This is basically just a place at this point that I write out my future Youtube videos that I want to make at this point, so why not continue that tradition with this bombshell of a video idea. Your Name is a masterpiece, but dadgum does it have some pretty glaring flaws that you can see upon rewatch when you peel back the incredible layer that is the gorgeous animation and amazing soundtrack.
Your Name is a movie by animator and director Makoto Shinkai, and is widely considered by many to be not only his best film, but one of the best anime films to ever be made, rivaling Hayao Miyazaki's own Spirited Away in that fact. Your Name centers on two characters, Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, who, for reasons unknown to them, begin to switch bodies randomly when they go to sleep, having to live each other's lives until they go to sleep again. There's more to the movie than just that, but that's a good starting point for this discussion/review of the movie.
This post will mostly be highlighting the few issues I have with the movie that make it flawed in my eyes, but I would remiss to say that this is one of my favorite movies of all time, like I mentioned has amazing animation and sountrack, has some great characters, a story that tugs at the heartstrings, and impressive filmmaking tactics used throughout. That being said, although it's one of my favorite movies ever, just like every other movie, TV show, video game, etc., it's got some issues.
If you have never seen Your Name before, 1. Do yourself and favor and go and do just that, and 2. Spoilers from here on out, you've been warned damn it!
The first issue that I would point to in this movie is that the movie lags in the middle of it, from right before Taki and Mitsuha stop switching bodies to when Taki eventually finds Itomori. It's not super egregious, and one first watch, it's not super noticeable, but when rewatching the movie, this section of the movie can be a bit tedious to watch through, and I often skip to when Taki finds Itomori when I get to this section of the movie.
The second issue that I have with the movie, and I know this is played for laughs, but it's Taki's pervertedness. I get it, this is a Japanese production so that's just going to be part of it, and I can understand a couple times, but the way that they potray it, it's like every time Taki switches bodies with Mitsuha, Yotsuha catches Taki playing with Mitsuha's boobs. Not only that, but Taki lies about only doing it once and nothing comes of that lie. Just felt like they could have done better with that, since I thought it was a little overdone.
Ok, so this is going to be my final thing I bring up, but it's the most glaring issue that I have with this movie. When I said some great characters, I said some on purpose, because one of the main characters I take issue with, and that would be Taki. I'm glad that this movie focuses more on Mitsuha than on Taki, because that was the smart choice as Mitsuha is the better character, because Taki's characterization is a bit of an issue. However, the issues oddly enough only come into play when Taki is inhabiting Mitsuha's body. Taki as a character is a more reserved, laidback person who enjoys drawing, hanging with his friends, and is not portrayed to be a popular, aggressive, or eccentric character. However, when Taki is inhabiting Mitsuha's body, Mitsuha suddenly becomes more popular, aggressive and eccentric.
Let me hit you with some examples. The first scene I'll tackle is when Taki (as Mitsuhua) pushes the desk over in the classroom. Taki before this scene is not shown as being someone who would react to people making fun of him in this way, in fact, we don't see him act this aggressively on his own at all throughout the movie. A perfect time to show this would have been when someone was making fun of him about the way he acted with Mitsuha controlling his body, where he shows some sort of aggression (doesn't need to be violent) towards the person making fun of him.
The next scene I'll highlight is when Taki (as Mitsuha) plays basketball and beats the boys he's playing against. Taki is not shown to be a very sporty person, and so this scene is confusing because it's saying that Mitsuha could only do this with Taki controlling her, but Taki is never shown to have any kind of sport talent, in fact, the only scenes we see with him next to a basketball court, he's just eating food. Actually showing him playing, and possibly being decent at, sports would have helped this scene so much more.
The third scene that I will talk about is a short clip where Mitsuha asks Taki why a girl is confessing her love to her, and Taki just says that Mitsuha is more popular when he's her. 1. Taki is not shown to be particularly popular in any scene he's in, and when Taki goes back to work the day after Mitsuha first inhabits his body and befriends Okudera, his co-workers confront him on how odd he was acting and seeming a bit irked that Taki walked home with her. If they had Taki act according to how they portray him in Mitsuha's body, he would have reacted less timid and instead reacted more like a boy would have by saying in an annoyed and slightly angry manner something like "nothing happened so get off my back alright." He's an inconsistent character, and I think they missed the mark a bit when writing him.
You might be saying, "this is on purpose so his favorite hobby of drawing is less weird," or something like that, however, I don't think this would be an issue. I think that if he acted more like a typical boy would, that would have added a greater wrinkle to his character, a boy that loves sports and stuff like that, but also has a softer side where he enjoys drawing in his free time too. It's not like it's unheard of, even in Japan, for boys to enjoy things like sports and drawing at the same time, and it could have tackled the gender construct issue much better. Think about this, one of the finest Defensive Tackles to ever play in the NFL, Rosie Greer's favorite hobby outside of that was knitting. Can you think of a less manly hobby than knitting? Also he called himself Rosie, also not a super "manly" name. However, this is all true, and I think that Taki's character would have benefited immensely if he had acted more like this when he wasn't Mitsuha, because as much as I enjoy Taki, he's a bit underdeveloped in the movie.
Despite these flaws, I still love this movie and still have it high on my list of favorite movies ever made, but it's not perfect. Nothing is perfect, but I think that if these few things were cleaned up, this movie could have been even better than it is now. As it is though, I'm not super bothered by these flaws when I watch the movie, and I still recommend everyone watch this movie regardless.
