This supernatural anime movie (Also known as Kimi no Na wa. or 君の名は。) by CoMix Wave Films and Toho is a romance, thriller and drama that is written and directed by Makoto Shinkai with a novel of the same name and author being released prior to the movie. The anime movie features two teenage students - Mitsuha Miyamizu is a school girl who lives in a remote Japanese town of Itomori and Taki Tachibana is a school boy who lives in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo. Despite the large distance and disparity between the two protagonists, a series of supernatural occurrences would bring them together and get to know each other.
Movie promotion poster (above) at movie's Wikipedia article, MyAnimeList and many websites
Picture at movie's official webpage
Movie trailer with English subtitles on YouTube by All the Anime
The movie begins by showing Mitsuha's life where hardly anything goes on in her life. Besides attending school, she learns to weave under her grandmother and to participate in making alcohol as a shrine maiden. Frustrated with her lot in life, she utters a wish loudly to become a handsome boy in a big city in her next life.
Mitsuha awakens the next day to find herself in the body of Taki Tachibana, a school boy who also works part-time at a restaurant, while Taki has ended up in Mitsuha's body in Itomori. As they leave behind messages for each other on Mitsuha's notebook and Taki's mobile phone where they would change places with each other's body at random intervals, Mitsuha and Taki help each other improve to become a better person and be more successful in life. This interaction eventually leads to them having feelings for each other. At the same time, a comet Tiamat, which is expected to pass through Mitsuha's town as an unusual phenomenon that occurs once every 1200 years will change everything in their lives.
The artwork used throughout in the background scenes and animation are top-notch with many breathtaking scenes. From the mountains around Itomori, the town of Itomori at night during a festival, the modern and bustling streets of Tokyo with its large and extensive train network and the arrival of the comet. Following the events after the comet passes through Itomori, the animated scenes featuring Mitsuha racing against time to save the people in her town, and Taki seeing the people he knew move on with their lives right to the ending, all these help to bring out and highlight the quality of such an anime production.
The plot starts out slow initially as the movie attempts to introduce the characters and settings in the movie. From the cover synopsis and initial parts of the movie, it appears as if it is a simple supernatural and romance movie involving two unrelated school students from distant locations swapping bodies with each other. The story will have a surprising and dramatic plot twist which will lead to a few more major plot twists to make this movie stand out as a supernatural drama with its share of thriller and romance. All these add to the excitement of the movie which will keep viewers watching the movie all the way to the ending with top-notch scriptwriting.
With a large variety of accompanying background music and Japanese songs being played throughout this movie by Radwimps which have also been attributed to the movie's commercial success, all serving to create a masterpiece of an anime movie by making it special and highly memorable. The movie has been nominated for and won many accolades, receiving praises from many movie reviews worldwide and is a major blockbuster movie where it topped the box office in Japan for up to 12 non-consecutive weekends according to the movie's Wikipedia article.
Full soundtrack list on YouTube by OhmRSP
As such, this movie that is approximately 107 minutes in duration and suitable for teenage audiences and above is highly recommended as an anime movie to watch at least once. Whether you are someone who has watched many anime series and movies on a frequent basis, or someone who has only watched the occasional anime production and have found yourself curious as to why an anime movie can become such a major success at the box office and receive acclaim worldwide, this is a must watch and worth picking up a DVD or Blu-Ray copy of this movie.
