kind of defaulting to autopilot that he feels no answer for how to get out of or if there is an out that isn't just death. His experiences with Mitsuha though are so profound to him because it shows him how profoundly different life can be, could be, and how close that choice is, and though he is limited in his ability to understand it, that he lacks a lot of the emotional tools or language to even talk or think about it, that this other life, this experience he's having is true and possible, and that revelation is both hitting him like a comet, and driving him to make sure he doesn't lose it, cause he's terrified of ever going back to the drab life he had before, even if he can only vaguely remember the life he lived as her.
I think the reason taki and many anime make leads are so bland is because that’s how the average Japanese man is often made to feel. I do not know this of course since I am neither Japanese, nor have I ever lived in Japan. However, it feels to me that the lack of individualism as a value is what makes such characters work for Japanese audiences.
Wow... I got a paradigm shift after watching the movie on Taki's Character which made me see that his character was hollow and now another one that it may have been artistic on him just living a boring life that made me love this movie even more. Thank you for this comment. I need to watch this movie again...
I have to be honest here - it's really refreshing to see a more critical look at this film, despite it being my favorite of all time. I have a deep personal connection to this film that I would never be able to fully express, but I'm aware that it is not perfect. Yet hearing the imperfections laid out makes me think for the first time about the ways it could be improved. It makes me feel confident that, as an artist, I can learn not just from this film's successes, but from its shortcomings. 10/10 video, I'll absolutely be coming back to this one when I need a shot of creative inspiration.
I feel Taki being an underdeveloped character is part of who he is, and part of the themes and settings of the film as well. He is a city boy, lost in the haze of it all. He has few stand-out friends, and only 3 make it with him to adulthood. He feels like another person in Tokyo, which is why its important when Mitsuha ended up going to Tokyo to meet him, and give him the thread that binds them together. She sees him in the crowd. She notices him. To her, it is not a single person in a sea of millions, but the person she made the conscious decision and desire to go see. Not to mention, the hazy memory can easily cover the plot point of the comet destroying the town "being excited to see the comet" isn't quite indicative of "she must be from the town that got destroyed" especially when he doesnt know specifically where it is, and he clearly forgets the name of the town. Perhaps he forgets it even when his life is caught in it all? We never see the name of the town written from the notes that get passed. The year thing i have less of an issue, but the destroyed comet plot hole is less of a plot hole and more like a plot divet.
In my interpretation, neither of them noticing the time gap and Taki not remembering the comet accident from 3 years ago is all part of the connection itself. Like how Taki forgets Mitsuha's name is also part of their connection.
Honestly i dont see how a person with somewhat fussy memory would ever think "ah yes this is probably a timetraveling thing aswell as a body swap thing" even if they knew the scenery.
@@Grampelmonster69 I didn't even remember the exact time of most of my memories a few years back, I knew it happened but didn't knew the time or the precise moment it happened. Add swapping literal souls to the equation and also being in a dream-like state for the experience, yeah I don't think it's too far fetched to not notice the year difference.
It's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I had always gotten the feeling that Taki was a person who did not pay much attention to things not directly in his life. I might be misremembering, but I could've sworn there was a scene where he was trying to see the comet, only to find out it's the anniversary, not the actual date. I think he only half paid attention to the news when it happened? That to me implied more of a sense of dissociating with the world around him due to his general disinterest and dissatisfaction with his current place in life. The movie definitely doesn't give him enough time to become a character in the beginning, but the epilogue spending time for him is almost like a mirror to it doing so for Mitsuha in the beginning. Not that it makes it any easier to root for him during, y'know, the entire runtime before that. Then again, I was too distracted by how the movie made me felt to really notice the difference in how it treated its characters. I'm a sucker for any media that makes me absolutely forget everything around me and come out of it feeling like something is missing now that it's over. This is one of those movies I really wish I could experience watching for the first time again. Anyway, your editing is incredible. The effort and love you put into this video is as obvious as they did for the movie. Listened to a few of your videos on a drive last night and came back today for this one, glad I did! Keep up the good work.
This was sort of the feel i got about Taki not remembering the comet thing as well. Not to mention, he would've been, what, 13 or 14 when it happened? If the news cycle moved on relatively quickly, which it probably would, sadly, I can see perhaps "meteor destroys entire small town woah that's wild!" probably stuck, but not enough details to put the pieces together. That plus, it was a dream, sort of, even if it was real. Even the most vivid dreams where you remember certain things with picture perfect clarity, the other stuff fades, pretty much immediately, and I very much got the sense that was happening with the swaps.
Very true, in all actuality the vast majority of people really have no clue what’s happening in the world around them. Particularly here in the U.S. 🙄 where a large majority of my coworkers can’t even point Mexico out on a map, one girl even thought it was an island 🤦🏻♂️ I doubt any of them paid attention when the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami happened. They were probably more interested in NCAA basketball March madness. Granted Taki seems a bit more intelligent than your average American meathead, but the hazy dream like memory seems more than capable of covering this gap.
Aha yeahhh I think I could've gone harder on the trans reading now that I've gotten feedback from trans people. I'm not trans so I felt a bit anxious that I would be out of my depth. And tbh I definitely, easily, saw Mitsuha as a trans character but wasn't really sure about Taki. But yeah a bunch of trans women have said they instantly saw him as an "egg" so I think I didn't see it maybe because I've never wanted to be a girl myself. In the end I went with a reading of Taki's character that aligns with the parts of my cis self that I see in him. Really, it's me that wants to be an artist.
My life recently has followed a similar arc to Misuha, and after visiting a certain city over a year ago, I felt that irresistible pull to be there, to build my life in that place. After throwing myself into making that a reality, after 7 months of being here I can happily state it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Thank you for vocalising that feeling I had in your closing remarks, it felt good to hear someone else put it to words.
Great analysis as usual. I didn't realy realise how much flawed the movie was, which didn't change my feelings toward the movie, in reality I just now have an urge to watch it again, which is quite weird. That scene when it seems that Taki sees the life of Mitsuha, to me it felt more like their connection being fully realized. At this moment he doesn't only switch with Mitsuha, he sees her full life, he learns everything about her. This on its own would be enough for him to love her or just feel a deep attachment to her. I think the movie doesn't even try to make their romance compelling, it meant to be flawed. They feel a very deep connection between each others that they cannot name, and between a boy and a girl whenever there's that feeling of a connection (especially in conservative society) it's often attributed to love, which I feel it's the case here. That's the only concept that both of them thought of, and people really attribute many things to love and too many relationships are this flawed between a couple that just shouldn't even be together. It is something that almost everyone knows, the feeling that you really love someone even though it doesn't make any sense, which always fail. To me Your Name success shows that we really don't need a perfect story or characters to experience an emotion. We're not that logical and Taki being that flawed and not really likeable proves it, even not understanding why he "loves" Mitsuha doesn't matter, the emotion is real, we all experience this, the dissosance between logic and emotion is something we're used to and that's what makes Taki work as a character while watching the movie. Additionally Taki might have been represented as shallow because he really is, he mistakes art for archticture, which could be implied that because it's what a successful life is, he doesn't seem to be really rejecting his life as Mitsuha, he's more passive. This is even highlighted by the fact that Mitsuha goes to meet him, while he never consider it or even doing essentialy anything substantial until the very end. I think that Taki is flawed, plain, and shallow by design, and the whole experience is what changes him by the end. But even though, we can see him still struggling to conform by the time Mitsuha has already made a big change to her life. At least to me Taki represents the part of us that want to be boring passive successful (by society standards), while Mitsuha represents the part that rejects that, thus both are relatable in an emotional level not a logical one. Maybe Your Name is good because of its flaws not despite them. And maybe movies shouldn't be limited to telling coherent stories and focus on conveying emotions; making art, not architecture that recreates the beauty of art.
You know what, I think that makes it more realistic in that way. Not everyone has a complex life, some have a really simple shallow one. Also I think that it the movie spends more time on Mitsuba to make it more impacting on the audience, so that when she dies, we feel the same sense of loss. Another thing is that all memory of the body swap is wiped and only preserved through writing. And yes. Taki being pervy is definitely not ok. But regardless it's a good fil.
it also feels like it creates the sort of thing where two characters find themselves coming together from shared circumstance, adventure, and even trauma; and I don't know, I can't say that's the healthiest as the * ONLY * basis of a relationship, but its compelling and clearly there's a lot they admire in each other and their lives. I think it'd be easy to say Taki is, like, invested in the story of a doomed girl in a doomed town, and that's been done before, but he's been in her body and her life with her family and friends.
I believe that you may have misinterpreted an important moment: Mitsuha articulated that she was upset for not being able to go on the date, but was surprised to see her tears in the mirror. This brings the realization that she didn't want to lose Taki to another after literally walking in his shoes.
Yeah given the way the film goes youre probably right that that was the intent. But the argument I settle on in this video is that the ambiguity in the writing and the particular themes and emotions it plays with lend itself to a lot of unintended but perfectly valid intepretations, and thats what actually makes it resonate with so many people.
I could never quite process my own thoughts on this film. It was just a vague sensation that it was really good, but without being able to point to much of anything. I think this video has perfectly reflected why that might be. This is a really good analysis.
My god, beautifully done. I hope you become better known if that is your goal. Your interpretations are profoundly deep and emotionally captivating and manage to lay out clearly, all there is to discover in a story told. One thing I want to note is the rather shallow sense of love and relationship, especially in young Japanese highschoolers. You correctly said to understand Your Name to its fullest, one would have to know Japanese culture and society. So of course one thing you will find weird, as a person with Western values, is the way love is handled in Japan. For example some people just get into a relationship to experience the winter "as a couple" doing all the romantic christmas activities together. So the words "I love you" get thrown around for the sole purpose of spending the winter months in a relationship, often with a person you have very little in common with. Also the letters Taki wrote on Mitsuhas hand 好きだ is not the full blown "I love you", rather it is "I like you", which of course is used as I love you, but also as "I have a crush on you". I hope to see more of your interpretations in the future and wish you all the best.
loved this video so much! it encapsulated everything i love about your name and explained what i couldn’t explain myself. i just wanted to say that i love your work and your angle on games/media because your love for them really comes out. you handle each topic with so much detail and analysis but also so much care and joy and it’s truly so inspiring to watch. appreciate your work
This was the first movie that made me cry, i can't really go into why exactly, that would be a lot of TMI on my end, but i ended up associating with both characters, i felt that connection they shared
As someone who is obsessed with this type of video (my favorite in the genre being the channel Breadsword) and has majorly been dissatisfied with most of what I have found you, my friend, are clearing the bar, taking the bar, and leading with it. Your editing style, script writing, and simply the flow of your analysis and line delivery are so on point and IMO just about as good as anyone out there doing this style of artistically-leaning video essay. Cannot believe this channel doesn't have more subs, I know you're gonna get huge when one lucky video catches the algorithm.
It's been years since I've seen the movie but even though I agree that Taki and Mitsuha wouldn't make a great couple, any pair of people would grow a tight and special bond after going through that mind blowing experience. I also wondered how did Mitsuha remember to save the town after losing her memories during the twilight scene? Once again I've forgotten most of this movie so I'm probably missing something obvious here.
This was such an incredibly well made and deep and interesting video. I'm so impressed with this. You actually changed and deepened my understanding and appreciation for this movie a lot.
I am so late to this party, but was deeply disappointed that Mitsuha's love story wasn't with Okudera. While watching the movie, I actually thought the entire purpose of Okudera joining the search for Itomori was so she and Mitsuha would meet. Taki *is* empty. Like a conduit, if you will, connecting the two women. 💕✨️ Obviously the movie ended very differently and here we are. But what could have been...
Thanks for your video, it is refreshing to hear someone criticise the film’s shortcomings because I have hardly come across any criticism. I also enjoyed the excellent editing. My other thoughts on this review: I think the characters can be forgiven for not checking which year they are in given that finding themselves in a different body in a different gender is a pretty potent distraction from these details? As for forgetting about the comet and the name of the town, I attributed that to Taki’s leaving half of himself behind in Musubi’s shrine (which we see happening right before his date with Okudera). About Taki’s impulsiveness and aggression, I think we see it several times in the movie. Apart from the bandage on his face that Okudera called attention to, we also saw his aggression when he, in Mitsuha’s body, stood up to Mitsuha’s bullies and grabbed her father’s tie. I acknowledge (1) the uneven character development for Taki and Mitsuha; (2) the point about the protagonists wanting to live out each other’s lives (rather than necessarily with each other), and (3) that the film could perhaps be clearer on why Taki and Mitsuha fell in love. However, I respectfully disagree that the film does not suggest that they would not be a good match. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has found his Mitsuha, one of the things that I identified with in the film is how Taki and Mitsuha appeared to improve/complement each other, and in particular also improve the relationships the other party had with their family/friends. It all culminated in them working together to save the lives of the townsfolk, a task that they were aware they could not accomplish by themselves. While my girlfriend and I will probably not pull off anything so dramatic, I think the way we complement one another is what makes our relationship a strong one, and hence I could understand why the protagonists fell in love after they realised how they complemented one another, which ties in with the idea of the two being made whole when together, whereas feeling as though they have lost something when apart. That said, I can also understand that this may not resonate with someone with a different experience from me. Someone else also pointed out that living each other’s lives made them appreciate what each other had, and appreciate who they are as a person: th-cam.com/video/RhkX_uGKG1s/w-d-xo.html We also know that Taki is enamoured with Itomori and the Miyamizu traditions; couldn’t that be something that they might talk about after reuniting? While Mitsuha might have loathed both prior to the comet’s fall, I suspect that her antipathy might have been moderated after she realised the role those traditions played in saving the lives of her neighbours.
Very compelling points about Taki! As it is, I found the brief conversation with his father interesting - that he should go to school even if he's late. The dad doesn't seem very surprised. Maybe that indicates that Taki's had issues even before the switching started? Given that we see so little of Taki's life compared to Mitsuha's, for all we know his mother was just in the shower or already gone to work during that scene with his father.
