Tenki no Ko

Despite the overwhelming reviews saying that this is a masterpiece, nobody I personally know actually enjoyed this film... We were all disappointed. That's what this movie is major disappointment.

Let's start with the strongest points
Art and Sound - Goes without saying it's amazing, the soundtrack in particular is very catchy and fits well. The art is good but I would say Your Name had better art, in this movie things may look wonky sometimes.

Characters - Here's where everything about this movie fall apart, the main character is just unlikable and static. It was nice to see him change in the climax but he almost immediately ... reverted. His reasons for motivation are left empty so it's very hard to sympathetise with him. As for the female lead I can't think of anything interesting to describe her. She's just like that. The best characters are from the supporting cast but even then they can be quite inconsistent at times so I don't know if I really like them.

While I'm at this, the romance is bad. I can see what the writers were going for but it just doesn't work. I do not see why male lead loves female lead so much in particular. There's nothing special in their dynamic and I think the female lead's younger brother probably cares about her more than male lead.

Story - The premises is alright but the pacing and how exposition is given is well, bad. Scenes are badly stitched together and you're left thinking "Wait is this the same movie?" There's entire plot about WHOA GUN but that doesn't go anywhere.

Overall there isn't anything special with this movie, it's hard to sympathetise with the characters. It's ambitious but with no payoff. Scenes are disjointed.

//Here's some spoiler nitpicks:
-Main protagonists never tell each other "I love you"
-Male protagonist seems to love rain in opening scene but then that's dropped.
-Male protagonist supposed to love female protagonist so much but then still get flustered as he think some other random is going to confess to him.
-Male protagonist acts as if going home is hell but then spends another 3 years at home just fine.
-Flood Tokyo for cardboard cutout girl.
-Borger scene for no reason.
-Gun for no reason.
-Female protagonist runs out of mum's hospital room for God knows what reason it's never said. I know it's said so she can pray but why that particular spot why without umbrella.
-Everything happens because movie

This is Shinkai’s worst film yet. He had a mixed record in the past, from the quality entertainment of Your Name to the embarrassing Studio Ghibli “homage” Children who Chase Lost Voices. But Weathering with You somehow sets the bar even lower. Its unoriginality is pathetic and its self-indulgence repulsive.

No emotion is real, nothing is there to think about, everything is a glossy facade of high resolution backgrounds and J-Pop to pull you into this man’s fantasy land of childish romance, where every bad thing is always resolved and no uncomfortable question ever asked. How can Shinkai write the same weepy love story so ... many times? How can he pretend this grandness, and yet I feel nothing?

People accuse Shinkai of being style over substance, but he is less than that, he is production value over style and substance. His photo-realistic backgrounds may be difficult to produce on a technical level, but so what? This is yet another sterile portrayal of Tokyo, lacking any atmosphere or grit. Compare this to some of the all time great animes, Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor 2, and their breathtaking rendering of the mega-city. It’s not even close. There is no artistry to be found, and no real style to speak of, just money and raw technical skill, a technocrat’s dream.
As is tradition, Shinkai’s use of music is incessant and terrible, every opportunity to cram in another J-Pop song is shamelessly taken, no moment is allowed to speak for itself, no emotion allowed to be felt on its own.

There is nothing of substance, but this is very much by design for the people this appeals to. The only interesting question posed at the end of the film gets resolved in one of the most laughable and dishonest ways I have ever seen, all in service of this film’s real function, a warm blanket of cheap pathos. Forget the real world, and forget that it’s going to hell, here is a cute anime girl that loves an insecure teenager just like you. And this whole climate change thing is not gonna be so bad after all, it’s just the way of nature bro.
I have no problem with escapism, I mean what else can you really do, but escapism into a world that is so obviously made to pander is impossible. It is a world of plastic. Even the tears of the characters are fake and over the top, big and bubbly, not the thin streaks of reality.

It’s incredible how this movie fails completely at its goal. It wants to cause the big emotions, all of Shinkai’s movies want that, but it just doesn’t. It’s bland, the characters are bland, the love story is bland, the directing is bland, so the solution is to bombard the film more viciously than Yemen with 4k backgrounds, lense flares, tracking shots, grand statements and characters crying and running determined to their goal.

It is striking how uninspired it all feels. It is seriously beat for beat the same story and tropes as Your Name, just with a different fantasy element( and much worse). Shinkai cannot help himself, it has to be a romance between a teenage boy, possibly a self insert, and a strong but perfect looking cute girl. Sometimes it may end in sadness, and sometimes happy, but it is the same story every fucking movie. I thought that was kind of endearing at first, but I’m sick of it, the kind of sickness you get after eating too much cheap candy.
Directors like Miyazaki may have universal themes that reappear in all of their works, but Princess Mononoke certainly has a very different story from The Wind Rises. This here is just an amalgamation of hypercharged Shinkaiisms. Whole scenes in this film feel like stock “Anime great emotion” set pieces, the entire final sequence of the characters falling through the sky has been done uncountable times.

