This isn’t a movie review. This is a love letter to perhaps Makoto Shinkai’s greatest work of art. As a regular anime fanatic, there is always something to nitpick about in every anime, but for Kimi wo Na wa, perfection oozes out of every single frame. The premise is as old as science fiction stories go. Guy switches bodies with girl. They find a method to communicate (not that difficult in 21st century). It is here when the comet, makes it appearance (and ironically, the disappearance). A climax that resembles strongly Bollywood’s own, Raabta, released an year later. A movie that has its own fair share of special memories wrapped up, but that’s a story (and a movie) for another day. The genius of Makoto Shinkai is that he took every small part of a movie, and thought, how can I make it more perfect?
Starting from the animation. Every single frame could be a wallpaper. Watching the movie, only one word comes to mind regarding the artwork. Gorgeous. Every water drop, every lens flare (yes, lens flare, in an anime. We have become so accustomed to lense flare in animes that we forget to appreciate them), every leaf, seems real, yet, feels magical. That’s the closest comparison I can make. Shinkai’s magic is he doesn’t create something extraordinary. He takes the ordinary make makes it feel magical. Why would the scene of something as simple as mending a torn skirt feel important and special? Okay, maybe because it was, but the fact remains, Shinkai infused something magical into what would be otherwise a mudane scene. Amd no scene feels extra or something to fill time. Every dialouge, every frame, lives to serve a purpose. To create the world Shinkai envisions. One where love is really something real and magical. Something that you have no control over, but you have every chance and strength to fight for.
For the longest time, I’ve described Kimi no Na wa as anime meets Nolan. The first half of the movie plays well enough. Taki, a high schooler living in Tokyo starts switching bodies with Mitsuha, the daughter of the Mayor of a faraway town, tucked away in the hills. Mitsuha’s mother was the priestess of the local temple, a role Mitsuha continues with guidance from her grandma after her mother passed away. Her father, distraught over his loss, leaves them. Mitsuha lives with her sister and grandmother, bearing the tradition, brewing the ancient drink, Kuchikamizake, and performing the rites. Although she is visibly frustrated, she carries on her mother’s torche proudly without complain. Clearly, Mitsuha is someone special to the story. A direct opposite to Taki. Taki is an average Tokyo high schooler. In fact anyone of you could be Taki. Family problems, girl problems. Friends. Part time job. He’s just trying to make it in a fast pacing world. He isn’t someone special, and he knows it. All he knows is to keep his head high and carry on. So you can imagine his shock when he wakes up as a girl, in a far flung town, a million miles from Tokyo. Mitsuha on the other hand, all she wants is to leave behind her town, her past, her memories, her mistakes and failures and live in Tokyo. An yearning that feels all to familiar. Despite Mitsuha’s unorthodox life, we can’t help but see ourselves in her, the yearning to be finally free.
The confusion that follows is hilarious but, them again, nothing happens in this movie without cause. Taki, forever shy and hesitant to make the first move, ends up with a date with the girl of her dreams, thanks to Mitsuha’s clever needle work while in Taki’s body. Taki, similarly, boosts Mitsuha’s popularity in school, by dominating the basketball match and forcing Mitsuha to come to face with the reality that she isn’t invisible, no matter how much she tries. They communicate by writing notes on their hands, on phones, or on paper. Thus goes on, the age old story. They’re bound to fall in love right? Maybe they finally decide to meet? A kiss, maybe? The end. Well, no more spoilers. You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s how the story ends. Shinkai lives to subvert our expectations.
You can’t talk about Kimi no Na wa without talking about the music. Composed by Yojiro Noda, the lead vocalist for the Japanese rock band, Radwimps, the soundtrack is just as gorgeous as the artwork. Every note, every melody, feels so magical that it’s hard to fathom someone had to create that music out of nothingness. Shinkai told Noda to create a soundtrack “in a way that the music will supplement the dialogue or monologue of the characters.” And oh, supplement he did. Every scene is filled to the brim with musical genius. Every song composed feels so natural, you forget yourself for a moment. All you think is you’re a part of the world Shinkai created. To say the soundtrack had a role in the movie’s overall success would be an understatement.
Zenzenzense (past past past life), an upbeat rock ballad, plays perfectly to the scene where Taki and Mitsuha switch bodies. The tempo underlines the fast and confusing nature of the body switches, while managing to be the perfect upbeat rock song to bop to. During the production, Radwimps didn’t have anything to go on, as the movie and the music were being made simultaneously. They kept creating and changing the music as the script itself changed in edits and post edits. The final version created, is regarded as Radwimps, and contemporary Japanese ani-songs, greatest work.
The most important thing that works for Kimi no Na wa is how it tells the story of ordinary people. We all know a Mitsuha or a Taki. Or maybe we are one. We all dream of love story to last ages, a love story of epic proportions. But how far are we actually willing to go for love. And, to quote a future Radwimps song, Is There Still Anything That Love Can Do? The answer, is what we keep looking for. For people who have never watched an anime, they might already have an opinion. Anime is quite saturated in out lives by now. But to truly enjoy Kimi no Na wa is to let go of all the preconceived notions, is to let go of all thoughts and inhibitions, and watch it like a regular movie. Albeit with some subtitles. There is English audio available, which is quite good. But I’d always prefer Japanese audio with subtitles. Maybe as a tribute to the millions of people who poured their heart and soul into this movie. Maybe because something is always lost in translation. Or maybe because I’m just biased in the whole sub/dub debate. My only regret is that I dismissed the movie when I first heard about it, in 2016. I was a different person back then and maybe if I had watched it back then, I’d might have turned out quite different than I am now. But I can’t change that. I’m not Taki.
[Author’s note: I know this isn’t what I usually write. But I’ve been experimenting and I thought I’d try this for a while. Diversification and all. I’m in no way, a movie expert. All the views expressed are my personal ones. But I really loved this movie. It was suggested to me by a close friend and this was my introduction to Makoto Shinkai, and in a broader sense, to anime. I’ll forever have a special place in my heart for this movie and I hope it means a fraction of what it means to me]
Stories are meant to be told 