This movie brings me to tears every time I watch it. And watching you explain to why this movie is so gorgeous explain to why the movie is such a good movie to watch even with the flaws. Makes me cry. I knew that I cried at the end of the hallucination scene because of the sound, but I never correlated the sound to death maybe subconsciously but wow.
It’s very difficult for me to see this as anything but a trans story. The only point which seems to break this is the very ending of the epilogue, which is fairly ignorable as most queer media tends to be much subtler than Your Name and with even more interpretation necessary. The film doesn’t really go into gender dysphoria so much as most trans works, but instead uses its unique premise to show the equally important side of the trans experience: gender euphoria. This is something which is often ignored by media, as euphoria typically only comes partway into realizing one is trans. It’s the the vibrant trans joy which comes from being your true self, something which is often difficult to do, but ever rewarding. Mitsuha from the start, wishes not to be a Tokyo girl, but a Tokyo boy. Growing up in such a traditional culture, Mitsuha doesn’t realize this is a feasible option, asking it to be a future life. As Mitsuha lives in a boy’s body, they fall in love with their life as a boy. Their relationship with Ms. Okudera suggests Mitsuha is very much attracted to women. It can be interpreted that the reason Mitsuha was always single in Itomori is because of their attraction to girls over boys. Mitsuha has such strong feelings towards Ms. Okudera, and feels such heartbreak when a they can’t have a relationship with her. Mitsuha even cuts their hair as a step towards self-actualization, an instrumentally large step for transmascs. Taki is less developed, but many of the points are similarly reversed. Taki seems to have no romantic interest in anyone except Mitsuha throughout the film, and especially not Ms. Okudera. My interpretation is that both Mitsuha and Taki are transgender and heterosexual, seeing each other for the person they truly are. Taki touch themself while in Mitsuha’s body also feels much more of a realization of gender euphoria than any attraction to the female body. Yes, this is absolutely a complete violation of Mitsuha’s body. However, it’s worth noting where that violation comes from. Taki touches themself with joy simply be in this body. To have a body they didn’t know they wanted. Throughout the film Mitsuha and Taki show such strong gender euphoria while in the others’ bodies, falling in love with themselves in a life they must forge for themselves rather than being born into it
There is only one thing I can say about this video. You somehow made me forget the last 43 minutes. I simply did not realize I spent the past 43 minutes watching this. like damn my attention span is garbage. you call this movie magnetic I call this video magnetic. Just DAMN . Reconstructed more like you reconstructed my attention span
2 years ago.....when I finished watching your name on after noon,I thought to go on roof and so sudennly I saw a meteor going through which was visible for some minutes and that moment I got the same feeling as in your name that there is someone.......and so you said at the last that ''it exists for some reason''......i remembered that meteor again..... that day was like a magical to me,I saw a unqiue movie and right afterthat...saw a rare meteor I am kinda lost on feelings this winter...
Well, you certainly tricked me into watching a fairly strong takedown of one of my favorite films. Gotta admit, you know how to make a script, and the editing is top notch as well. I certainly wrestle myself with some of the things you say about this film, and sometimes, maybe, make reaches in order to make sense of them. Your point about Taki needing more development is truthful, and there's reason in saying this doesn't fully work as a love story due to these characters not knowing each other. These are fair critisisms, but I also want to give my two cents on some interpretations of mine. Firstly, I think Your Name might intentionally trick us into thinking it will be a fish out of water story, what with Mitsuha's "I hate this town take me to Tokyo" mentality. It starts that way, and later let's her live her dream, but at some point, the movie wants to say that it is not a location, but human connection what fulfills us. Through Taki's relationship, Mitsuha is given strength, and has the power to make a difference in the community she initially hates. It kinda feels like the movie is saying "No, mitsuha, this story isn't going how you want it to go!" and I somewhat dig that. And secondly, I always interpeted YN's love angle to be less about true love itself and more about chances. Yes, these characters are connected via a magical bond, but they also have agency in their actions and emotions. Their swap is involuntary, but their desires to meet are a choice, as you say in the video. However, until these characters meet, they can't fall in love. Taki writes "I love you", but that feels more like an invitation to try again in the future, at the risk of not seeing each other again. Their feeling of looking for someone linger for years on end, and fate gives them the chance to try again in the end, but that's all it is, a chance. The last we see of Taki and Mitsuha is them meeting, because the future is unwritten. Now it is time to see if this love will work out, but the fact that they got here at all is beautiful on it's own right. I don't want to come off as negative though, it is important to dig deeper into the films we like and question their messaging. It's not an esay thing to do, but I think we all owe it to ourselves, and you certainly did a good job at that.
Love your analysis. That second paragraph about "Chances" was what I was feeling but couldn't find what it was exactly looking at Taki and Mitsuha's dynamic. I noticed that the movie never explicitly focused on their "love" but more so with their connection and as you said "chance" This perfectly counters this video's last point that Your Name is a typical love story when it isnt
The thing I think that makes the films of Makoto Shinkai so magnetic, is how REAL they are, despite the magic, they feel real, because they use some real locations, grounding the story in our own world, and making it relatable
i'm an outspoken your name non-enjoyer - while i find the visuals beautiful and breath-taking, the logical inconsistencies (such as the ones you brought up) stood out to me and broke my immersion in the story, and i found myself disappointed that this was what people found to be the "best anime movie of all time." however, your analysis helped me recontextualize my understanding of the film - while I still don't think it's the best anime movie of all time, I have a better understanding of why it has such a strong emotional impact on so many people. thank you
I too get emotional at this film, and I think for me part of that is in the music. RADWIMPS did great with the soundtrack. Gotta say, tho, for my particular enby experience, swapping to another body now and then? Sounds like a good deal. BRB, gonna go rewatch this movie with a trans lens.
Assuming you’re not familiar with the red thread of fate? Also, the phones can easily become explained as small town girl and big city boy. She lives relatively simply and it’s understandable she doesn’t follow phone trends. And Taki won’t judge a small town girl who comes from a simple family with modest means so her phone being old isn’t something he will dwell on.
I feel like their connection is grounded in the idea of an almost supernatural, fate like connection, not just a normal everyday "two people falling for each other" type of thing
The movie does a pretty good job of expressing that something in the magic of their switching also affects their memories, it seemed pretty obvious to me that this caused Taki's lack of knowledge about the disaster
This may just be a personal interpretation, even a sort of deep personal belief surfacing and overtaking my view of the film, but the answer to the questions of "why is this a love story? How could the two even work in a relationship? What actually connects the two?" may be the idea that people are ultimately, deep down, "the same", despite all that superficially and idiosyncratically separates us. Through the dream-logic that permeates everything about the time-travel body-swap, we could instead ask in an overly-naive, aspirational haze, "why couldn't the stifled countryside girl and relatively free idealised city boy sympathise? What is it that truly separates us and the stereotypical girl and boy from each other?" Learned experiences? Learned expectations? Learned shame? Learned aversion from trying to truly understand one another? Of course, making all this into *merely* a love story does come off clumsy, when it touches on something that is so much more, IMO the very essence of the human condition, of existing as an individual in a society of others *like* (but separate from, and not) the self. It feels like a digression in order to bring the story to life as a movie that can be safely consumed by a large audience, while still bringing the mentioned emotional core of the story to equally many people. It's, again, a very dreamlike story, full of unrealistic events and straight up magic, but it presents the idea that humans can understand one another on a deep level, and love both the 'self' and 'another', even through so many layers & barriers of 'othering'. (I don't know if I'm making any sense here, to anyone besides myself.)
As a transfem, I especially relate to the the idea of wanting to swap bodies with someone, if even for a day. I find the ideas of swapping the gender roles of the characters, as well as the struggles with pronouns to be intriguing, despite not being notably related to the LGBTQ community in this film. It is truly interesting how we as humans draw connections to aspects of our own lives, even when there is none directly there to be made. I will note, to a degree, the film captures a sense of what gender dysphoria is like, however the feeling can be a wide spectrum for us. More so it is common for the feeling of gender dysphoria to be comparable to the feeling of touching soggy food while washing the dishes, or being made fun of for something stupid you said in class, or etc. If you have further questions, feel free to ask me! I would be happy to explain how life can be as a trans bisexual.
I've only seen this movie once like 5 years ago, so it's a testament to both the impact of the movie and your storytelling that you brought my whole experience right back up in this video. I also think it's easy to simply criticize a movie's flaws without analysis (like some other channel you make fun of in this video might), so it's really refreshing to hear you look at the movie from all angles. To praise its beautiful visuals while questioning its depiction of Taki. And to criticize the maybe lacking ending of a simple romance, while still admitting that the raw emotions of those scenes still have an impact. I feel you perfectly analyzed the flaws that make my experience with this movie as they are, remembering it as a great film, that made me cry (even with rewatching scenes in this video!), but always like there was some part... missing. Something that could've been better. Excellent video!
Thanks for explaining the lunch scene! I only watched the dub, so I wasn't sure exactly why the dialog was so awkward but figured it was probably due to translation. Just a heads up, the sound levels can make it a little difficult to hear what you're saying at times. I found myself adjusting volume a few times. For example, the music coming in at 00:50 is much louder than your voice just a few seconds before, and the music volume doesn't come down when you start speaking again. It does come down after a few more seconds, but then you stop talking and the music goes up and is much louder than the rest of the video.
I think the story alludes to them having a lot of potential for romance. They bicker on things because they are separate and unique characters with their own personalities - but they work well together when it matters. They have different backgrounds and interests yet they still look for eachother despite all the other chances for romance as seen with taki and his coworker. They bonded over shared trauma and they clearly like eachother for their own reasons. It’s not supposed to be an equation, it’s just the flow of their dynamic has a chaotic beauty to it that we all saw and loved. Don’t shit on taki and mitsuha, the anime world ships it so give them a chance. The whole story is a lead up to their relationship - and you think there’s a problem before they even got a chance to sit down and have lunch together
I think you've finally given me the context to understand why I didn't like the film very much, even though I enjoyed the first 40 minutes well enough. I came out of my first watch confused, both about its ending and critical reception. Although I definitely didn't notice Taki's lack of character (probably due to the framing as you mentioned), I didn't understand the romance at all, despite generally liking Japanese romance media. Ironically enough, it gave me the feeling that there was something missing from making it a good film.
Damn how is this not more popular, it's so thorough and now I really need to re-watch it with my current worldview to see if my interpretation has changed. I hadn't realised I was trans back when I first watched this but remembering how much I related to the body swapping makes a lot more sense now, I certainly need to consider a more queer reading of it. I love this kind of analysis and I really really hope you do more!
Loved this video! Such an insightful look at a movie that, in spite of its flaws, still resonates with me as a favorite. Though you’ve certainly opened my eyes to even more of its flaws. Also, as usual, the editing and production on this video was stellar! The use of text was so classy and fitting, and the joke of a certain other youtube-y way of reviewing movies destroyed me. It’s odd how your videos always make me consider things deeper than just the stories themselves, but our relationships with stories themselves and how we interact with their depth and analysis. Certainly, your analysis of Taki is making me think about why it is that it doesn’t completely bother me. I can’t disagree with your criticisms, and you actually made me agree with your perspective that it’s easy to love this movie but hard to recommend it, primarily because one of the core characters is so empty. And yet Taki still works for me. And the only reason I can think of is that on some level, he does work into a self-insert for me. Certainly, within the general vibes of young man trying to find himself, I’m similar to him. And I do think it’s reasonable to enjoy a story because you can insert into it while also recognizing that this doesn’t give it universal appeal. We don’t have to let technical flaws make us like something less, but it’s good to understand exactly what’s happening. But I think there’s more to it than that. Why am I so quick to forgive Taki as a self-insert when plenty of other blatant self-inserts in fiction annoy the hell out of me? My current answer is that framing and execution do matter. Some self inserts are a bland nothing character who just explores an isekai world and dominates people with his cheat power. There’s no narrative around that worth engaging with. But Taki is a self-insert who experiences something unique and interesting, both as a matter of story structure, and as a matter of emotions (finding someone you remember from a dream, the sense of loss when he discovers the crater). Is that all it takes to make a self-insert enjoyable? I guess for me, sometimes it is. Taki lets me self-insert into an INTERESTING experience. Though maybe it will bother me more on my next rewatch. It’s making me think that a lot of the discourse around self-insertable protagonists is still underdeveloped. It’s one of those buzzwords that we throw at a character that instantly poisons them, makes it so if someone wants to defend a character they worry about seeming shallow for liking the self-insert. Yet the line between a self-insertable character and someone relatable is surprisingly thin. It’s also just possible I’m hard coping here to deal with the fact that a character I like is a bland self-insert, lol. But I think having the vocabulary to recognize that it doesn’t work very well and wonder why a character resonates with you anyway is valuable. I do think that there are things to read into Taki’s personality, minimal as they are. It might just be that I’ve watched this movie 10 times and read too much into it, but I think there’s a lot to his personality. His brashness, his short temper that leads to trying to fight, is absolutely not fleshed out enough, but we do see it called back to when he tries to fight Mitsuha’s father. I think the problem is less that subtle characterization isn’t there, and more that it isn’t properly used by the story. If Taki had to learn to be more patient, then it might have value as a point of characterization. I actually find it kind of consistent that he’s short-tempered, because when we see him struggling in interviews near the end of the movie, it feels like someone who would rather just shout and be brash struggling to thrive in a more calm and thoughtful environment. Again, maybe reading into it too much, but it feels like a kind of real person to me. There’s also something to read into his love of architecture. I agree with what you said about him wanting to be an artist, not an architect, and I think that actually helps the movie say a little more than you’re giving it credit for about the contrast between urban and rural life. Someone else in the patron discord mentioned that Taki comes off like he’s bored by urban life, the draining job, the repetitive walks to school and back. While Mitsuha idealizes having a fun life in the city, I think Taki doesn’t idealize rural life, so much as he just appreciates how the scenery and more unique architecture is more enjoyable. He doesn’t want to live in Itomori so much as he wants to draw from that and make cities more memorable and beautiful, as we see in his job interviews. I think the issue with him is less that this characterization doesn’t exist (though I would still agree it’s more minimal than it should be) and more that it isn’t worked into the story’s structure at all. The problem is that you could take most of it out, and the story would still work about as well as it does. Like you said, the movie forcing it into the romantic structure is very odd. I’ve always been aware that you could kind of question why they fell in love at all, and personally wasn’t bothered by it just because I was so caught up in the emotion of loving someone from a dream. But your analysis into exactly how they don’t complement each other and their character arcs don’t actually set up that they need each other dug way, way deeper than I expected. The climax where they meet is beautiful but feels oddly disjointed from everything else in the movie. Honestly, I thought I had more to put in this comment, but over the course of the video you addressed basically everything. I am surprised by how true it is that the movie just doesn’t have a clear message or theme. The fact that you have pointed out how bad of a character Taki is, though, only makes me stronger and more evil, because I am a longtime believer that Hodaka from Weathering With You is by far a more interesting protagonist with more of an arc. Really, I think Weathering With You is a more cohesive experience than Your Name. Or at least, rather than having a complex smattering of confusing flaws, it just has one really big one, while the rest is greaet. It kind of ties into the moment you end on. Your Name feels like it’s saying that if you have that feeling of specialness, of some spark to chase that will make you happy, you should chase it. I loved the movie for how well it captured that feeling. But I think what so many people miss about Weathering With You is that it takes that theme and attacks it. It has something to say about people who want to chase the rush of passion in life. It’s critical of it while at the same time refuses to condemn the act of chasing dreams. But Your Name feels, at the same time, like the more ambitious one. WWY is more thematically cohesive (other than the one thing lol) but has a more regular plot structure. While Your Name is something of an event movie. My favorite thing about it is actually the structure, the way that it starts as a body swap story but builds into a shockingly complex timeline, as it fills in the past and future of when Mitsuha’s trip to Tokyo occurred, pivotal to events in a way we hadn’t even realized. You’re right, it really shouldn’t be this good.