There is an attempt to link the plot to Shinto religion to have some pretension of depth, but nothing in this film feels even remotely spiritual, just a bunch of platitudes about nature working in mysterious ways. Seriously, never compare this dude to Miyazaki again. The movie also has tonal issues, there is a stupid subplot about a gun and criminals for no reason expect that Shinkai really still is a teenage boy in his heart.

One of the most embarrassing moments is the masturbatory Your Name cameo, where the main character from Your Name just shows up as if we all know him. There was absolutely no point to it, except that Your Name was a mega hit.
There is also a shameless amount of product placement, including a scene that might as well have been a McDonald's commercial. Every character uses a MacBook and the film makes damn sure that you know it, and social networks like Twitter also make an appearance. It’s honestly depressing that a movie that advertises some of the world’s largest cooperations then tries to tell you some absolute bullshit dressed up in Shinto aesthetic about nature just doing its thing. Capitalism coopts everything I guess.

There was one running gag about the main girl’s boobs in Your Name, which was admittedly funny and at least had a purpose in the story. Here, the pervy humor is back with a vengeance, and more overt and tasteless. The jokes are of incredible versatility, for example, the main character looks at a girl's breasts, and she says, “Are you looking at my breasts??” Or, in another example, the main character looks at an underaged girl's breasts, and she says, “Are you looking at my breasts??” These are truly new heights of comedy, never explored in Anime before.
I saw this in a cinema filled mostly with much bigger weebs than myself who genuinely laugh at this stuff, but I sat next to a Japanese mother with her two little kids. I guess she had mistakenly thought that a movie with an extremely childish story must also be for children. That stuff is just weird, and I don’t really get why it’s there, except that Shinkai is very horny on main.

There was also a stupid pet cat which is only there for kawaiiness, and the cinema erupted into laughter and “awws” whenever it was on screen, at that point I really wanted to sink deep into the cushions of my seat.
This is a movie made by an algorithm to maximize cuteness and “the Feels”, its only contribution to the world is to provide more background footage for lofi hip hop compilation videos. Truly a product of late capitalism.

Shinkai's worst movie. I haven't seen them all, but I'm calling it anyway. Not a single aspect of his style works with this.

Shinkai's fantastical externalization of the internal here slips into total solipsism; emotions are of such paramount importance that they are worth destroying a city and likely killing untold thousands over. That is, unless those people are part of one's found family, apparently the one class of humans deemed worthy of salvation from an apocalypse which is, as with everything, made as clean and naturalistic as possible; all its serious real-world issues sterilized and made into inoffensively beautiful wallpaper. It's genuinely misanthropic, and, even ... worse, seems to have no idea that's what it is!

This is such a staggering misfire that I seriously wonder if Shinkai made this as an act of deliberate self-sabotage meant to destroy his own career, because I don't think it's possible to make a more scathing parody of the Shinkai style than this.

Tenki no Ko or Weathering with You. A movie I was overhyped too much. A type of movie/anime that put all the effort on animation and none on the story. I am so glad I didn't watch it on cinema and waited for an online link. At least I didn't waste any money.

The first problem I had with this movie is that the supernatural and romantic concept of it does not blend. In Kimi no Nawa (made by the same author) even though the time travel, body switch shenanigans does not really make sense at least it blends in with the romance. The "marker" ... scene still hit me. In Tenki no Ko. NOPE! The build up between Hodaka and Hina was so weak and rushed that every "romance" scene in the movie was pure cringe. Hina doesn't even look in loved with Hodaka and Hodaka's feelings feel so forced. The sunshine girl parts should be the build up to that romance but it feels so disconnected to it. We also had this "cop and robbers" parts which to me is just a distraction and just plain unnecessary. It just gives the movie identity crisis.

Second problem is Hodaka. He is probably one of the worst MCs ever. Damn. That scene is where he saved Hina from the "upper world" (idk really) because she sacrificed herself to prevent the heavy rains. Guess what Hodaka does. He basically says "I don't care about Tokyo, you are more than enough." If I were to ask you a question, what would you pick? Save Tokyo from nonstop heavy rains that could result to it being submerged underwater or save ONE girl. Most people who choose the greater good (Save Tokyo) but this movie is so poorly written that they would choose the latter. "Fuck you all, my bitch is what is important"- Hodaka 2019. His build up with Hina was so weak and rushed making this scene more eyerolling. Also his motivation for leaving his province, his family is.............to follow the sun. A cliche dream is way better than that shit. Bruh I am done.

