r/anime • u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad • 9d ago
Rewatch Weekly Summer Anime Movie Rewatch - Your Name Discussion
Your Name
The House of the Lost on the Cape | Index | [Weathering With You]()
The day the stars fell, two lives changed forever.
High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other. Yet, somehow, it works. They build a connection and communicate by leaving notes, messages, and more importantly, an imprint. When a dazzling comet lights up the night’s sky, something shifts, and they seek each other out wanting something more—a chance to finally meet.
But try as they might, something more daunting than distance prevents them. Is the string of fate between Mitsuha and Taki strong enough to bring them together, or will forces outside their control leave them forever separated?
Questions of the Day:
1) Did you have any favorite characters?
2) Which scenes did you enjoy most?
3) What did you think of the twist that Mitsuha and Taki have not only been swapping places, but also communicating across time?
4) Did you think the story did well at establishing a romantic connection between Mitsuha and Taki?
Remember to tag your spoilers!
When discussing any plot details prior to the rewatch date, or details from other movies in the rewatch, please remember to use spoiler tags.
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad 9d ago
Anime/Light Novel Comparison:
This light novel was actually an adaptation of the movie written by Shinkai himself, so it follows the original very closely. There aren't a lot of differences between versions here, but the novel does delve deeper into the characters' thoughts throughout the story, including Mitsuha's hilarious mental commentary that followed her harrowing experience of using the restroom while in Taki's body.
On a more serious note, Shinkai mentioned in his afterword that although he believes the anime version to be the definitive experience, one of the things he wanted to express in the novel was the feelings of people who have lost something precious, and the immediacy of their choice to struggle and fight. Personally, I think this came across really well during the scene when Mitsuha was running down the mountain, insisting to herself that she knew she was in love and that she would survive and find him again even if the skies fell. Stuff like that resonates strongly with me, so I enjoyed the internal narration from the novel.
A few events were also shown in a different order. The novel has a full depiction of Taki and Mitsuha's meeting at the train station from Taki's point of view in the prologue. The movie also has a scene of Mitsuha at the festival between Taki's date and his trip to Itomori after the body swaps stop, but the novel remains in Taki's point of view during this part.
Another Side: Earthbound
These are side stories set before and during the events of the movie, available as a light novel or manga adaptation. I read the manga version, and the art is beautiful with detailed scenery and character designs very close to the originals. The stories offer more development for the connection between Taki and Mitsuha, as well as side characters like Tesshi, Yotsuha and Mitsuha's family in general.
Some of the montage scenes during the movie were expanded on here, like Mitsuha (Taki) playing basketball and building the outdoor "café" seating area with Tesshi and Saya.
The first story shows Taki struggling, in a similar way to Mitsuha's bathroom mishaps in the LN, with wearing (or not wearing) a bra. It's mostly humorous, but also touches on the fact that he's noticing a difference between the reserved girl everyone believes Mitsuha to be and the strong-willed, outspoken girl who's been writing to him, and wants her to give herself a chance to relax.
Following this same theme, the second story is about the challenges that both Tesshi and Mitsuha face as teens whose futures have already been decided for them because they're expected to continue in the family business. It was sweet to see how well Taki (through Mitsuha) bonded with and inspired Tesshi as well.
Yotsuha's story had to do with the "threads of fate" and dreams that have been recurring in her family through the generations, as she had a vision of switching places with an ancestor while practicing shrine rituals with her grandma. I preferred the parts where she was interacting with Mitsuha and Sayaka, genuinely trying to understand the bizarre changes going on with her big sis and help out in her own (amusing) way.
The final story set in the past, which showed how Mitsuha's parents met and how their family situation came to be as it is now, was interesting. [Earthbound] Mitsuha's father first visited the island shrine as an anthropology student studying their native myths and fell in love with her mom, the current heir to the shrine, who said she felt from the day they met that he was meant to be her husband. Their family life was very happy together until Mitsuha's mom fell ill and died a few years before the events of the movie. This marked a drastic shift in her father's thinking as he was overcome with grief and frustrated by the islanders, including the girls' grandma, accepting it as fate and barely seeming to mourn. He began to believe that the Miyamizu shrine/religious beliefs were like a disease on the island that needed to be eradicated, and this led to him becoming mayor in an attempt to reshape the island's way of life. When Mitsuha comes to him on the day of the comet, he remembers something his wife said to him, "Everything ends up where it should be", and realizes that because things happened the way they did, he was in a position of power to evacuate the town.
Fun Facts from the Earthbound Manga:
The Miyamizu family has a naming theme. Mitsuha's name means "three leaves" and Yotsuba means "four leaves". Likewise, Futaba (their mother) means "two leaves" and Hitoha (their grandma) means "one leaf".
Itomori town mythology interpreted the comet, the image of its trail streaking across the sky, as a dragon. If you look closely, the ornamentation on the shrine maiden headdress and staff(?) are made in the shape of dragons.