Beautiful video for a beautiful movie! I never really thought much about Taki but you're absolutely right about how thin he is until way late. I love your interpretation of the themes too, how much the movie wants you to pursue your dreams. And even in this clipped version, the climax of the movie is stunning. Makes me want to rewatch!
Great review! I specially agree with the ending reflection about chasing whatever is pulling your attention. The epiphany you suggested to Taki also makes sense imo. Good one. I do not agree that much about Taki being shallow. Yes we see better development for Mitsuha, but he liking the experience as much as her implies that he is kinda lost in life, so seeing her life with defined plans or opportunities calms him down, while for Mitsuha is a life free of demands that gives her peace. This reinforces your epiphany for him. He did not get lost after college. He was lost since way before. Their joy in each others lives also resonates with our human irony of always wanting what we don't have. For Mitsuha, even after moving to Tokyo she was still feeling the "pull of the thread". And that will probably persist even after their reunion, but weaker and towards other (known, understandable) things.
I don’t think you mentioned the music enough. I know these videos are supposed to be about the artistic value, lessons and piece of art teaches, etc. but the music really enhances the movie, especially the most impactful moments. Also, there is a theme for Mitsuha but not one for Taki, (there is even a theme for Ms.Okudera, a even less important character than Taki) proving your point that Mitsuha is the main character and Taki is more like an important side character.
I appreciate your passion for this but 1. Im not a music critic and would be lost trying to explain *why* a certain song feels good or bad to me 2. The music in this film gets copyright-claimed very easily, which would be frustrating to work around while analyzing
I thought they kind of explained the main inconsistency you mentioned, didn't the film say they forget everything/anything related to each other, including the meeting on the subway, the name disappearing from hand and cant recall after. I wouldn't say it is illogical, it still makes sense in the film's logic. One more thing, this is time travelling, it is itself paradoxical, so it also can be explained in this way: In Taki's world the disaster may or may not have happened, each time we see any "future scene", maybe each time is different. so how can he remember something that had never happened. You know, like the "Last Thursdayism", you will never know. So the logical inconsistency you mentioned doesn't really stand in a time travelling film. And i think the director is well aware of this, not in this specific, but i think he understand this is a fantasy film, you can always explain after the fact, therefore no need to do it thoroughly beforehand.
I like this video I swear XD BUT I would say that I didn't get the sense at ALL that the story had two protagonists - there was the mirroring yes, but I ascribed that to the mechanic of the body swapping. From the start, to me at least, it seemed clear that Mitsuha is the central character - the first time we see her, it's in her own life. The first time we see TAKI, it's in Mitsuha's life, however briefly that bit at the beginning was. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing? Taki's story was learning to find the joy and enthusiasm in the world, something I got the sense he was struggling to see, and finding a purpose and direction. He found that through having his familiar routine and relationships shaken up, both by experiencing Mitsuha's life but by experiencing the changes Mitsuha made in HIS life by living it from time to time. He seems to be a character that has a dream, in the epilogue. He has a passion for tradition and nature and remembering and continuing the connections to the past that tradition brings. He wants to do it through architecture and design. In contrast I have no idea wtf Mitsuha's doing or what she's passionate about... because I don't need to. Because a lot of the second half of the movie is shifting Taki to protagonist status and by the epilogue has fully slotted him in there. He's a fully developed person, even if we only get to see a few minutes of him. It's the beginning of the next story. Because time flows onward always, even if we're not there to see it and so forth. IDK I just. I feel like the film actually did more than i expected with Taki tbqh! ^^''
I finally watched the fucking movie, i'm sobbing rn, but so ready to watch this video. Thanks for motivating me to watch a masterpiece that I wouldn't have touched otherwise
The portion where you described the way the visuals provide meaning to the film in a way the writing does not was really interesting. I haven't seen the film, but it looks like it nails the emotional payoffs after breezing through its setups, which doesn't seem like it should work but the film's reputation speaks for itself at this point
Taki in this movie is viewed by us as he is viewed by Mitsuha, for the most part. That's what i believe, anyway. We know as much about his personality as Mitsuha which is why the moment when Mitsuha saw i love you written on her hand is so powerful.
As someone who's been very obsessed with the aro/ace spectrum and the way they approach attraction and friendships lately. I feel this very much, I literally point out to every relationship and say "they'd make great platonic friends" lol. I'm pretty sure my friends, with whom I can share my views, find me insufferable at this point lmaooo
There's tons of films and media about platonic friends, there's tons about romantic attraction. Both are important stories to tell even if only one of them is directly relevant to you.
@@deesevrin8570 Yeah but the platonic aspect is often taken as something less relevant and in general does not get the same spotlight love does, and the bonds I usually see are somewhat superficial. Or they are otherwise done kinda poorly. You can't deny instead that romantic attraction oversaturates current media
@@insertsomethingoriginal1376 Oversaturation is a matter of perspective. Friendships and close non-romantic connections are a part of just about every story ever told while romance is only a part of most. It sounds to me that what you are after is something more specific than the chosen-sibling/pair-bond dynamic. I would love to see more of this to! It's bound to remain relatively uncommon however since it is not an experience most people have, hence it is less relatable to most would-be viewers and less likely to be a part of any would-be artists social repetoire. Dynamics most all people value are inevitably much more commonly depicted in art and media. It's up to those who value those less commonly celebrated dynamics to create that art and it will by very definition be more difficult to bring that art up into any sort of renown.
@@deesevrin8570 Yeah I was never gonna argue against the fact people appreciate love more, because I see it too from others Platonic relationships are present all throughout our current media, sure, but what I was saying is that such dynamics are often rather shallow, and if they are meaningful they aren't really that relevant to the plot and mostly serve as a tool, or if anything the story treats them as always secondary, and I don't really like that, the kind of implied message people get is that a genuine friendship cannot be as valuable or should be somewhat taken as discardable, and yeah this is the case for most basic friendships, but it's not fundamentally true Not saying that such cases of great platonic dynamics in movies don't exist, but they're much rarer. I was saying love is overrepresented because I often see it in so many movies where it doesn't even feel necessary, it's so easy to implement and even to use it as an excuse to motivate characters, and we have lists of thoudands of tropes for it too! It's not in all movies, but it certainly pops up in like 90% of media I see, just the same as shallow platonic love does This is obviously a product of the world we live in. I have discussed this topic in length with other people as to why we developed like this, but despite having solid reasons and explanations as to why this all is the case, it can also be a problem, as it both puts people in a sort of self perpetuating cycle where they keep on being firmly stuck on love (movies sends messages regardless). An example is Your Namel, it went for a classic old tale but it changed the narrative in a way that to many ruined the message a bit Just because this is a common occurrence doesn't mean I'm particularly fond of it, that's all
I have watched this movie far too many times and have found myself crying every single time. The first time was very shortly after I realized I was trans, so god knows how my biases affect my reading, but hey, death of the author and all that right? While I cognitively know the original intent of the work was probably not to read as a trans story/allegory good god did they succeed in that perspective far more than they probably could have realized. Even the title feels deeply tied to these themes *your name* to most cis people is a very mundane thing to think about, it is something given to you one that you do not play much with other than a nickname or two that as you grow slows fades from view in most circumstances, but to a trans person is deeply personal. Your name is something chosen, something you define, a destiny you decide for yourself, even choosing to not choose a new name is a defiance in some cases. When they ask for your name, I cannot help but feel all the emotions of love but not romance, they’re not asking for the others name, they're asking a much deeper and philosophical question. I realize I’m looking probably a bit too far into something, but when the movie is titled "your name" it just makes me think there is something more there that is unspoken. When Taki writes "I love you" I personally feel the feeling I felt when I looked in the mirror for the first time and saw a resemblance of who i had been looking for, it wasn’t romantic, but it was finding a love that was far greater. It feels as if the love they find isn’t for each other, but an escape from their own life, something I can again deeply relate to. Hell, even Taki's boob fondling while is creepy and weird, I again cannot say I don’t find meaning in it, that desire for something more concrete something missing, when he wakes up and is crying while touching them shows it’s not even sexual at that point, but a somber euphoria, something that was missed. As a trans girl I can’t help but relate to Taki's story more, not fitting in with, hating that suit that doesn’t fit right (a dummed down way I describe dysphoria being that feeling like your body it's self is like always wearing clothes that don’t fit right), a point in the video being that Taki doesn’t want to be an architect, a traditional masculine role, but to be an artist, a traditionally feminine role. Even from Mitsuha's perspective that want to go on a date with someone that wouldn’t be respected or accepted otherwise. Something Mitsuha was very much looking forward to, setting that up and talking to someone like that over the course of months isn’t something that happens accidentally or to just mess with Taki, it was something that was intentional. Mitsuka going to Tokyo giving Taki the thread and cutting their hair is something that gives me such a strong feeling for that change that I couldn’t describe otherwise. An active choice, a change in destiny and sense of self, something that plays with identity and gender in this way is so beyond what I could put into words for the trans experience, because the trans experience can’t really be told, it has to be experienced to fully understand, and it’s something i am still working my way through and trying to understand now. That feeling is something that scene makes in spades in ways i tear up thinking about. Its horrifying and exhilarating, it’s something people say takes courage without really getting why. The beauty of your name is the experience, the physical and visual and emotional sensations, the joy of discovery and of the grief of loss, the feeling of missing something and feeling that longing that you don’t know how to describe that you can feel pushing and writhing deep within your soul, the acceptance to move forward and the strength it takes to quite literally break destiny. If you are reading this I do not believe your reading is wrong at all, I find it deeply compelling and another perspective when viewing art is the point of art, and helps me understand and enjoy mine even more. For me though and from and through my life experiences I cannot see your name as anything other than a movie about the love and joy of finding your true self, finding who you are, finding your name.
Very nice video. I check in on the channel from time to time cause i think your videos have a huge potential. I really appreciate the hard work you put into it and i can imagine how long it takes to edit. As a creator i myself i couldn't stop to notice this video has one point that dosent let go of me. The lacking character development of Taki wich i think sure has a point but its not as horrible as you make it out to be considering how you even depict at the end that he has his development very late in the story but i think its the perfect timing. At first we get Introduced to Mizuhara in the countryside wich quite literally shows us the past with its beauty and flaws then we go over in a mixed state the present a point where the main part of the story plays (present being mizuhara and takis present at the same time). Here the main plot develops until it finishes with both presents quite literally fusing into one. At this point of the movie there's only one thing left the future. Like Mizuharas past played in Itomori Takis future plays in tokyo once aigan resembling the future. In the perspective of taki we get a few of views into his "future live" and mizuhara is only a very small part of it like taki was in the mizuhara present part at the start. This segment fittingly is way shorter than the past segment considering the past already happend but the future is yet to come. Finishing the bonding chain in the structure of the movie pas - present - future. I personally like the more or less open ending because it leaves room for imagination wich is not always the best way to end a story. Could we have seen a few shot of there future live? Going out - marriage - getting kids - getting old etc yes totally. Tho this move still depicts to me the future isn't yet written and your its author so reach for the stars. holy i didnt excpect this to become a whole essay but whatever. Still great video and i hope to see more in the future.
This was a really interesting review. You pretty clearly pick the movie apart and acknowledge its flaws, some of which seem rather fundamental and which should on paper ruin the immersion of the story, as well as some of the more "standard" and "boring" tropes, such as the inevitable heterosexual romance between the leads. Yet in the end you conclude that the emotional core, visuals, sounds etc somehow are powerful enough that the flaws just don't matter. It's pretty a pretty interesting perspective, that in the end the "objective" flaws of a movie doesn't necessarily define how the subjective experience of watching it ends up being. A movie can *feel* perfect even if your brain *knows* it isn't.