Third problem is that lack of character development. The "character" that had the most development is the cat named Rain/Ame. Hodaka, Hina, and others didn't freaking develop making this cast one of the most forgettable ever.

All in all, Tenki no Ko is one of the worst anime movies of all time. It is more lifeless than Fireworks/Uchiage Hanabi. At least that movie had life during the first 30 minutes. This movie is just dead from the start.


Story: 1/10
Characters: 1/10
Enjoyment: 1/10

Production: They just wasted money on a poorly written shit/10

[Spoilers ahead]

The monumental success of Makoto Shinkai’s “Kimi no Na wa” is something that cannot be understated. It was a popcorn film that catapulted an already respected anime director to the superstar status often associated with the likes of Hayao Miyazaki. As such, all eyes were on him to make a follow-up to the 2016 juggernaut with another smash hit. As such, in 2019, Tenki no Ko hit theaters. It was not a particularly good movie, however, it is one that does show improvements over its predecessor despite some tremendous setbacks of its own.

At first glance, the visuals seem to be of similar quality to ... Kimi no Na wa. There are several shots of detailed landscapes and weather effects that look absolutely gorgeous. The almost photorealistic backgrounds have been stressed more than in Shinkai’s previous work. There are several well-animated cuts of characters running or of out of control nature wreaking havoc. The character designs also feel less plain than last time thanks to more casual wardrobe being worn instead of just school and work uniforms. However, looking more closely reveals some faults. I’ve never been a fan of the art style of Shinkai’s films, as they often felt bland and with awkward facial expressions. At times, the heads made it seem like a diet version of Dennou Coil’s art style. Even worse, the CGI in this film is far more rampant than last time. Ugly-looking vehicles, moving camera shots, and overhead shots of 3D buildings and people are a constant eyesore in an otherwise well-animated movie. The presentation of scenes can also feel a bit cheesy and heavyhanded, like when a character realizes he’s crying and we see streams of tears gushing one by one, or when sunshine cascades over windows and objects during a musical montage like in an anime OP.

Another aspect that’s worse than last time is the music. The actual background OST is fine, particularly the parts where a piece distorts itself whenever something strange happens in the movie. There aren’t any particularly memorable pieces, but that isn’t the problem here. The insert songs are the real issue, as we have several bland and overproduced “happy” and “emotional” songs by RADWIMPS and other artists. Every montage has to have one regardless of if it fits all that well, and every time the final act has a big emotional moment, one of these songs has to be there. The last 25 minutes have about 5 of these songs, including 2 EDs. They are all so overdone to the point where it either feels like they’re just trying too hard to force an emotion a scene or montage is meant to invoke, or like they’re emotionally manipulative. The insert songs in Kimi no Na wa weren’t very memorable either, but they never felt this overdone or like there were way too many of them. There is absolutely no restraint here whatsoever.

That said, a film is more than just its audiovisuals, and Tenki no Ko has some promising improvements. There are actual characters in this film instead of just bland teenagers and adults with up to 2 personality traits and no chemistry to speak of. The adult side characters have some actual life to them, particularly Natsumi and Keisuke Suga. The former is a peppy girl often down on her luck and ready to tease others while the former is a sassy alcoholic with a scoundrel side to him. They write articles on the supernatural and bounce off our main characters nicely. However, with one step forward comes a concussion-inducing fall back. While the characters do have a bit more life in them and chemistry between each other this time around, the character arcs in this film are miserable. Keisuke Suga’s arc of trying to get over his smoking habit in order to be with his daughter with asthma gets introduced before the concept of him smoking or trying to quit gets shown. The only time he struggles with it is when he sees a cat and decides “no, kitty, you’re right” before crumpling his cigarette. His arc is then resolved offscreen and halfway through the movie, he tells the main characters/the audience that he got custody over her and now hangs out with her regularly. He then smokes and drinks ⅔ into the movie, only for that to never come up again as he no longer needs to overcome anything. He’s already won offscreen.

