When I was in middle school and high school, I was the boy that sat in the back corner of the classroom and observed everyone. I liked and hated everyone almost equally. Sure, I had a few crushes, but I didn't talk much and just dismissed them as a fantasy. A waste of my time. So when I watched 5 Centimeters per Second, it pissed me off. I hated the characters. I hated the story. I hated the lack of fluidity. When I read that the director, for what I then thought was a piece of trash, was named Makato Shinkai, I made it a point to never watch anything by him.
Then I saw Garden of Words.
As much as I hated 5 Centimeters per Second, I still acknowledged the insane attention to detail in the animation. Garden of Words was no exception, but the story completely caught me off guard. I wondered if such a work was by the same director. It was only later that I understood, and appreciated, the intention to the emotional ambiguity that is so prevalent in his early works. For those of you who watched Garden of Words, you will know that there is an emotional stance that is made. I think that was the scene where Makato Shinkai truly found his rhythm.
Kimi no na Wa (Your Name) is a story that shouldn’t be relatable. Yet, it resounds deeply in all of us. It shouldn't make sense, yet the scene placements couldn't have been clearer. The characters should be despised, yet I find myself fascinated by them. When I finished watching, I just sat there dumbfounded. Needless to say, it was beautiful. Not a lot of movies or anime do that to me. In fact, the feelings I had were very similar to what I felt when I watched Spirited Away for the first time 10 years ago.
Makato Shinkai was very deliberate in what scene he placed where in the story. Every dialogue, every frame, every detail has a meaning. There was not a single second that can be deleted from this movie without losing the meaning. EVERYTHING is calculated flawlessly. This reminds me of the scene in Bakuman when Shujin and Saiko decide to switch gears and do mainstream manga instead of cult manga. Mattorai said something very interesting, mangakas can make manga in two ways: at random - coming straight from the pen to paper in order to keep everything fresh and unpredictable, or calculated to such a high degree that every plot line seems to be unpredictable when it really isn't. As you can imagine, being calculated is unprecedentedly difficult, leaving a majority of the famous mangakas to write randomly without too much thought. If such is truly the case, then there is no way that Kimi no na Wa could be written without thinking it through and through - which leads to question how much of a genius Makato Shinkai truly is.
It's been roughly 500 words and I haven't analyzed a single element of the movie yet, and in truth, I don't think I will. This movie is rare… unimaginably rare. Nothing like it will ever exist. I don't see any justice in reviewing something like that so early. There shouldn't be a debate on whether you should watch this movie or not. History will undoubtedly look at this as a classic.
It's pretty apparent that I gave this review, if you can call it that, to much of a biased praise. I can write an analysis on the symbolism, the plot structure, the character duality, and so on and so forth, but I don't see the point in it. Giving such a winded explanation isn't proper at this time. 20 years from now, when people criticize future anime, they will most definitely quote scenes from this movie. An analysis to this movie will come, and without a second thought by some. But, I think that, for now, watching and appreciating is the best we can do.