Holy shit! The video was beyond incredible. I craved more, more people's opinions and more thoughts as the film just left me speechless but I wasn't expecting to find something of this level. I don't think anyone could have said it better except with Taki, i cant formulate the words to express my opinion on him, in my eyes he's a great character and had the potential to be much more but at the same time maybe it was better that the writers left him this way I mean the base of his character was said before we even met him "a handsome, Tokyo boy" but I'm grateful that we saw him develop/shown more of his character throughout the film (more at the end). And relationship-wise while i don't like your opinion (i don't hate it in any way) it was really well said and I have nothing more then respect for it because it is valid but i think for me i didnt look at it that deeply, and i think its the fact that they grow, care for each other, and overcome problems together? permits them to make them feel they way that they do about one another. But i really really liked the vid and i think that this deserved much more recognition!
Overall, a very good review, I only felt that you lack in research of the Shinto religion, which is the one that mainly explains all the phenomena that occurs in the movie, for example, the memories fade because it is the price they paid when they came out from the "underworld" the grandmother of Mitzuha said "to leave you must leave a part of yourself behind", or like the Kami of love, who is represented by the moon that is always present in Makotos movies, protected the "I love you" that Taki wrote on Mitzuha's hand, otherwise like all their memories and notes would have vanished so it was the correct move from Taki to write "I love you" instead of his name.
Yo how about you make a video about Viewtiful Joe(the original gamecube release) and cover passion and what it means to be a hero? Would be an interesting topic.
I had seen the film so many years ago that i didn"t remember the romance! And it's curious that it is, as it sometimes resembles reincarnation. Great video!
Oh my god, I definitely read some queerness from this movie, so it's cool to see I wasn't alone. It isn't super in your face or anything, but I definitely read some subtle queerness into this movie after watching it. I'm glad some other people saw those subtle possible references as well. Even if it isn't the intent, art is made to be interperted in many ways by audiences, so it's a completely valid reading.
Darn, guess I'm off to re-watch this movie so I can see if I actually agree with this take or not. My impressions when I first watched it were super lukewarm, maybe time and perspective will make me appreciate it more. I'll watch the vid once I've caught up.
An easy way to tell whether they are in their own bodies is to look for mitsuhas hair style and takis red thread bracelet sort of thing. Taki doesn’t know how to do mitsuhas hair style so therefore he settles on a ponytail (or bed hair at the beginning of the movie) and no red ribbon. Taki you can tell in most shots if he has mitsuhas red thread of fate around his wrist. If he does that means it’s him, otherwise it’s mitsuha This applies to every switch part from the final switch as mitsuha wakes up to taki already with the thread around takis wrist in the shrine
There are two sources to fill the lacks of content which are only implied in the movie. First source, there are two mangas called "Your Name - Another Side: Earthbound" collectiong scenes that are omited in the movie. There are two storylines: 1. what does Taki in Mitsuas body: how he befriends Teshi in a boy-like manner and build a relationship, that later makes Teshi believing her (him) to try saving the village and become that terrorist. It shows how Taki in Mitsua changes her in a way, she holds her head up for herself. 2. there is a storyline about Mitsuas father which is very short implied in the dream-sequence. It tells us, in which way Mitsua as herself was able to convince her father to evacuate the village. Second source, there is the novel Makoto Shinkai wrote while making the film, showing the plot only from Mitsuas and Takis Perspective, not third part. There are many inner monologs showing both their feelings, especially how Taki begins to love Mitsua while in her body. Makoto Shinkai knows very well about that problem, he said the film is only 70%., but there was no more time. I think today he has the position to enforth a half or whole year of more production time and costs like Mamoru Hosada did in making "Summer Wars". But in 2015 Shinkai was still a hopeful but not yet considerable director.
Hi! What did you think of my interpretation of Your Name? Is there anything I missed? Anything I just got wrong? I could see there being a pretty wide range of interpretations of this film so I'm super curious to hear more perspectives. If you're interested in getting early access to my videos and the ability to vote on future video topics, please consider subscribing to my Patreon if you have the means www.patreon.com/skyehoppers ! I'm aiming long-term to build a unique community through Patreon where people can analyze what media communicates but free from the pressure-filled academic setting that makes some people think it's not fun. Cause it's actually a super fun way to engage with art! Here are some discussion questions to build off what I talked about in the video, and what I left out of the script.
1. Birds! There are so many shots of birds in the film. Literally dozens, I think. However, barely any of them last longer than a second and none of them are *really* important, aside from maybe the shot of the hawk soaring over the second crater. Are they symbolic of anything? Or did the animators just like drawing birds?
2. This question is specifically for aromantic people, people who don't experience romantic attraction. Did you still find something to connect with in this movie even though it veered towards being primarily a love story? If my thesis about Your Name is correct, then it should've been powerful even to people with no interest in romance.
3. The comet hits the Miyamizu shrine directly. Like right on the dot. What's that about? It almost would imply that the shrine should be destroyed, or at least was always destined to be but uhhh idk. Thoughts?
3. My guess is that it has to do with the purpose of the lost traditions, the information that they lost in the fire centuries prior. My first thought was perhaps it was a punishment for losing the essence of the rituals, but now I'm not sure about that. They still preserved them even without knowing. I think it might be that, with the town saved, the rituals have lost their purpose. After all, the body swapping is definitely part of the magic, and that's deeply tied to the rituals of visiting the nether-valley and the kuchikamizake. So perhaps the entire reason those rituals were created, in part by the god Musubi, was out of knowledge that the magic would someday be used to save the people of the town. With that purpose fulfilled, the shrine was no longer necessary.
I haven't watched it yet, so I'll have to get back to you on #2, but I would like to point out that while dysphoria is common among trans people, it is not universal. I'm aromantic and genderfluid, and have several trans friends (including people who stick to the binary) who don't suffer from dysphoria. From your description in the start, Mitsuha reads to me as a trans man who wasn't really sure of that fact yet. An egg, as they are often known. The wish to be a handsome boy in Tokyo is oddly specific - as someone who's AMAB, I certainly can't see a cisgendered man making the same kind of wish to be a girl, though since that's my perspective, I can't speak cisgendered women.
I'll watch the movie tomorrow and try to remember to get back to you on the aro perspective.
2. Having watched it now, definitely found something that resonated. I'm not really that great at the coherent analysis thing, but the movie's more about romance, it's about connection in general. Connections between past and present, traditions that connect us to a forgotten past. Friends who will come with you on a wild expedition into the countryside to help find a town you drew from memory. Heck, friends who will help you fake a terrorist attack to get a town to evacuate on your say so. Connections between family, loss and estrangement. The importance of memory. And yes, romance: what many consider to be the ultimate form of connection between two people. "Musubi," maybe.
And, also being genderfluid, the body swapping resonates with me so much. (And honestly, this movie feels extremely trans, right up until the point where it takes a hard right into cishet love story.)
All that said, I will point out that when it's a sufficiently good love story, I can get drawn in despite being aromantic. It's just that it's not a wish-fulfillment story. But, uhh...while this movie is a good story, it's definitely not a good love story.
As for 1: Honestly, I think they just gave the animation team free rein to make things as pretty as possible. And one of them was like "well, I know how to do that....BIRDS!" The amount of effort these animators put in is beyond anything I've seen, and I've seen some very pretty anime.
Idk about the other two but for 3. I need to rewatch both, however I feel the comet is both implied to be spiritual and also related to the natural disasters present in Weathering With You, maybe whatever it's "impregnating" the earth with is the seed for those events?
Thanks for this video. I have a million thoughts about this movie, but would like to provide a little insight on question 3. This movie has a lot of underlying tones of cycles and I believe it's even stated by Mitsuha's grandmother that her and her husband met under similar circumstances. The shrine is literally in the middle of a crater of where the last meteor struck. Similarly, for the sequence after Taki drinks the wine, I feel as if it is showing how life and death act in the same way. Mitsuha's mom (correct me if I'm remembering wrongly) dies at childbirth. As you said, the meteor, a cosmic ball of death and destruction, turns into a sperm cell.
Idk I always have a hard time writing critical and logical explanations of art 😅.
Also the depiction of gendered behaviors, especially when I saw this in 2016 when I was a teenage boy, and not a twenty something girl, was something that was incredibly impactful on me. Overall amazing video, and I think your conclusion hits the nail right on the head. I'm curious what you think of Weathering with You, Shinkai's following film that actually included both Mitsuha and Taki in it. (They play a minor role but their screentime, at least to me, is very important for both the plot of Weathering with You, and giving a little more closure on their journey after Your Name.) As well as overall having a very interesting look at personal choice, freedom, and human resilience. I'd even be bold enough to say it feels almost like the antithesis to Your Name.
I think the general idea was this: Mitsuha is already a fleshed out character at the start with a backstory, wants and needs, and a clear life goal in mind. Taki on the other hand is a blank slate. A faceless, normal big city boy, nothing special, no real purpose, just living because that's what you do.
So while Matsuha wanted the body-swapping because she figured it could give her life meaning, Taki was in it because of happenstance at first - but as it turns out, he also needed the body-swapping to actually grow, develop a character and individuality. The experience gave his life a meaning other than being one of thousands of architecture students in Japan.
I really like this interpretation of the movie!
That's a really well-articulated interpretation. I appreciate this.
he thought he was complete as is so much he didn't realize the things he might be miserable in until he was in a new perspective, a new body he might envy, and finding new aspects of himself he may have felt too ground down by life to fully consider until he had someone to love and something to hold onto
well said
read earthbound
Tbf, on the thread thing, the romantic subplot is pretty obvious from a japanese cultural perspective. The symbolism of thread binding two people together, especially red thread, is a classic trope to symbolize romantic relationships, of love that is to come beyond space & time. We see it in a bunch of other shows as well such as Tenchi in Tokyo, and even pokemon uses it in the form of the item Destiny Knot, which is used to make the pokemon who holds it more infatuated with their trainer.
For a western translation, it'd be like if there were arrows with heart shaped arrowheads in the motif the whole time. It's not a perfect translation, but the signposting is similarly obvious.
Oh see there you go. Ive definitely seen red threads pop up here and there in japanese media but didnt know it had specifically romantic connotations. Thank you! The ambiguity created by not knowing that symbolism definitely altered my perception of your name's first half
Mitsuha's cutting her hair short is common in Japanese culture too, it's typically after a woman has her heartbroken.@@Skyehoppers
"My Happy Marriage" features a purple thread
The reason why taki slowly forgot about mitsuha other is, when taki (in mitsuhas body) entered the musubi alter, he did not offer anything to the god, so when taki (in mitsuhas body) left the shrine, he unknowingly gave up his memories of mitsuha.
And thats also why taki didnt write his name on mitsuhas hand, and instead wrote „i love you“, because if he wrote his name, it would probaly disappear just like mitsuhas diary entries, because of musubis offer.
The musubis offer was the memories from taki and mitsuha of each other, but when taki writes „i love you“, the moon god tsukoyomi (japanese culture) intertwined and didnt completely cut their connection. Thats why even though at the very end taki had no red string, but still had a faint memory of his time with mitsuha.
The reason why taki still had the feeling of an empty void was because of the red string mitsuha gave him in the train when she was in tokyo (3 years ago) „the strings twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break but then connect again“ -grandma, so he didnt remember mitsuha, but his soul knew something was missing, thats why he woke up crying every day.
There is also a saying in japanese culture, that everyone had a red string attached to their pinky finger, and the string, one day, will lead them to their soulmate.
Beautiful analysis so far, but PLEASE read this as you were mislead by the translation. 10:52 Mitsuha is looking at the mirror and only says “I’m jealous…. They must be together now”. And she never mentions he nor she. Mitsuha set up a date between the two, but realizes her feelings for Taki, which then makes her want to go see Taki so badly. She then gets heartbroken by the fact that the feeling is not mutual and decides to cut her hair. (In Japan, women tend to cut their hair short after a heartbreak, which is directly mentioned by Tessie in the movie)
On the how their relationship would work question, I feel like the answer is that they both see & find the joy in the thing the other finds confining, and that because they both care for one another, they can have a window into that joy, allowing them to share that in a way they couldn't find alone or anywhere else. It's like when you share a hobby with a partner and they love it as much as you but for different reasons, and their enthusiasm from a different perspective feeds your love of it, or how a hobby you lost interest in a long time ago can be reignited when your kids or a young relative suddenly shows interest and you fall in love again. Cause I think they both want to be in love with where they are too, but hate that they cannot find it and that their world seems uninterested in meeting them where they are, but since both of them have now literally been where each other has been, they have a shared common ground & understanding that even transcends their memory loss that would allow them meet and meld their loves & experiences with their very different worlds.
I love this. Thank you for taking your time to write it
Yeah and they better had ended together fr
We also have to remember that a huge part of this is not so much the romance during the movie, but what will come after, as they get to know the person who they feel an uncanny connection to. The goal is less to establish that in the movie, but more establish what musubi is, and why it matters, and how things like love and connection transcend the concept of time and space.
@@Treblebeatgames Exactly! And they clearly live in the city and probably visit the country often. It's normal for most couples who don't want to live in the country but enjoy it when they want to live the city. Makes sense to me.
Yeah it’s frustrating that he missed b/c that’s what makes this such a beautiful & unique love story. They fell in love with each other through experiencing each other on an ethereally intimate level. It’s extremely deep & moving:
i think the movie does a good job at explaining the kind of love that is hard to explain at all. instead of meeting a person from the outside and later finding out more about them, they literally become that person before meeting that outer version. when it comes to real life, these kind of relationships remind me of online friends meeting and connnecting through a version they don’t usually show in their daily lives before meeting each other irl. i think there are definitely issues with the way it was portrayed but something about the way it was felt very familiar to me and i think that example would be the best way i could describe it. they even draw a connection to it in the movie.
Another fantastic analysis. I wrote a lot of thoughts in the discord but I wanted to summarize my ideas here -
1. I really love your honesty in your analysis. You don't take on big weighty sociocultural topics that you don't exist in, but you still give them fair light, where a lot of essayists would try to Be the Expert or just ignore them outright.