The main characters have it even worse. Hina is a typical altruistic teenage girl, so she’s about as uninteresting as Kimi no Na wa’s main duo. Then, there’s Kodaka, who is absolutely abysmal. Everything he does in this movie is solely born out of a refusal to accept reality. Why does he run away from home and move into Tokyo? He felt suffocated in a stagnant environment, and moving out officially would most likely be out of the question. I say that because the idea was never brought up in the film itself. Why does he decide to flood the city of Tokyo for 3 years? He wants to be with his the girl he fell in love with as they were doing their rain-reversal gig together, consequences and the world be damned. He made his parents (who we never see) worried sick by disappearing for at least a month, never once considering the idea staying in contact with them or trying to move out in order to start a new life in a way that doesn’t involve ghosting his family. Even knowing the eventual fate of Sunshine girls such as Hina, he never once tells her the potential risk of overusing her rain-reversal powers. He has no reason to not consider that the legends he researched regarding her and those like her might be true given that he found out firsthand that she has those mythical powers. He has no reason not to at least warn her. He certainly has no reason to not see this coming, and then he gets all desperate and crestfallen once it comes true. He then decides to bring her back, knowing that she had to be sacrificed to the clouds to restore balance to the weather so that it didn’t rain for 3 years in a row, nonstop. Imagine the thousands of people were displaced from their homes, the millions who have to learn to adjust to a world where everything is flooded 24/7. Imagine all the industries that cannot operate in such inclimate weather, leaving thousands without a job, and hundreds forced have to play indoors or just not have a sports career for several years. The film already showed us and the main characters how flea markets couldn’t operate in the rain. So much for any air travel in Japan for the next 3 years without there being absurd delays at best. Oh but it’s ok since this outstandingly inconsiderate decision was Kodaka’s idea and Tokyo was originally Umi bay until humanity and nature eventually made it not that so maybe it’s ok for it to return to that form even though he never actually cared about any of that in the slightest. The idea of him needing to grow up and face reality is reduced to a mere suggestion instead of a character arc since clearly the adults who don’t 100% support his reckless endeavors are wrong. Clearly the irresponsible and inconsiderate brat with absolutely no life experience beyond getting beat up a few times is right. Gotta appeal to the teenagers frustrated with adults and the world around them somehow, even if such excessive romanticization and bias gets in the way of all logic. Maturity and sensibility are overrated, anyway.

It’s rather difficult not to blow up at all this, as it’s easily the most outrageous part of the film, actively ruining what was an otherwise decent, if somewhat contrived and dubiously presented movie. The final act even outside of the abysmal ending relies on contrivances for characters to meet up at the most opportune and inopportune of times and for Hodaka to get thrown into and thrust out of sticky situations. This isn’t mentioning plotholes like how Hina learned to summon lightning in order for it to strike down so she can get everyone away from the police in a sequence that could’ve been better if they had just outran them as Hodaka did before, or why she never uses it again. The film had a few decent characters and ideas going for it in the first hour. However, cuz this popcorn blockbuster absolutely must have a hectic climax and a happy ending, it had to throw everything down the drain for a morally bankrupt and deeply inconsiderate main character whose antics only ever get a slap on the wrist at worst. He’s almost always in the right for his awful decisions in a film that already struggled at writing character arcs. It’s a shame the final act had to wash away an initially acceptable movie, even if it is still better than Kimi no Na wa.

At least the characters held hands in this one, so it did somewhat address Tomino’s complaints on Shinkai not letting its characters have any physicality in their relationship whatsoever. Maybe next time they’ll actually kiss or something. Hopefully, the girl is actually older than the guy this time so he doesn’t feel cucked out of that specific fetish. We all know Shinkai puts his kinks into these movies while his characters are constantly cheated out of them...right?

Manufactured. If there’s one word I would use to describe Tenki no Ko, it’s manufactured. Nothing about this film seems genuine, from the generically designed, nigh-personalityless teen mc, to the overly perfect clearly too-good-for-him love interest, to the incessant use of bland J-pop and rock ballads, to the blatant product placement — I most certainly am not loving it. Everything about this is so by-the-numbers, so tedious, so insipid. This project reeks of focus-grouping and market-targeting, yet I honestly can’t tell if Shinkai’s doing this purposefully or is actually that much of a one-dimensional man-child. What’s more, I don’t know which one is a sadder ... thought.

Do we really need five (5!) insert songs throughout this John Greene-adjacent film — three of which were back-to-back-to-back in the last 25 minutes? Does the film really need to tell us, “HERE, DO YOU GET THE FEELS?? YOU SHOULD CONSIDER CRYING.” I imagine it works — otherwise they wouldn’t do it — but I found myself rolling my eyes for the first four inserts, and stifling laughter for the last one as it seemed to border on parody at that point. Can you possibly think of a more generic scene than the misunderstood, angsty teen running up the hill after spotting his almost gf, who then turns towards him, hood blown off by the wind, smiling, as the music swells and Yojiro Noda’s nasal vocals burst your eardrums? Everything is presented as so grandiose and self-aggrandizing, but it comes off as hollow and uninspired. I’d say it’s reminiscent of a high-schooler’s idea of the ideal film project, but that would be a disservice to films I’ve seen high-schoolers make. I felt more emotion when the two horse girls entered a dead-heat during a foot race in this fetish show I’m currently watching than in the entirety of Tenki no Ko. It’s simply soulless.

