Ah, anime. I am by no means an expert on the medium but if there’s one thing to come from it that I think is worth celebrating, it’s the 2016 masterpiece, Your Name.
Your Name. is one of the greatest movies of all time. You can fight me on that. It’s a beautiful, immersive, emotional animated movie. (I should probably get around to reviewing it, huh? But how does one put into words such love for a film!) Weathering With You is director Makoto Shinkai’s follow-up. BUT IS IT AS GOOD?
Nah. But it’s still worth watching! Weathering With You follows a young boy who runs away from his small-town home to lose himself, and find himself, in the vastness of Tokyo. There, amidst constant rain, he meets a girl who can make the sun shine.
The visually stunning animation is on par with what was offered up in Your Name. Tokyo is constantly battered by rain, which is of course delightful to watch splatter across the screen. It creates a cosy & warm atmosphere as the characters journey around the city. This film acts as a love-letter to Tokyo, in all its many layers — it is quite literal in its portrayal of darkness and light (storms/sunshine). There is a visceral sense of place and I’ve never wanted to visit Tokyo more.
This movie is very much a romance. Where Your Name. had the two main characters rarely interact face-to-face, Weathering With You has a more typical approach, with the two spending time together and developing a relationship over the course of the film. It’s sweet, if a little bit plain.
The romance builds nicely, but the big emotional scenes don’t hit as hard as they should. There are a few too many sub-plots going on with side characters, and while none of them are poorly done, they don’t flow together well. Each leave a bit more to be desired. I hate to only compare this film to Your Name., but it can’t be helped — the twilight scene where the two characters come together in Your Name. is FAR superior to anything Weathering With You offers. While both are beautifully animated, nothing in the latter resonates so emotionally. I wanted to linger on those character moments.
Weathering With You isn’t afraid to go a little dark, too. There are some surprisingly tense plot points and chase scenes that really keep the film engaging.
The fantasy element of Weathering With You is vague when it comes to, uh, how the heck it actually works. But within the context of the story — which in the end is quite simple — it tells the audience just enough. Maybe a liiiiiittle more would have been nice, though. Through its weather-focused story the film also provides some commentary on climate change.
Japanese band RADWIMPS returns for the soundtrack of Weathering With You, and just as in Your Name., they do a lot of the heavy lifting. The music is striking and memorable. Together with the animation, it makes this film an inspiring piece of art.
Honestly my biggest gripe with the movie is the weird product placement for McDonald’s, of all things. NEVER HAS A BIG MAC LOOKED SO TASTY. Lies!
Overall, I absolutely recommend Weathering With You. (If you haven’t yet seen Your Name. please fix this issue immediately.) I rate Weathering With You a suspiciously-delicious Big Mac out of 10.
Watch the trailer:
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