2. I'm deeply stubborn and slow to change opinion, but I think you really swayed me on how I feel about Taki. I never thought he was *great*, but I still saw him as, well, worthy of being a main character, maybe a bit blind to some of the flaws he has. In a lot of light I see some of my old self in him, in wanting to escape monotony, noise, and expectation, and being willing to ignore his ignorance of the feelings of others to do that. There's something funny to think about that.
3. wow, even short clips without the accompanying music in this movie still make me tear up a bit.
4. Your editing is top notch, and your comedic timing matches it. Every time I stopped to point out a joke I liked then unpaused, another, funnier joke made me stop again.
5. re: transness - Like I said in the discord (and elaborated there) - They didn't intend to make a trans metaphor, but they made one, for all the ups and downs.
Can't wait for the next one!
i think the way the movie introduces taki’s personality is through mitsuha’s friends telling her what “she” was doing that she didn’t remember. he felt free feeling that it was a dream, he stranded up for himself when the others kids were talking trash and he was just generally doing what he wanted, but when he’s on his own body he isn’t able do that. all that before we even really meet him. then the movie intensifies those aspects with their “talks” through writings before body swapping and his trip to the shrine with granny
38:19 i think this is shown more through mitsuhas character more than anyone else. But I think her saying she wants to be a handsome boy reflects what is expected of a woman and man. Men do have more freedom and less expectation from family in most families (I speak from at least my experience), so I think her saying she wants to be a boy is her rather saying she wants the freedom to choose different from what is expected from her rather than hinting she’s trans. Though, the film does also show her enjoying being a boy. I see both ti be honest.
Personally I felt that the movie having only 1 protagonist originally was a little more intentional. After a quick shot of the time they met in Tokyo, the first scene we get is Taki in Mitsuha's body for about 20 seconds, followed by Mitsuha waking up in her own body the next morning, then in Taki's after that. We get some scenes of Taki in Mitsuha's body involving the Shinto shrine, but these all serve as another perspective on Mitsuha's existence. In fact, we get only very short snippets of Taki as himself before the switches stop, and I can't help but feel this was intentional. Even when Taki was in Mitsuha's body it was still an exploration of Mitsuha's character, not Taki's. The sudden shift of perspective helps add to the shock of the realization of Itomori's destruction.
With these being said though, despite almost never actually being on screen, we get a lot more indirect character development than I think you give him credit for. Sure we don't *see* him do things, but we do thoroughly see bits of his life through the eyes of Mitsuha, and I think, like the Shinto shrine scenes, this shows more about the character who's life is being lived than the character actually performing the actions. Though we don't see Taki's actions specifically, we see both the statements from other characters, and, more importantly, the circumstances of Taki's life. His father, though not aggressive, is certainly somewhat distant seeming. Whereas Mitsuha got woken up by Yotsuha and told that breakfast was ready, Taki(Mitsuha in Taki's body) got out of bed on his/her own, showing a different family dynamic that says something about Taki's character just by proxy. Taki is shown to go to school, have friends, and hold down a job that is extremely hectic. Characters seem surprised at Mitsuha's mannerisms, and angry over things like her/him being too quiet, too slow, or sloppy at work. Though we never see Taki in these situations, we can infer quite a lot about his character through this.
Later on when the perspective shifts to Taki for a good chunk of time, we aren't quite left with a blank slate because of this. Taki has changed through his dream encounters with Itomori, and though we never knew him before that directly, we are given many context clues up to this point. Though never stated as directly as with Mitsuha, his circumstances themselves imply that Taki enjoys the life he switches into partially just because of the breathing room it allows him compared to a relatively fast paced life back at home, and while Taki experiences a relatively distant relationship with his family, his experience in Mitsuha's body, with a sister and grandma who she's close to, similarly probably felt like a welcome change from in real life.
While on a certain level I, like you, struggle to view this a romance, I think that depends partially on how I'm projecting my expectations based on other romances, as well as my idea of romance in regards to my own life. Taki and Mitsuha certainly aren't the 'fall in love and live happily ever after on a romantic getaway beach' kind of couple. They are first and foremost, best friends, even if they only met once, but I don't think that means they can't also grow to be romantically involved as well. I think, furthermore, that the characters themselves are at least partially aware of that dynamic. I personally don't view any of Mitsuha's actions in a necessarily romantic sense. And as for Taki, his talk with Okudera after their date when he's accused of having a crush on 'someone else' seems to imply that neither 'yes' or 'no' fit his feelings for Mitsuha precisely right.
Their one and only time meeting face to face (before the epilogue) shows a lot of trust between the two. They care deeply about each other, but perhaps more importantly, they have a lot of faith in the other's ability to handle themselves. Taki's pre development personality is as aforementioned only really implied, but I think it was implied strongly enough that his willingness to go seek out Mitsuha because he believed she'd be more capable than him at evacuating everyone was a big character step for him. While I do find their relationship believable, I also don't really tend to think of this movie as just a 'romance anime' because I believe their relationship, even at the end, was a lot more than 'just' a romantic one.
Edit: (Because I'm still thinking on it) I love this movie, but, I also find it hard to recommend it. It's hard to give brief summary of the premise without spoiling the movie or making it sound like a comedy plot. While I love the movie it's symbolism of the two characters mirroring each other is so not subtle that it's hard to talk about even if I could talk without caring about spoilers. Additionally, as you mentioned, the gag of Taki touching Mitsuha in her body is definitely not the greatest, being played as a joke and only being borderline funny one time (though I get the feeling it was partially done as a way to signify who was occupying her body), but it certainly doesn't help that it's the first scene in the entire movie aside from scattered 'memories' of when they met on the train 3 years ago from Takis perspective. Even aside from this, the movie starts off feeling a little 'awkward', and the pacing feels a lot faster on subsequent viewings because of the number of moments of foreshadowing and call backs that you're now aware of. I always tell people how much this movie makes me sob, but then if I watch it with them they usually spend the whole first act not 'bored' or anything, but confused as to how this movie could possibly get such a strong reaction out of me.
(I hope this doesn't sound like I'm stomping on your criticisms, this was a well made video and I'm just a girl in the comments section, I just wanted to offer up why these certain elements don't fall as flat for me as they do for you)
This comment is really insightful and putting a lot into words I couldn‘t! ^^
See I actually see a lot of beauty in Taki's development being inferred rather than shown. We only get to see things mostly from Mitsuha's perspective so the moment she is gone we feel the same feelings Taki feels and we immediately enter his shoes. I think the negative space Taki leaves not only says a massive amount about his character of just going though the motions in a dense city and a distant father who does the same but it also gives enough space for Mitsuha's disappearance to really show just how lonely and empty his life was with how he was living it. Taki's fight to remember her and his determination to save the town for the sake of her and everyone else he grew fondness for shows how much he's changed that he no longer just wants to live on auto pilot. Taki's arc is one of negative space in the text which contrasts the dense city while Mitsuha's is one of positive space in the text but she lives in a small town.
Your editing style is just gorgeous. I can’t imagine how much time and effort you put into content like this
I wonder if part of Taki's underdevelopment is part of his character, that he doesn't feel like he is a lot of a person and doesn't know who or what he is and how he wants to or should develop. So where Mitsuha's problem is she knows what she wants but not how to get it at least initially, his is that he has no clue and no idea where to start, stuck in a life kind of defaulting to autopilot that he feels no answer for how to get out of or if there is an out that isn't just death. His experiences with Mitsuha though are so profound to him because it shows him how profoundly different life can be, could be, and how close that choice is, and though he is limited in his ability to understand it, that he lacks a lot of the emotional tools or language to even talk or think about it, that this other life, this experience he's having is true and possible, and that revelation is both hitting him like a comet, and driving him to make sure he doesn't lose it, cause he's terrified of ever going back to the drab life he had before, even if he can only vaguely remember the life he lived as her.
probably i mean like isnt mitsuha the on who wished, so taki being there is just happenstance
I think the reason taki and many anime make leads are so bland is because that’s how the average Japanese man is often made to feel.
I do not know this of course since I am neither Japanese, nor have I ever lived in Japan.
However, it feels to me that the lack of individualism as a value is what makes such characters work for Japanese audiences.
it also gives a contrast with how city life can throw a person into unending monotony if they just go with it
Wow... I got a paradigm shift after watching the movie on Taki's Character which made me see that his character was hollow and now another one that it may have been artistic on him just living a boring life that made me love this movie even more. Thank you for this comment. I need to watch this movie again...
I have to be honest here - it's really refreshing to see a more critical look at this film, despite it being my favorite of all time. I have a deep personal connection to this film that I would never be able to fully express, but I'm aware that it is not perfect. Yet hearing the imperfections laid out makes me think for the first time about the ways it could be improved. It makes me feel confident that, as an artist, I can learn not just from this film's successes, but from its shortcomings. 10/10 video, I'll absolutely be coming back to this one when I need a shot of creative inspiration.
I feel Taki being an underdeveloped character is part of who he is, and part of the themes and settings of the film as well. He is a city boy, lost in the haze of it all. He has few stand-out friends, and only 3 make it with him to adulthood. He feels like another person in Tokyo, which is why its important when Mitsuha ended up going to Tokyo to meet him, and give him the thread that binds them together. She sees him in the crowd. She notices him. To her, it is not a single person in a sea of millions, but the person she made the conscious decision and desire to go see.
Not to mention, the hazy memory can easily cover the plot point of the comet destroying the town "being excited to see the comet" isn't quite indicative of "she must be from the town that got destroyed" especially when he doesnt know specifically where it is, and he clearly forgets the name of the town. Perhaps he forgets it even when his life is caught in it all? We never see the name of the town written from the notes that get passed. The year thing i have less of an issue, but the destroyed comet plot hole is less of a plot hole and more like a plot divet.
In my interpretation, neither of them noticing the time gap and Taki not remembering the comet accident from 3 years ago is all part of the connection itself. Like how Taki forgets Mitsuha's name is also part of their connection.
Honestly i dont see how a person with somewhat fussy memory would ever think "ah yes this is probably a timetraveling thing aswell as a body swap thing" even if they knew the scenery.
@@Grampelmonster69 I didn't even remember the exact time of most of my memories a few years back, I knew it happened but didn't knew the time or the precise moment it happened.
Add swapping literal souls to the equation and also being in a dream-like state for the experience, yeah I don't think it's too far fetched to not notice the year difference.
why is this video so underrated bro this guy deserves more
It's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I had always gotten the feeling that Taki was a person who did not pay much attention to things not directly in his life. I might be misremembering, but I could've sworn there was a scene where he was trying to see the comet, only to find out it's the anniversary, not the actual date. I think he only half paid attention to the news when it happened? That to me implied more of a sense of dissociating with the world around him due to his general disinterest and dissatisfaction with his current place in life. The movie definitely doesn't give him enough time to become a character in the beginning, but the epilogue spending time for him is almost like a mirror to it doing so for Mitsuha in the beginning. Not that it makes it any easier to root for him during, y'know, the entire runtime before that. Then again, I was too distracted by how the movie made me felt to really notice the difference in how it treated its characters. I'm a sucker for any media that makes me absolutely forget everything around me and come out of it feeling like something is missing now that it's over. This is one of those movies I really wish I could experience watching for the first time again.
Anyway, your editing is incredible. The effort and love you put into this video is as obvious as they did for the movie. Listened to a few of your videos on a drive last night and came back today for this one, glad I did! Keep up the good work.
This was sort of the feel i got about Taki not remembering the comet thing as well. Not to mention, he would've been, what, 13 or 14 when it happened? If the news cycle moved on relatively quickly, which it probably would, sadly, I can see perhaps "meteor destroys entire small town woah that's wild!" probably stuck, but not enough details to put the pieces together.
That plus, it was a dream, sort of, even if it was real. Even the most vivid dreams where you remember certain things with picture perfect clarity, the other stuff fades, pretty much immediately, and I very much got the sense that was happening with the swaps.
Very true, in all actuality the vast majority of people really have no clue what’s happening in the world around them. Particularly here in the U.S. 🙄 where a large majority of my coworkers can’t even point Mexico out on a map, one girl even thought it was an island 🤦🏻♂️ I doubt any of them paid attention when the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami happened. They were probably more interested in NCAA basketball March madness. Granted Taki seems a bit more intelligent than your average American meathead, but the hazy dream like memory seems more than capable of covering this gap.
41:53
Skyehoppers: “Taki doesn’t want to be an architect, taki wants to be.. “
me: “.. a girl”
Skyehoppers: “.. an artist”
Aha yeahhh I think I could've gone harder on the trans reading now that I've gotten feedback from trans people. I'm not trans so I felt a bit anxious that I would be out of my depth. And tbh I definitely, easily, saw Mitsuha as a trans character but wasn't really sure about Taki. But yeah a bunch of trans women have said they instantly saw him as an "egg" so I think I didn't see it maybe because I've never wanted to be a girl myself. In the end I went with a reading of Taki's character that aligns with the parts of my cis self that I see in him. Really, it's me that wants to be an artist.
So a girl can't be an architect lol
My life recently has followed a similar arc to Misuha, and after visiting a certain city over a year ago, I felt that irresistible pull to be there, to build my life in that place. After throwing myself into making that a reality, after 7 months of being here I can happily state it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Thank you for vocalising that feeling I had in your closing remarks, it felt good to hear someone else put it to words.
Wonderful analysis to one of my favorite movies of all time. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this video.
Great analysis as usual. I didn't realy realise how much flawed the movie was, which didn't change my feelings toward the movie, in reality I just now have an urge to watch it again, which is quite weird.
That scene when it seems that Taki sees the life of Mitsuha, to me it felt more like their connection being fully realized. At this moment he doesn't only switch with Mitsuha, he sees her full life, he learns everything about her. This on its own would be enough for him to love her or just feel a deep attachment to her.