To even tackle this project as a genuine effort leads to disappointment. I won’t even bother with the fact that this movie is beat for beat Kimi no na Wa all over again (though Shinkai would tell you otherwise). While the message of society not always coming before the individual rings clear and is especially pertinent to the culture wherein the film was made, it’s handled so sloppily. Hodaka, who thus far had done nothing to endear us to him besides threaten people with guns due to a lack of impulse control, kills and dehouses millions of people for the sake of his UwU anime gf. But don’t worry, the anime granny will tell you that things are just going back to how they were before: Hodaka actually made the right choice, not just for himself, but for the Earth. Not to even mention the fact that Hina is only able to stop being a self-sacrificial lamb once she receives permission from the dude she met only months before.

As a minor aside, some of the character decisions simply did not make sense and were plot conveniences at best. The niece and uncle (y’know, the uncle who quit smoking and was trying to straighten out his life so he could get custody of his daughter) seemingly throw their lives away at the end of the movie for the sake of a teenage runaway they only kind of know. The uncle literally assaults a police officer, and gets a slap on the wrist.

Predictably, the only saving grace of this film was the visual presentation. Yes, the sweeping shots of Tokyo, the water-physics, the lens-flare and depth-of-field, it’s all very impressive (though I still contend that Shinkai peaked technically with Garden of Words). And I’ll admit, the cloud mesa was dope. But ultimately you’re just left with a very pretty but empty shell of a movie.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the big mac was probably the most organic part of this entire thing.

The movie Weathering with You is about Makoto Shinkai's pathetic fallac(y). As Gundum Creator Tomino put it when talking about Your Name, Shinkai write "Stories about a boy and a girl who are always stretching out their hands towards each other. And yet the boy's hand never reaches the girl's crotch". This movie was no different. The movie felt like a mess, with plot lines running in a spaghetti formation and non sequiturs galore. The characters seemed to just do what made a cool scene, with little internal congruency for their character. The character designs are poor. The protagonist is plain annoying, running away from ... home, making his parents worry about him seemingly because he was bored. Throughout the show I was waiting to hear the true reason, but that's never discussed. Apparently it's fine to just run away from home because you're bored. But that's just the message of the show - do what you want without regard for others. Be a selfish child and wallow in your existential despair. Not to mention the product placement. Oh god the product placement. The product placement was everywhere. The scene where he ate a Big Mac at a clearly signed McDonalds (as emphasised by Shinkai's direction) and says "Ahhh my favourite comfort food" or something thereabouts, reeks, REEKS, of the Americanisation of anime and of a moral decline in what's expected of anime. The one redeeming quality of the anime was a 20 second scene where you see a sky whale eat the protagonist. I can't stomach giving an anime where they go into the belly of a sky whale a 1...

Overall this anime was bad. The end.

Pretty terrible. The plot was so predictable and bland I was in shock. The animation is beautiful and realistic but doesn't have any charm. I would geniunely rather watch an entire season of Friends than force myself through another viewing of this. The music was okay, could be better but wasn't terrible. Characters were extremely uninteresting and boring. I enjoyed the interview at the end of the movie more than I enjoyed the movie. I felt like I was reading the first draft of an essay: bland and messy with no points that dug below the surface. I don't even know what to say about ... this movie other than it was just really bad besides for the animation.

I had great hopes going into this movie. I really enjoyed Your Name and the trailers seemed very promising. However, once I watched it, I was entirely disappointed. Characters are not endearing or make any logical sense in their decisions. Hodaka is entirely selfish to the point he's willing to flood an entire city for his pursuit of female interaction. The worst part is that he didn't even get to be with her for 3 years after the fact. He let an entire metropolitan city flood for 3 years for a crumb of female touch. The most egregious character decision was when Suga essentially sacrificed ... a chance at custody of his own child for a kid he met on the train a few days ago. Stories and characters were awful. My only point of enjoyment was the art and the OST for the movie.

This is just a disgrace to the what Shinkai Makoto has contributed to Anime. The story of this movie is really bad. How it builds up all over the place, poor story telling. The character development is also bad, how there was no background story about Hodaka what so ever leaving his home just make him look like a dumb childish teenager going around playing guns. With the guns it is even more stupid, how a little boy is able to run away from polices again and again with a gun and lastly never get punish for everything.