I think the movie doesn't even try to make their romance compelling, it meant to be flawed. They feel a very deep connection between each others that they cannot name, and between a boy and a girl whenever there's that feeling of a connection (especially in conservative society) it's often attributed to love, which I feel it's the case here. That's the only concept that both of them thought of, and people really attribute many things to love and too many relationships are this flawed between a couple that just shouldn't even be together. It is something that almost everyone knows, the feeling that you really love someone even though it doesn't make any sense, which always fail.
To me Your Name success shows that we really don't need a perfect story or characters to experience an emotion. We're not that logical and Taki being that flawed and not really likeable proves it, even not understanding why he "loves" Mitsuha doesn't matter, the emotion is real, we all experience this, the dissosance between logic and emotion is something we're used to and that's what makes Taki work as a character while watching the movie. Additionally Taki might have been represented as shallow because he really is, he mistakes art for archticture, which could be implied that because it's what a successful life is, he doesn't seem to be really rejecting his life as Mitsuha, he's more passive. This is even highlighted by the fact that Mitsuha goes to meet him, while he never consider it or even doing essentialy anything substantial until the very end. I think that Taki is flawed, plain, and shallow by design, and the whole experience is what changes him by the end. But even though, we can see him still struggling to conform by the time Mitsuha has already made a big change to her life.
At least to me Taki represents the part of us that want to be boring passive successful (by society standards), while Mitsuha represents the part that rejects that, thus both are relatable in an emotional level not a logical one.
Maybe Your Name is good because of its flaws not despite them. And maybe movies shouldn't be limited to telling coherent stories and focus on conveying emotions; making art, not architecture that recreates the beauty of art.
You know what, I think that makes it more realistic in that way. Not everyone has a complex life, some have a really simple shallow one. Also I think that it the movie spends more time on Mitsuba to make it more impacting on the audience, so that when she dies, we feel the same sense of loss. Another thing is that all memory of the body swap is wiped and only preserved through writing. And yes. Taki being pervy is definitely not ok. But regardless it's a good fil.
it also feels like it creates the sort of thing where two characters find themselves coming together from shared circumstance, adventure, and even trauma; and I don't know, I can't say that's the healthiest as the * ONLY * basis of a relationship, but its compelling and clearly there's a lot they admire in each other and their lives. I think it'd be easy to say Taki is, like, invested in the story of a doomed girl in a doomed town, and that's been done before, but he's been in her body and her life with her family and friends.
its a piece of art it doesn't need to be perfect to be perfect
I SAW THAT PARALLAX EFFECT, LET'S GOOOOOOO EDITING
I believe that you may have misinterpreted an important moment: Mitsuha articulated that she was upset for not being able to go on the date, but was surprised to see her tears in the mirror. This brings the realization that she didn't want to lose Taki to another after literally walking in his shoes.
Yeah given the way the film goes youre probably right that that was the intent. But the argument I settle on in this video is that the ambiguity in the writing and the particular themes and emotions it plays with lend itself to a lot of unintended but perfectly valid intepretations, and thats what actually makes it resonate with so many people.
I could never quite process my own thoughts on this film. It was just a vague sensation that it was really good, but without being able to point to much of anything. I think this video has perfectly reflected why that might be. This is a really good analysis.
35:59 it's cheap. these two can't remember each other because fate decided, after letting them TIME TRAVEL and BODY SWAP, "fuck em"
please make more video essays in film man, this was so insightful
My god, beautifully done. I hope you become better known if that is your goal.
Your interpretations are profoundly deep and emotionally captivating and manage to lay out clearly, all there is to discover in a story told.
One thing I want to note is the rather shallow sense of love and relationship, especially in young Japanese highschoolers. You correctly said to understand Your Name to its fullest, one would have to know Japanese culture and society. So of course one thing you will find weird, as a person with Western values, is the way love is handled in Japan. For example some people just get into a relationship to experience the winter "as a couple" doing all the romantic christmas activities together. So the words "I love you" get thrown around for the sole purpose of spending the winter months in a relationship, often with a person you have very little in common with. Also the letters Taki wrote on Mitsuhas hand 好きだ is not the full blown "I love you", rather it is "I like you", which of course is used as I love you, but also as "I have a crush on you".
I hope to see more of your interpretations in the future and wish you all the best.
loved this video so much! it encapsulated everything i love about your name and explained what i couldn’t explain myself. i just wanted to say that i love your work and your angle on games/media because your love for them really comes out. you handle each topic with so much detail and analysis but also so much care and joy and it’s truly so inspiring to watch. appreciate your work
This was the first movie that made me cry, i can't really go into why exactly, that would be a lot of TMI on my end, but i ended up associating with both characters, i felt that connection they shared
not the first time but I definitely cried. my tears just dropped lol
check "weathering with you" , it's in the same verse
As someone who is obsessed with this type of video (my favorite in the genre being the channel Breadsword) and has majorly been dissatisfied with most of what I have found you, my friend, are clearing the bar, taking the bar, and leading with it. Your editing style, script writing, and simply the flow of your analysis and line delivery are so on point and IMO just about as good as anyone out there doing this style of artistically-leaning video essay. Cannot believe this channel doesn't have more subs, I know you're gonna get huge when one lucky video catches the algorithm.
It's been years since I've seen the movie but even though I agree that Taki and Mitsuha wouldn't make a great couple, any pair of people would grow a tight and special bond after going through that mind blowing experience. I also wondered how did Mitsuha remember to save the town after losing her memories during the twilight scene? Once again I've forgotten most of this movie so I'm probably missing something obvious here.
This was such an incredibly well made and deep and interesting video. I'm so impressed with this. You actually changed and deepened my understanding and appreciation for this movie a lot.
Maaaan i love finding channels with only a handful of videos, but each one bleeeeeeds earnestness and care. Great video!
I am so late to this party, but was deeply disappointed that Mitsuha's love story wasn't with Okudera. While watching the movie, I actually thought the entire purpose of Okudera joining the search for Itomori was so she and Mitsuha would meet. Taki *is* empty. Like a conduit, if you will, connecting the two women. 💕✨️
Obviously the movie ended very differently and here we are. But what could have been...
me: clicks on a video essay
video: "welcome to reconstructed"
me: "dang, well i guess im watching some quality content again"
Thanks for your video, it is refreshing to hear someone criticise the film’s shortcomings because I have hardly come across any criticism. I also enjoyed the excellent editing.
My other thoughts on this review:
I think the characters can be forgiven for not checking which year they are in given that finding themselves in a different body in a different gender is a pretty potent distraction from these details? As for forgetting about the comet and the name of the town, I attributed that to Taki’s leaving half of himself behind in Musubi’s shrine (which we see happening right before his date with Okudera).
About Taki’s impulsiveness and aggression, I think we see it several times in the movie. Apart from the bandage on his face that Okudera called attention to, we also saw his aggression when he, in Mitsuha’s body, stood up to Mitsuha’s bullies and grabbed her father’s tie.
I acknowledge (1) the uneven character development for Taki and Mitsuha; (2) the point about the protagonists wanting to live out each other’s lives (rather than necessarily with each other), and (3) that the film could perhaps be clearer on why Taki and Mitsuha fell in love. However, I respectfully disagree that the film does not suggest that they would not be a good match. Speaking from the perspective of someone who has found his Mitsuha, one of the things that I identified with in the film is how Taki and Mitsuha appeared to improve/complement each other, and in particular also improve the relationships the other party had with their family/friends. It all culminated in them working together to save the lives of the townsfolk, a task that they were aware they could not accomplish by themselves. While my girlfriend and I will probably not pull off anything so dramatic, I think the way we complement one another is what makes our relationship a strong one, and hence I could understand why the protagonists fell in love after they realised how they complemented one another, which ties in with the idea of the two being made whole when together, whereas feeling as though they have lost something when apart. That said, I can also understand that this may not resonate with someone with a different experience from me.
Someone else also pointed out that living each other’s lives made them appreciate what each other had, and appreciate who they are as a person: th-cam.com/video/RhkX_uGKG1s/w-d-xo.html
We also know that Taki is enamoured with Itomori and the Miyamizu traditions; couldn’t that be something that they might talk about after reuniting? While Mitsuha might have loathed both prior to the comet’s fall, I suspect that her antipathy might have been moderated after she realised the role those traditions played in saving the lives of her neighbours.
Very compelling points about Taki!
As it is, I found the brief conversation with his father interesting - that he should go to school even if he's late. The dad doesn't seem very surprised. Maybe that indicates that Taki's had issues even before the switching started?
Given that we see so little of Taki's life compared to Mitsuha's, for all we know his mother was just in the shower or already gone to work during that scene with his father.
This movie brings me to tears every time I watch it. And watching you explain to why this movie is so gorgeous explain to why the movie is such a good movie to watch even with the flaws. Makes me cry. I knew that I cried at the end of the hallucination scene because of the sound, but I never correlated the sound to death maybe subconsciously but wow.
It’s very difficult for me to see this as anything but a trans story. The only point which seems to break this is the very ending of the epilogue, which is fairly ignorable as most queer media tends to be much subtler than Your Name and with even more interpretation necessary.
The film doesn’t really go into gender dysphoria so much as most trans works, but instead uses its unique premise to show the equally important side of the trans experience: gender euphoria. This is something which is often ignored by media, as euphoria typically only comes partway into realizing one is trans. It’s the the vibrant trans joy which comes from being your true self, something which is often difficult to do, but ever rewarding.
Mitsuha from the start, wishes not to be a Tokyo girl, but a Tokyo boy. Growing up in such a traditional culture, Mitsuha doesn’t realize this is a feasible option, asking it to be a future life. As Mitsuha lives in a boy’s body, they fall in love with their life as a boy. Their relationship with Ms. Okudera suggests Mitsuha is very much attracted to women. It can be interpreted that the reason Mitsuha was always single in Itomori is because of their attraction to girls over boys. Mitsuha has such strong feelings towards Ms. Okudera, and feels such heartbreak when a they can’t have a relationship with her. Mitsuha even cuts their hair as a step towards self-actualization, an instrumentally large step for transmascs.
Taki is less developed, but many of the points are similarly reversed. Taki seems to have no romantic interest in anyone except Mitsuha throughout the film, and especially not Ms. Okudera. My interpretation is that both Mitsuha and Taki are transgender and heterosexual, seeing each other for the person they truly are. Taki touch themself while in Mitsuha’s body also feels much more of a realization of gender euphoria than any attraction to the female body. Yes, this is absolutely a complete violation of Mitsuha’s body. However, it’s worth noting where that violation comes from. Taki touches themself with joy simply be in this body. To have a body they didn’t know they wanted.
Throughout the film Mitsuha and Taki show such strong gender euphoria while in the others’ bodies, falling in love with themselves in a life they must forge for themselves rather than being born into it
There is only one thing I can say about this video. You somehow made me forget the last 43 minutes. I simply did not realize I spent the past 43 minutes watching this. like damn my attention span is garbage. you call this movie magnetic I call this video magnetic. Just DAMN . Reconstructed more like you reconstructed my attention span
2 years ago.....when I finished watching your name on after noon,I thought to go on roof and so sudennly I saw a meteor going through which was visible for some minutes and that moment I got the same feeling as in your name that there is someone.......and so you said at the last that ''it exists for some reason''......i remembered that meteor again.....
that day was like a magical to me,I saw a unqiue movie and right afterthat...saw a rare meteor
I am kinda lost on feelings this winter...
24:21 for some reason this gives me Barefoot Gen vibes
Love your analysis
I’ve been looking for a deep dive into my favourite film for a while so thanks for this!
Well, you certainly tricked me into watching a fairly strong takedown of one of my favorite films. Gotta admit, you know how to make a script, and the editing is top notch as well. I certainly wrestle myself with some of the things you say about this film, and sometimes, maybe, make reaches in order to make sense of them. Your point about Taki needing more development is truthful, and there's reason in saying this doesn't fully work as a love story due to these characters not knowing each other. These are fair critisisms, but I also want to give my two cents on some interpretations of mine.
Firstly, I think Your Name might intentionally trick us into thinking it will be a fish out of water story, what with Mitsuha's "I hate this town take me to Tokyo" mentality. It starts that way, and later let's her live her dream, but at some point, the movie wants to say that it is not a location, but human connection what fulfills us. Through Taki's relationship, Mitsuha is given strength, and has the power to make a difference in the community she initially hates. It kinda feels like the movie is saying "No, mitsuha, this story isn't going how you want it to go!" and I somewhat dig that.
And secondly, I always interpeted YN's love angle to be less about true love itself and more about chances. Yes, these characters are connected via a magical bond, but they also have agency in their actions and emotions. Their swap is involuntary, but their desires to meet are a choice, as you say in the video. However, until these characters meet, they can't fall in love. Taki writes "I love you", but that feels more like an invitation to try again in the future, at the risk of not seeing each other again. Their feeling of looking for someone linger for years on end, and fate gives them the chance to try again in the end, but that's all it is, a chance. The last we see of Taki and Mitsuha is them meeting, because the future is unwritten. Now it is time to see if this love will work out, but the fact that they got here at all is beautiful on it's own right.
I don't want to come off as negative though, it is important to dig deeper into the films we like and question their messaging. It's not an esay thing to do, but I think we all owe it to ourselves, and you certainly did a good job at that.
Love your analysis.
That second paragraph about "Chances" was what I was feeling but couldn't find what it was exactly looking at Taki and Mitsuha's dynamic.
I noticed that the movie never explicitly focused on their "love" but more so with their connection and as you said "chance"
This perfectly counters this video's last point that Your Name is a typical love story when it isnt
@@fan4every1lol89 thanks a lot! It is all up to interpretation, but thats more or less how I felt about it, so glad we found common ground
I cannot find the right words for the praise this video deserves. Your work is amazing
The thing I think that makes the films of Makoto Shinkai so magnetic, is how REAL they are, despite the magic, they feel real, because they use some real locations, grounding the story in our own world, and making it relatable
i'm an outspoken your name non-enjoyer - while i find the visuals beautiful and breath-taking, the logical inconsistencies (such as the ones you brought up) stood out to me and broke my immersion in the story, and i found myself disappointed that this was what people found to be the "best anime movie of all time." however, your analysis helped me recontextualize my understanding of the film - while I still don't think it's the best anime movie of all time, I have a better understanding of why it has such a strong emotional impact on so many people. thank you
I too get emotional at this film, and I think for me part of that is in the music. RADWIMPS did great with the soundtrack.