The main story of weather is also very ... stupid. How at the end the town was flooded for 3 years just because Hodaka told Hina that he prefer her to stay alive more than he wants to see the sun. That reason aloner made it is okay for the country to flood because 2 little kids want to see each other?

Overall just bad, besides showing off the great artwork the studio continue to develop year after year the story, character and just the whole movie was bad.

Makoto Shinkai seems desperate to recapture the broad, crowd-pleasing elements of Your Name, but bungles the execution on every front.

The "romance" at the film's center is weirdly inert. Our main character Hodaka is a hapless doofus and Hina, the love interest, is devoid of personality, less a believable person and more a walking plot device to be fawned over. Hodoka and Hina have so little romantic chemistry I assumed that the film wasn't seriously trying to pair them at all - woe is me for giving Weathering With You the benefit of the doubt.

It's a crippling problem in your YA adventure story when the young ... adults at its center are the least compelling members of the cast. Suga and Natsumi, the actual adults, are the most interesting characters, so of course they're mostly sidelined in service of the dumb plot at the film's center.

Also, it really sucks that the Your Name characters have cameos here, because this retroactively puts a huge damper on that film's ending. It also just underscores the contrast between how much I liked those characters and how little I cared for Hodoka and Hina and most of the supporting players.

My problem with Weathering With You's characters really speaks to the fundamental weakness of the script. Shinkai copies so many of the beats from Kimi No Na Wa's plot structure, but to greatly diminishing returns; Weathering With You is never as funny, never as moving, never as satisfying. The antagonistic police and child services here are so hopelessly incompetent that it defies belief. The weather angle is initially interesting, but the fantastical elements feel half-baked by the film's end. There's nothing inherently wrong with the core of the film's themes (despite all our advances, man is still subject to the whims of nature, and what matters most is forging friendship and love despite the adversity), but man is it delivered in the most hamhanded, tone-deaf, and outright batshit way possible. Avoiding specifics, by the film's end, our main character's selfish dimwittedness has crippled Japan's economy (assuming it is just limited to Japan) and doubtlessly killed people (potentially everyone!), all for "twoo wuv."

The conclusion is borderline experimental, which I'd normally give points for, but it feels more like the result of Shinkai's tone deafness than meaningful artistic vision, and most damningly of all, it's just plain unsatisfying. (It also comes across as a statement of abject apathy towards the effects of climate change, which is a hot take, to be sure, if not a very convincing one.)

But not to worry, not all of the problems lie with the script. Shinkai directs like he has the tinniest ear for music, interrupting every potentially dramatic moment with overblown pop songs, sometimes shuffling through multiple songs in mere minutes. There are way, way too many flashbacks and montages and flashback montages, to the point where it makes you wonder if Shinkai is a Youtube AMV editor at heart stuck making million dollar movies.

It's not that Shinkai doesn't have a talent for pretty animation and backgrounds, because you get that here in spades, but it's all in service to a hollow story. I've never been the biggest Shinkai fan, but this is a real lowpoint - and a perfect counterargument to anyone who suggested he could be "the next Miyazaki" with a straight face.

Before the college exams last month, I managed to watch this anime film after so many months of waiting for it to be shown online. I really was looking forward to it but instead, made me so disappointed with this anime because it didn't prove to me that it had an indept story like "Your Name". Yeah we know it's about a girl who changes the weather and a 16 year old lad ran away from home to live in Tokyo. That was pretty much it with not giving the origins as to why they dealt with these situations beforehand. Such a shame since ... the characters were interesting enough to be likeable...

The animation was absolutely gorgeous like I don't understand why they didn't add a good story to the film like seriously?!?! Its pretty much an opportunity for degrading a movie that should've had the potential to be enjoyable!

The show is a complete mess without any pathing or story at all, the only thing
good about it is the drawing of character in the main/front view.

It really tries to make you feel sad for the characters but the issue is that they overdo it.

Every single "pretended" to be sad scene is so badly done that it's you'll most of the time just laugh
about the poor story writing/execution and the wrong choice of music.

It is like watching a B or C movie which didn't intend to be funny but is because of how badly it is done.

It is just a random montage of scenes without ... any charbuilding.

They even try to fit in something for anti and pro clima change ppl at the same time. x)

The actual art is also suffering a lot if you look at the background.
There are many characters which are drawn so badly when they're not in the focus.

Normally that wouldn't be an issue but for an anime which has no other redeeming factor this is a huge hit.

Ok, so, I've just come back from the theater where I went reluctantly. Though Makoto Shinkai is one of my favourite film director, I had a bad feeling about this one. I thought I was going to be disappointed, but this is even beyond disappointment.