Gotta say, tho, for my particular enby experience, swapping to another body now and then? Sounds like a good deal. BRB, gonna go rewatch this movie with a trans lens.
Assuming you’re not familiar with the red thread of fate? Also, the phones can easily become explained as small town girl and big city boy. She lives relatively simply and it’s understandable she doesn’t follow phone trends. And Taki won’t judge a small town girl who comes from a simple family with modest means so her phone being old isn’t something he will dwell on.
my name isn't This Good. my name is Tony
Oh my goood I finally remembered why your profile pic looks familiar. Youre the oven the cold food of out the hot food guy!!
I feel like their connection is grounded in the idea of an almost supernatural, fate like connection, not just a normal everyday "two people falling for each other" type of thing
The movie does a pretty good job of expressing that something in the magic of their switching also affects their memories, it seemed pretty obvious to me that this caused Taki's lack of knowledge about the disaster
absolute cinema
Despite helping me understanding flaws this movie had, your video still helped me appreciate the film even more.
Thank you for creating this essay.
This may just be a personal interpretation, even a sort of deep personal belief surfacing and overtaking my view of the film, but the answer to the questions of "why is this a love story? How could the two even work in a relationship? What actually connects the two?" may be the idea that people are ultimately, deep down, "the same", despite all that superficially and idiosyncratically separates us. Through the dream-logic that permeates everything about the time-travel body-swap, we could instead ask in an overly-naive, aspirational haze, "why couldn't the stifled countryside girl and relatively free idealised city boy sympathise? What is it that truly separates us and the stereotypical girl and boy from each other?" Learned experiences? Learned expectations? Learned shame? Learned aversion from trying to truly understand one another?
Of course, making all this into *merely* a love story does come off clumsy, when it touches on something that is so much more, IMO the very essence of the human condition, of existing as an individual in a society of others *like* (but separate from, and not) the self. It feels like a digression in order to bring the story to life as a movie that can be safely consumed by a large audience, while still bringing the mentioned emotional core of the story to equally many people. It's, again, a very dreamlike story, full of unrealistic events and straight up magic, but it presents the idea that humans can understand one another on a deep level, and love both the 'self' and 'another', even through so many layers & barriers of 'othering'. (I don't know if I'm making any sense here, to anyone besides myself.)
As a transfem, I especially relate to the the idea of wanting to swap bodies with someone, if even for a day. I find the ideas of swapping the gender roles of the characters, as well as the struggles with pronouns to be intriguing, despite not being notably related to the LGBTQ community in this film. It is truly interesting how we as humans draw connections to aspects of our own lives, even when there is none directly there to be made. I will note, to a degree, the film captures a sense of what gender dysphoria is like, however the feeling can be a wide spectrum for us. More so it is common for the feeling of gender dysphoria to be comparable to the feeling of touching soggy food while washing the dishes, or being made fun of for something stupid you said in class, or etc. If you have further questions, feel free to ask me! I would be happy to explain how life can be as a trans bisexual.
I've only seen this movie once like 5 years ago, so it's a testament to both the impact of the movie and your storytelling that you brought my whole experience right back up in this video.
I also think it's easy to simply criticize a movie's flaws without analysis (like some other channel you make fun of in this video might), so it's really refreshing to hear you look at the movie from all angles. To praise its beautiful visuals while questioning its depiction of Taki. And to criticize the maybe lacking ending of a simple romance, while still admitting that the raw emotions of those scenes still have an impact.
I feel you perfectly analyzed the flaws that make my experience with this movie as they are, remembering it as a great film, that made me cry (even with rewatching scenes in this video!), but always like there was some part... missing. Something that could've been better. Excellent video!
Thanks for explaining the lunch scene! I only watched the dub, so I wasn't sure exactly why the dialog was so awkward but figured it was probably due to translation. Just a heads up, the sound levels can make it a little difficult to hear what you're saying at times. I found myself adjusting volume a few times. For example, the music coming in at 00:50 is much louder than your voice just a few seconds before, and the music volume doesn't come down when you start speaking again. It does come down after a few more seconds, but then you stop talking and the music goes up and is much louder than the rest of the video.
Ok this was an obscenly good analysis amazing job!!!
Not a video essay almost making me cry
I think the story alludes to them having a lot of potential for romance. They bicker on things because they are separate and unique characters with their own personalities - but they work well together when it matters. They have different backgrounds and interests yet they still look for eachother despite all the other chances for romance as seen with taki and his coworker. They bonded over shared trauma and they clearly like eachother for their own reasons. It’s not supposed to be an equation, it’s just the flow of their dynamic has a chaotic beauty to it that we all saw and loved. Don’t shit on taki and mitsuha, the anime world ships it so give them a chance. The whole story is a lead up to their relationship - and you think there’s a problem before they even got a chance to sit down and have lunch together
I think you've finally given me the context to understand why I didn't like the film very much, even though I enjoyed the first 40 minutes well enough. I came out of my first watch confused, both about its ending and critical reception. Although I definitely didn't notice Taki's lack of character (probably due to the framing as you mentioned), I didn't understand the romance at all, despite generally liking Japanese romance media. Ironically enough, it gave me the feeling that there was something missing from making it a good film.
Damn how is this not more popular, it's so thorough and now I really need to re-watch it with my current worldview to see if my interpretation has changed. I hadn't realised I was trans back when I first watched this but remembering how much I related to the body swapping makes a lot more sense now, I certainly need to consider a more queer reading of it.
I love this kind of analysis and I really really hope you do more!
How are you this underrated? The production quality is absolutely astounding on your videos. Keep up the amazing work this is gonna pay off
Loved this video! Such an insightful look at a movie that, in spite of its flaws, still resonates with me as a favorite. Though you’ve certainly opened my eyes to even more of its flaws. Also, as usual, the editing and production on this video was stellar! The use of text was so classy and fitting, and the joke of a certain other youtube-y way of reviewing movies destroyed me.
It’s odd how your videos always make me consider things deeper than just the stories themselves, but our relationships with stories themselves and how we interact with their depth and analysis. Certainly, your analysis of Taki is making me think about why it is that it doesn’t completely bother me. I can’t disagree with your criticisms, and you actually made me agree with your perspective that it’s easy to love this movie but hard to recommend it, primarily because one of the core characters is so empty.
And yet Taki still works for me. And the only reason I can think of is that on some level, he does work into a self-insert for me. Certainly, within the general vibes of young man trying to find himself, I’m similar to him. And I do think it’s reasonable to enjoy a story because you can insert into it while also recognizing that this doesn’t give it universal appeal. We don’t have to let technical flaws make us like something less, but it’s good to understand exactly what’s happening.
But I think there’s more to it than that. Why am I so quick to forgive Taki as a self-insert when plenty of other blatant self-inserts in fiction annoy the hell out of me? My current answer is that framing and execution do matter. Some self inserts are a bland nothing character who just explores an isekai world and dominates people with his cheat power. There’s no narrative around that worth engaging with. But Taki is a self-insert who experiences something unique and interesting, both as a matter of story structure, and as a matter of emotions (finding someone you remember from a dream, the sense of loss when he discovers the crater). Is that all it takes to make a self-insert enjoyable? I guess for me, sometimes it is. Taki lets me self-insert into an INTERESTING experience. Though maybe it will bother me more on my next rewatch.
It’s making me think that a lot of the discourse around self-insertable protagonists is still underdeveloped. It’s one of those buzzwords that we throw at a character that instantly poisons them, makes it so if someone wants to defend a character they worry about seeming shallow for liking the self-insert. Yet the line between a self-insertable character and someone relatable is surprisingly thin.
It’s also just possible I’m hard coping here to deal with the fact that a character I like is a bland self-insert, lol. But I think having the vocabulary to recognize that it doesn’t work very well and wonder why a character resonates with you anyway is valuable.
I do think that there are things to read into Taki’s personality, minimal as they are. It might just be that I’ve watched this movie 10 times and read too much into it, but I think there’s a lot to his personality. His brashness, his short temper that leads to trying to fight, is absolutely not fleshed out enough, but we do see it called back to when he tries to fight Mitsuha’s father. I think the problem is less that subtle characterization isn’t there, and more that it isn’t properly used by the story. If Taki had to learn to be more patient, then it might have value as a point of characterization.
I actually find it kind of consistent that he’s short-tempered, because when we see him struggling in interviews near the end of the movie, it feels like someone who would rather just shout and be brash struggling to thrive in a more calm and thoughtful environment. Again, maybe reading into it too much, but it feels like a kind of real person to me. There’s also something to read into his love of architecture. I agree with what you said about him wanting to be an artist, not an architect, and I think that actually helps the movie say a little more than you’re giving it credit for about the contrast between urban and rural life.
Someone else in the patron discord mentioned that Taki comes off like he’s bored by urban life, the draining job, the repetitive walks to school and back. While Mitsuha idealizes having a fun life in the city, I think Taki doesn’t idealize rural life, so much as he just appreciates how the scenery and more unique architecture is more enjoyable. He doesn’t want to live in Itomori so much as he wants to draw from that and make cities more memorable and beautiful, as we see in his job interviews.
I think the issue with him is less that this characterization doesn’t exist (though I would still agree it’s more minimal than it should be) and more that it isn’t worked into the story’s structure at all. The problem is that you could take most of it out, and the story would still work about as well as it does. Like you said, the movie forcing it into the romantic structure is very odd.
I’ve always been aware that you could kind of question why they fell in love at all, and personally wasn’t bothered by it just because I was so caught up in the emotion of loving someone from a dream. But your analysis into exactly how they don’t complement each other and their character arcs don’t actually set up that they need each other dug way, way deeper than I expected. The climax where they meet is beautiful but feels oddly disjointed from everything else in the movie.
Honestly, I thought I had more to put in this comment, but over the course of the video you addressed basically everything. I am surprised by how true it is that the movie just doesn’t have a clear message or theme.
The fact that you have pointed out how bad of a character Taki is, though, only makes me stronger and more evil, because I am a longtime believer that Hodaka from Weathering With You is by far a more interesting protagonist with more of an arc. Really, I think Weathering With You is a more cohesive experience than Your Name. Or at least, rather than having a complex smattering of confusing flaws, it just has one really big one, while the rest is greaet.
It kind of ties into the moment you end on. Your Name feels like it’s saying that if you have that feeling of specialness, of some spark to chase that will make you happy, you should chase it. I loved the movie for how well it captured that feeling. But I think what so many people miss about Weathering With You is that it takes that theme and attacks it. It has something to say about people who want to chase the rush of passion in life. It’s critical of it while at the same time refuses to condemn the act of chasing dreams.
But Your Name feels, at the same time, like the more ambitious one. WWY is more thematically cohesive (other than the one thing lol) but has a more regular plot structure. While Your Name is something of an event movie. My favorite thing about it is actually the structure, the way that it starts as a body swap story but builds into a shockingly complex timeline, as it fills in the past and future of when Mitsuha’s trip to Tokyo occurred, pivotal to events in a way we hadn’t even realized.
You’re right, it really shouldn’t be this good.
Beautiful video for a beautiful movie! I never really thought much about Taki but you're absolutely right about how thin he is until way late. I love your interpretation of the themes too, how much the movie wants you to pursue your dreams. And even in this clipped version, the climax of the movie is stunning. Makes me want to rewatch!
4:51 you can tell who is who because mitsuha ties her hair with the ribbon
Great review!
I specially agree with the ending reflection about chasing whatever is pulling your attention.
The epiphany you suggested to Taki also makes sense imo. Good one.
I do not agree that much about Taki being shallow. Yes we see better development for Mitsuha, but he liking the experience as much as her implies that he is kinda lost in life, so seeing her life with defined plans or opportunities calms him down, while for Mitsuha is a life free of demands that gives her peace. This reinforces your epiphany for him. He did not get lost after college. He was lost since way before.
Their joy in each others lives also resonates with our human irony of always wanting what we don't have. For Mitsuha, even after moving to Tokyo she was still feeling the "pull of the thread". And that will probably persist even after their reunion, but weaker and towards other (known, understandable) things.
I don’t think you mentioned the music enough. I know these videos are supposed to be about the artistic value, lessons and piece of art teaches, etc. but the music really enhances the movie, especially the most impactful moments. Also, there is a theme for Mitsuha but not one for Taki, (there is even a theme for Ms.Okudera, a even less important character than Taki) proving your point that Mitsuha is the main character and Taki is more like an important side character.
I appreciate your passion for this but
1. Im not a music critic and would be lost trying to explain *why* a certain song feels good or bad to me
2. The music in this film gets copyright-claimed very easily, which would be frustrating to work around while analyzing
@@Skyehoppers That’s fair, especially because Music is subjective. I just thought I’d bring it up because I feel like it’s important to mention.
I thought they kind of explained the main inconsistency you mentioned,
didn't the film say they forget everything/anything related to each other, including the meeting on the subway, the name disappearing from hand and cant recall after.
I wouldn't say it is illogical, it still makes sense in the film's logic.
One more thing, this is time travelling, it is itself paradoxical, so it also can be explained in this way:
In Taki's world the disaster may or may not have happened, each time we see any "future scene",
maybe each time is different.
so how can he remember something that had never happened.
You know, like the "Last Thursdayism", you will never know.
So the logical inconsistency you mentioned doesn't really stand in a time travelling film.
And i think the director is well aware of this, not in this specific, but i think he understand this is a fantasy film, you can always explain after the fact, therefore no need to do it thoroughly beforehand.
I like this video I swear XD BUT I would say that I didn't get the sense at ALL that the story had two protagonists - there was the mirroring yes, but I ascribed that to the mechanic of the body swapping. From the start, to me at least, it seemed clear that Mitsuha is the central character - the first time we see her, it's in her own life. The first time we see TAKI, it's in Mitsuha's life, however briefly that bit at the beginning was. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing? Taki's story was learning to find the joy and enthusiasm in the world, something I got the sense he was struggling to see, and finding a purpose and direction. He found that through having his familiar routine and relationships shaken up, both by experiencing Mitsuha's life but by experiencing the changes Mitsuha made in HIS life by living it from time to time. He seems to be a character that has a dream, in the epilogue. He has a passion for tradition and nature and remembering and continuing the connections to the past that tradition brings. He wants to do it through architecture and design. In contrast I have no idea wtf Mitsuha's doing or what she's passionate about... because I don't need to. Because a lot of the second half of the movie is shifting Taki to protagonist status and by the epilogue has fully slotted him in there. He's a fully developed person, even if we only get to see a few minutes of him. It's the beginning of the next story. Because time flows onward always, even if we're not there to see it and so forth.
IDK I just. I feel like the film actually did more than i expected with Taki tbqh! ^^''
Also before I forget...
Masterpiece.
Chef's kiss
5/5
Great video
Fine I'll watch Your Name again
She decided to cut her hair because she no longer possess the ribbon that she ties it with. She gave it to him. It was a practical choice. That's it.
I finally watched the fucking movie, i'm sobbing rn, but so ready to watch this video. Thanks for motivating me to watch a masterpiece that I wouldn't have touched otherwise
The portion where you described the way the visuals provide meaning to the film in a way the writing does not was really interesting. I haven't seen the film, but it looks like it nails the emotional payoffs after breezing through its setups, which doesn't seem like it should work but the film's reputation speaks for itself at this point
Best video I've seen on your channel... hope you make more... maybe for I Want To Eat Your Pancreas
Taki in this movie is viewed by us as he is viewed by Mitsuha, for the most part. That's what i believe, anyway. We know as much about his personality as Mitsuha which is why the moment when Mitsuha saw i love you written on her hand is so powerful.
42:12 okay that gave me chills
tht cinema sins gag earned a sub
Thanks for the compliment ;)
what
@@jordynrawrzlike the title is “ your name shouldent be this good” so hes sarcastic lol
wow, beautiful explanation on this story. you should deserve more!
good work man!!
Thank you :) this video gets the fewest views of my essays so its nice to hear people are still enjoying it
As someone who's been very obsessed with the aro/ace spectrum and the way they approach attraction and friendships lately. I feel this very much, I literally point out to every relationship and say "they'd make great platonic friends" lol. I'm pretty sure my friends, with whom I can share my views, find me insufferable at this point lmaooo
There's tons of films and media about platonic friends, there's tons about romantic attraction. Both are important stories to tell even if only one of them is directly relevant to you.
@@deesevrin8570 Yeah but the platonic aspect is often taken as something less relevant and in general does not get the same spotlight love does, and the bonds I usually see are somewhat superficial. Or they are otherwise done kinda poorly. You can't deny instead that romantic attraction oversaturates current media
@@insertsomethingoriginal1376 Oversaturation is a matter of perspective. Friendships and close non-romantic connections are a part of just about every story ever told while romance is only a part of most.
It sounds to me that what you are after is something more specific than the chosen-sibling/pair-bond dynamic.
I would love to see more of this to!
It's bound to remain relatively uncommon however since it is not an experience most people have, hence it is less relatable to most would-be viewers and less likely to be a part of any would-be artists social repetoire.
Dynamics most all people value are inevitably much more commonly depicted in art and media. It's up to those who value those less commonly celebrated dynamics to create that art and it will by very definition be more difficult to bring that art up into any sort of renown.
@@deesevrin8570 Yeah I was never gonna argue against the fact people appreciate love more, because I see it too from others
Platonic relationships are present all throughout our current media, sure, but what I was saying is that such dynamics are often rather shallow, and if they are meaningful they aren't really that relevant to the plot and mostly serve as a tool, or if anything the story treats them as always secondary, and I don't really like that, the kind of implied message people get is that a genuine friendship cannot be as valuable or should be somewhat taken as discardable, and yeah this is the case for most basic friendships, but it's not fundamentally true
Not saying that such cases of great platonic dynamics in movies don't exist, but they're much rarer. I was saying love is overrepresented because I often see it in so many movies where it doesn't even feel necessary, it's so easy to implement and even to use it as an excuse to motivate characters, and we have lists of thoudands of tropes for it too! It's not in all movies, but it certainly pops up in like 90% of media I see, just the same as shallow platonic love does
This is obviously a product of the world we live in. I have discussed this topic in length with other people as to why we developed like this, but despite having solid reasons and explanations as to why this all is the case, it can also be a problem, as it both puts people in a sort of self perpetuating cycle where they keep on being firmly stuck on love (movies sends messages regardless). An example is Your Namel, it went for a classic old tale but it changed the narrative in a way that to many ruined the message a bit
Just because this is a common occurrence doesn't mean I'm particularly fond of it, that's all
I have watched this movie far too many times and have found myself crying every single time. The first time was very shortly after I realized I was trans, so god knows how my biases affect my reading, but hey, death of the author and all that right? While I cognitively know the original intent of the work was probably not to read as a trans story/allegory good god did they succeed in that perspective far more than they probably could have realized. Even the title feels deeply tied to these themes *your name* to most cis people is a very mundane thing to think about, it is something given to you one that you do not play much with other than a nickname or two that as you grow slows fades from view in most circumstances, but to a trans person is deeply personal. Your name is something chosen, something you define, a destiny you decide for yourself, even choosing to not choose a new name is a defiance in some cases. When they ask for your name, I cannot help but feel all the emotions of love but not romance, they’re not asking for the others name, they're asking a much deeper and philosophical question. I realize I’m looking probably a bit too far into something, but when the movie is titled "your name" it just makes me think there is something more there that is unspoken. When Taki writes "I love you" I personally feel the feeling I felt when I looked in the mirror for the first time and saw a resemblance of who i had been looking for, it wasn’t romantic, but it was finding a love that was far greater. It feels as if the love they find isn’t for each other, but an escape from their own life, something I can again deeply relate to. Hell, even Taki's boob fondling while is creepy and weird, I again cannot say I don’t find meaning in it, that desire for something more concrete something missing, when he wakes up and is crying while touching them shows it’s not even sexual at that point, but a somber euphoria, something that was missed. As a trans girl I can’t help but relate to Taki's story more, not fitting in with, hating that suit that doesn’t fit right (a dummed down way I describe dysphoria being that feeling like your body it's self is like always wearing clothes that don’t fit right), a point in the video being that Taki doesn’t want to be an architect, a traditional masculine role, but to be an artist, a traditionally feminine role. Even from Mitsuha's perspective that want to go on a date with someone that wouldn’t be respected or accepted otherwise. Something Mitsuha was very much looking forward to, setting that up and talking to someone like that over the course of months isn’t something that happens accidentally or to just mess with Taki, it was something that was intentional. Mitsuka going to Tokyo giving Taki the thread and cutting their hair is something that gives me such a strong feeling for that change that I couldn’t describe otherwise. An active choice, a change in destiny and sense of self, something that plays with identity and gender in this way is so beyond what I could put into words for the trans experience, because the trans experience can’t really be told, it has to be experienced to fully understand, and it’s something i am still working my way through and trying to understand now. That feeling is something that scene makes in spades in ways i tear up thinking about. Its horrifying and exhilarating, it’s something people say takes courage without really getting why. The beauty of your name is the experience, the physical and visual and emotional sensations, the joy of discovery and of the grief of loss, the feeling of missing something and feeling that longing that you don’t know how to describe that you can feel pushing and writhing deep within your soul, the acceptance to move forward and the strength it takes to quite literally break destiny. If you are reading this I do not believe your reading is wrong at all, I find it deeply compelling and another perspective when viewing art is the point of art, and helps me understand and enjoy mine even more. For me though and from and through my life experiences I cannot see your name as anything other than a movie about the love and joy of finding your true self, finding who you are, finding your name.
Very nice video. I check in on the channel from time to time cause i think your videos have a huge potential. I really appreciate the hard work you put into it and i can imagine how long it takes to edit. As a creator i myself i couldn't stop to notice this video has one point that dosent let go of me. The lacking character development of Taki wich i think sure has a point but its not as horrible as you make it out to be considering how you even depict at the end that he has his development very late in the story but i think its the perfect timing. At first we get Introduced to Mizuhara in the countryside wich quite literally shows us the past with its beauty and flaws then we go over in a mixed state the present a point where the main part of the story plays (present being mizuhara and takis present at the same time). Here the main plot develops until it finishes with both presents quite literally fusing into one. At this point of the movie there's only one thing left the future. Like Mizuharas past played in Itomori Takis future plays in tokyo once aigan resembling the future. In the perspective of taki we get a few of views into his "future live" and mizuhara is only a very small part of it like taki was in the mizuhara present part at the start. This segment fittingly is way shorter than the past segment considering the past already happend but the future is yet to come. Finishing the bonding chain in the structure of the movie pas - present - future. I personally like the more or less open ending because it leaves room for imagination wich is not always the best way to end a story. Could we have seen a few shot of there future live? Going out - marriage - getting kids - getting old etc yes totally. Tho this move still depicts to me the future isn't yet written and your its author so reach for the stars. holy i didnt excpect this to become a whole essay but whatever. Still great video and i hope to see more in the future.
This was a really interesting review. You pretty clearly pick the movie apart and acknowledge its flaws, some of which seem rather fundamental and which should on paper ruin the immersion of the story, as well as some of the more "standard" and "boring" tropes, such as the inevitable heterosexual romance between the leads. Yet in the end you conclude that the emotional core, visuals, sounds etc somehow are powerful enough that the flaws just don't matter. It's pretty a pretty interesting perspective, that in the end the "objective" flaws of a movie doesn't necessarily define how the subjective experience of watching it ends up being. A movie can *feel* perfect even if your brain *knows* it isn't.
Holy shit! The video was beyond incredible. I craved more, more people's opinions and more thoughts as the film just left me speechless but I wasn't expecting to find something of this level. I don't think anyone could have said it better except with Taki, i cant formulate the words to express my opinion on him, in my eyes he's a great character and had the potential to be much more but at the same time maybe it was better that the writers left him this way I mean the base of his character was said before we even met him "a handsome, Tokyo boy" but I'm grateful that we saw him develop/shown more of his character throughout the film (more at the end). And relationship-wise while i don't like your opinion (i don't hate it in any way) it was really well said and I have nothing more then respect for it because it is valid but i think for me i didnt look at it that deeply, and i think its the fact that they grow, care for each other, and overcome problems together? permits them to make them feel they way that they do about one another. But i really really liked the vid and i think that this deserved much more recognition!
Overall, a very good review, I only felt that you lack in research of the Shinto religion, which is the one that mainly explains all the phenomena that occurs in the movie, for example, the memories fade because it is the price they paid when they came out from the "underworld" the grandmother of Mitzuha said "to leave you must leave a part of yourself behind", or like the Kami of love, who is represented by the moon that is always present in Makotos movies, protected the "I love you" that Taki wrote on Mitzuha's hand, otherwise like all their memories and notes would have vanished so it was the correct move from Taki to write "I love you" instead of his name.
Yo how about you make a video about Viewtiful Joe(the original gamecube release) and cover passion and what it means to be a hero? Would be an interesting topic.
Noted!
The cinema sins reference😂
I had seen the film so many years ago that i didn"t remember the romance! And it's curious that it is, as it sometimes resembles reincarnation. Great video!
amazing video
Oh my god, I definitely read some queerness from this movie, so it's cool to see I wasn't alone. It isn't super in your face or anything, but I definitely read some subtle queerness into this movie after watching it. I'm glad some other people saw those subtle possible references as well. Even if it isn't the intent, art is made to be interperted in many ways by audiences, so it's a completely valid reading.
Darn, guess I'm off to re-watch this movie so I can see if I actually agree with this take or not. My impressions when I first watched it were super lukewarm, maybe time and perspective will make me appreciate it more. I'll watch the vid once I've caught up.
its been a year..?
An easy way to tell whether they are in their own bodies is to look for mitsuhas hair style and takis red thread bracelet sort of thing. Taki doesn’t know how to do mitsuhas hair style so therefore he settles on a ponytail (or bed hair at the beginning of the movie) and no red ribbon. Taki you can tell in most shots if he has mitsuhas red thread of fate around his wrist. If he does that means it’s him, otherwise it’s mitsuha
This applies to every switch part from the final switch as mitsuha wakes up to taki already with the thread around takis wrist in the shrine
There are two sources to fill the lacks of content which are only implied in the movie.
First source, there are two mangas called "Your Name - Another Side: Earthbound" collectiong scenes that are omited in the movie. There are two storylines:
1. what does Taki in Mitsuas body: how he befriends Teshi in a boy-like manner and build a relationship, that later makes Teshi believing her (him) to try saving the village and become that terrorist. It shows how Taki in Mitsua changes her in a way, she holds her head up for herself.
2. there is a storyline about Mitsuas father which is very short implied in the dream-sequence. It tells us, in which way Mitsua as herself was able to convince her father to evacuate the village.
Second source, there is the novel Makoto Shinkai wrote while making the film, showing the plot only from Mitsuas and Takis Perspective, not third part. There are many inner monologs showing both their feelings, especially how Taki begins to love Mitsua while in her body.
Makoto Shinkai knows very well about that problem, he said the film is only 70%., but there was no more time.
I think today he has the position to enforth a half or whole year of more production time and costs like Mamoru Hosada did in making "Summer Wars". But in 2015 Shinkai was still a hopeful but not yet considerable director.