Some forums on MAL raise the question of the enjoyment of an anime who has lacks in its story and in its characters when the art and sound is great. I've always thought an anime couldn't be "saved" if the lacks in the story and in the characters were too important. Well, this movie is the perfect example of an anime ... that can't be "saved" merely with the art and sound.


Story : 2

Take a look at the synopsis, it's eloquent enough : "it is common knowledge that power always comes with a hefty price...".
The premises of the story are not that bad, but the structure of the movie is too common and everything is so predictable... There's not even a tiny suspense...
What's more, the vision of the world showed in this movie is so naive, it often confines to the ridicule.
The romance is more or less credible, I guess... Well, if you strip away that it's very predictable from the start, of course...
Finally, I've never seen a film with that much coincidences. It's usual in fiction and we don't always notice it ; but here ? It's a sequence of coincidences (secondary characters always being at the right place at the right time to help the main character, and that only for the sake of the story which couldn't advance otherwise...). It's quite pitiful and it shows that the story is particularly weak.

Art : 9

The art is excellent. It's the level of Kimi no Na wa. and sometimes even up to Kotonoha no Niwa. The heavy rain feels really realistic. The cityscapes are a neat work as usual in Makoto Shinkai's works, and are maybe even more appealing than usual. If Hayao Miyazaki is the master of natural landscapes, Makoto Shinkai is undoubtedly the master of the cityscapes.
Nevertheless, there is no originality, which is why I don't give the art a 10.

Sound : 8

The combo Makoto Shinkai / Radwimps strikes again for a very good result.
Nonetheless, if the main theme, Grand Escape is a lovable piece of music, the other tracks seem to be quite forgettable.

Character : 2

The characters are plain. So plain it's boring. And this goes with the story, but their actions are so predictable, it's really annoying.

Enjoyment : 2

To put it in a nutshell, as I said before, the lacks in the story and in the characters are too important here to make it an enjoyable show.

Overall : 4

Even if this film cannot be "saved" solely with the art and sound, it prevents it from being a total failure.

When I first saw the trailer, I was so hyped. The art looked outstanding, the soundtrack was a blessing to the ears, and the story seemed promising.

Needless to say, I was super disappointed when I finally watched the whole movie.

Story (3)- Much like what others in this review section had to say, the story so full of holes and all I can remember is montage after montage of sunshine girl Hina and idiot kid whose name I don't even remember. I understand that this is a movie and there's not much room to dig into each character's backstory, but all of them seemed ... very 2D and flat. Idiot kid runs away from home for god knows what reason; sunshine girl became, well, sunshine girl because god knows whatever the hell reason. They could've given at least some screen time to explain each character's situation, but instead they spend it on useless (but incredibly gorgeous) montages.

Art (10)- Well of course it's going to be beautiful coming from the studio that made Your Name.

Sound (9)- Anything from Radwimps is honestly breathtaking, heck I listened to the OSTs on repeat before even watching the film.

Character (2)- I hated, and I mean H A T E D, the male lead. Why did he pick up a gun for no apparent reason? Who knows. Why did he choose a single girl, whom he's only known for a few weeks, over the millions that reside in Tokyo and their homes?? Who knows. Sunshine Hina is flat, we don't really see her making any decisions for herself. Maybe she wanted to stay up there in the clouds, but idiot male lead drags her back to earth anyway. She kind of seems like she was made to be a set with the male lead because she has no personality as far as I'm concerned.

Enjoyment (4)- The visuals are stunning and I guess I really enjoyed the animation. And I enjoyed ranting to a friend about the film and how much it sucks.

Overall (4)- Yeah, it's a pretty film with a plot that somewhat works if you don't think about it. Too bad I like to scrutinize things. The art and soundtrack really boosted the score in my opinion, but not enough to save the film entirely.

Yeah, no. I don't recommend anyone to watch the film. It sucks. Or maybe watch it if you're into frustrating characters and just blanks for your imagination to fill. OH- I get it, this film is aimed towards fanfiction writers so they can make up the story themselves. Because this sure as hell doesn't not relate to me, a "coming-of-age" teen. Please, don't make anymore films trying to ride the coattails of Your Name's success.

Just watched this for the animations, but I can tell a bit about the story too:

The Animations are great, didn't expect anything else from
CoMix Wave, since they did a great job on Kimi No Na Wa / Your Name. However, those animations kinda felt pointless.
I was kind of disappointed when I finished watching the movie, I didn't understand the meaning behing the movie, maybe I'm just too dumb for that.
A few friends recommended this movie, so I watched it with my aunt, and we both were kind of bored after we finished. It's more like I watched it for the achievment ... (and pointless animations) more than the actual story or of the characters.
The characters were mainstream. Like, really, you see these kind of characters in almost every movie you come across. It's like the standard, why do it again?

I don't want to indule in this on too much, but: You can clearly tell, they tried to gain another success like Kimi No Na Wa, which, also clearly, didn't happen.
But that was obvious from the beginning.

As I already mentionend that a few friends of mine recommended this, and I see why, I do. I just don't share their enthusiasm because the're way better ones out there.
This review is kinda pointless, I just wanted to brag :D

Everyone say that Tenki no Ko get the good score because it have the same recipe from Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece, Kimi no Nawa.
But, I think there is a big different between Kimi no Nawa and Tenki no Ko.

In Kimi no Nawa the character save the love one while save the city,
but in Tenki no Ko he save the love one but destroy the fkin city.
then.. the story, character and enjoyment is NOPE!

and there is fanservice for Kimi no nawa worshipper (taki and mitsuha appearing in this movie) Its fkin disgusting.

ffs. What is this? Is this a slave of love the movie? not romantic at ... all. The only good thing is the magnificent art. But the sound sometime not fit, and its bother me so much.

Haah, If the ending was sad like Makoto Shinkai previous movie, I thought it will be better score, but.. yea... dont watch ths fkin movie.

Overall it was just a bland and ordinary movie. The plot felt non-existent and only kicked in about halfway through the series, besides some references. Once the plot started churning it felt random and all off pace. Especially the music compilation that it showed at the most random time which i feel didn't even match the tone of the movie, plus it went on for too long.

I felt the main plot was forced and ended in a cliche manner. It would have been better without it altogether. She was dedicated to saving the world but then at the end the mc says "it doesn't ... matter, let the world be destroyed" in which she responds "ok..."

The animation was decent, nothing special. The characters are all overused dull versions of others that are all around, they have no real depth to them. I did not enjoy them.

Without the weather premises for the story that they totally bombed, this probably would have passed as 5/10 but instead the end product is this. Just another romance movie milking the genre with "nice" animation and wholesome interactions. Not worth watching IMO.

I had high expectations coming into this movie and came out of the movie theatre needing to wash my brain and cleanse it with a better anime. Here are a list of reasons why:

Characters:

Male MC - does not go into detail why he ran away from home, if there was a good reason, then it would be easier to sympathize. I know that they're trying for the whole, "it doesn't matter why he ran away, we just need to know why he ran away", which did nothing for his character development. All I see him is a self-insert character who hates adults for no reason ... (well that's they don't really tell us why). Tries to run away from the police and gets other adults fighting for the police for him, for a "maybe she's there" moment

Female MC - most relatable but doesn't really have that much of a character

Younger brother - most interesting character in the whole movie

Adult MC w/ custody issues - being influenced by selfish male MC after having a gun pointed at him, then being influenced to willing assault the police and lose daughter for said MC who POINTED A GUN AT HIM

Gun - literally the most mysterious character in all of animation history (WHY IS IT HERE?)

The movie itself animation and sound was incredible, but the super lacklustre and characters pulled me away from the movie too much. They make it seem that running away from the police is something only the youth can do and get away with no consequences because they are orphans. Maybe I am just too old to be watching a bunch of 15/16 year old pretend that they are adults.

Weathering With You's strong points come from it's amazing animation and soundtrack; both being extremely captivating and one of the best out there, some of the CGI work was a bit iffy with me but overally very pleasing to look at. But the beautiful scenery and music does not hide the fact that the plot seemed very rushed and all over the place, leaving me confused at times.

Hina and Hodaka are the average everyday main characters and, in my opinion, did not leave a big impression on me and were easily outshone by the side characters which is kinda understandable because of their lifestyle. Nagi ... added more personality to the trio and I'm very glad he was added so we could see much more of him and wasn't pushed to the side like Natsumi. I also personally really loved Keisuke's character the most; very caring for everyone but recognises his faults even if it's not straight away.

I feel as if the whole movie had a lot of potential to be more than what it is right now but mainly focused on making the animation as pleasing and beautiful as possible after the huge success of Your Name which lead them to focus less on the plot.

However I did enjoy some scenes which showed the hints of character in Hodaka; I wish that it was utilised more, it would have made him a much enjoyable character. But we can't always get what we want!

TL;DR: the animation and music are very top tier which I expect from Shinkai. However, story wise, felt like a very very watered down combination of his previous works. The side characters were much more memorable than the main.

Would I recommend this movie? Meh, it's great to look and listen to but easy to divert your attention from due to the poor writing. I would say to give it a try but don't go in expecting anything special; I do advise to go and listen to the soundtrack though, the best thing to come out of such a disappointing piece of work.