With that out of the way, assuming that since you're still reading, I assume you've already seen the movie or don't mind being spoiled. Either way, I just wanted to let you know the reason why I'm writing a review filled with spoilers. Basically, Kimi no Na wa isn't a movie where the quality remains consistent from start to finish. It starts off pretty good but ends bad. To completely justify why I rate it the way I do, I need to analyze the entire movie. So, with that out of the way, I'll now begin.
There comes a point where anime becomes so highly praised among the anime community to the point where it becomes unavoidable, though this isn't ALWAYS in a good way. Sometimes, things are popular just because they fit a specific audience that enjoys the things present within the series, despite potentially bad writing (SAO is a good example for that). That's really how it is with just about any "shut your brain off and watch the fights" action series... people care more about what's seen and less about the substance, thus poor writing is excused because everything looks cool.
I've always thought of the company behind a lot of well-known visual novels, Key, is similar to what I've stated above, though with more dramatic works as opposed to action-filled ones. They write very tear-jerking stories that border on the line of being melodramatic, and bundle them together with a lot of pretentious plotlines and themes and fantastic art+a great soundtrack, all things that allow people to completely avoid the fact that the writing isn't all that great and just enjoy the way it's all presented. And to me, Makoto Shinkai, the writer and creator of various other anime films including the one I'm reviewing right now, is like the Key of the anime world.
Kimi no Na wa isn't QUITE the same in the regard that I listed above, but I do think it's on the same boat in its own way. As opposed to being very popular, whether for good or bad reasons, what this film has done is jump almost instantly to the top of the MAL ratings, which makes it nearly unavoidable in its own way because you begin to think, "what is it that makes it so good? Why are people so in love with it?" That's what caused me to watch it, and I was left severely disappointed. Here's my reasons why.
The movie starts off as a typical school comedy with very typical characters that seem like they're not meant to have any definition or substance to them, which is okay as long as the writing remains consistent and doesn't try to take itself too far (unfortunately that isn't the case). The movie reminds me a lot of Kokoro Connect, with a boy and a girl occasionally switching bodies at unknown times and trying to adjust to their new lifestyles. The cause of this new phenomenon is never given.
This was one of my very first problems with the movie. The setting is within a fictional world, but that doesn't excuse plot convenience. Stories CAN include fictional things that don't exist in the real world, things like giant robots, or monsters, inhabiting another planet. Things like that are okay, because they're meant to be fictional, and their worth as a story is presented in the very beginning. But, with Kimi no Na wa? The film tries to set itself up in a realistic world, where everything is normal like our own but... this strange thing happens between these two people. In situations like that, explanation needs to be done. Why it's happening, why it's only between these two people, things like that. Even horrible explanation, such as saying, "a loop in space and the fact that they met on this day at this time at this spot," or something like that, would be far better than no explanation at all. All it does is show why you shouldn't be too pretentious when writing fiction. Very poor writing right there.
However, the first half really isn't all that bad, simply because it's something you can stop thinking about completely and just enjoy it for what it is. A lot of stuff made no sense, but it was still fun to see how each person was affecting each other's life and how they dealt with it. It was still kind of hard to not catch some of the problems, such as how they adapted to the entire situation so easily and even went along with how the other was affecting their life without a whole lot of trying to stop them. Regardless, it was still fun for the most part, something I'd view in similar light as a typical school comedy/slice of life with a small twist... rating it around 7/10 and considering it a very safe watch if you're looking for a way to comfortably pass the time.
The second half comes along and it's where all of the problems of the film begin to show. More mishaps occur that make you realize that the film trying to take place in a realistic world similar to ours is complete bullshit. They don't just switch bodies, they also travel in time. They never realized this because it seems people don't talk about current events in each timeline. It seems calendars or phones/computers with dates on them don't exist either. Many things that make you think it SHOULD take place in a fantasy world, but it doesn't because that would require a completely different style of writing. The entire second half just stops making sense.
One character actually tries to take the initiative to meet the other person in real life, which is something that is supposed to seem out of the ordinary simply because, for whatever reason, they never attempt to talk to each other in real life besides through notes they leave during the times that they switch bodies. I've heard some people around the anime community try to dismiss this with "they thought it was all a dream," but there's absolutely no way that that's possible because their lives were affected by it and they understand that fully. So go ahead and completely dismiss that idea of yours if you were one of the people who have it because it's completely impossible.
Regardless, the girl does finally take the initiave to meet the guy, but the fact that they're in different timelines is almost instantly seen as a problem, thus the guy has no idea who the girl is. And for WHATEVER reason, the girl doesn't question this at ALL! She pretty much just accepts it, with hardly any struggle. Not asking the guy if he's had any strange dreams recently, nothing. She doesn't even think for a second to wonder, "why doesn't he know who I am?" Even though, if she DID think that way, she'd realize that something's wrong and might even be able to figure out what's going on.
However, all of that is thrown away when actual time travel happens. After they managed to meet physically on a train, which was the situation I described above, they eventually meet again in spirit form thanks to the power of plot convenience. Neither meeting affected the plot at all, all it did was gave the audience a potential pairing to ship together even though they had no face-to-face contact that they didn't end up forgetting about shortly after. Gotta love amnesia being used as a plot device.
Yeah, this film doesn't shy from using amnesia as well. Whenever the two speak to each other, or share messages, or anything, it's almost instantly afterwards that they forget about it. They're left with a lingering feeling of "I feel like I'm missing something" but they still fail to remember anything in the end. This is all because of plot convenience, because it allows the plot to continue on for far longer than it really needs to.
Eventually, the characters are trying to affect history, which is to prevent the deaths of people caused by a natural disaster. As if enough amnesia hadn't been used between the character interactions alone, the boy forgets completely about this natural disaster, like it wasn't important enough for him to remember or how he's somehow never heard of it despite it being one of the most tragic natural disasters in recorded history. They attempt to pass this over as "he's been traveling through time and doesn't remember everything that hasn't happened yet in the current timeline" but that's complete bullshit as well. That has NEVER been a theme in any sort of story related to time travel; that's just not how it works. It's time travel because you visit times you haven't been to, or were once in in the past, while keeping all of your current knowledge. Otherwise, you're just visiting another spot on the timeline; that's not actual time travel, that's time jumping. And even with all of that said, it's still bullshit simply because the guy DOES retain some knowledge throughout the various timelines, the most notable one being that he remembers that he's there to save someone. It's all just selective memory, all for the sake of plot convenience.
Everything is saved because the girl manages to convince her own father to evacuate the people in time. This is another form of plot convenience, similar to the one pointed out above. She remembers perfectly that a disaster is coming and even has an extensive plan to prevent it from killing all of the people that it did in a different timeline, but doesn't at ALL remember how she knows that the disaster is incoming? How does that make any sense whatsoever? And the girl convincing her father to evacuate all of those people? It all happens OFF SCREEN. Why? Because there's no way it could be shown in a way that makes ANY sense, because it's such an absurd thing from the viewpoints of the entire village. The girl's original plan to cut off all of the electricity with a bomb and make everyone believe that a terrorist attack is incoming, despite it also being stupid, actually made a lot more sense and if that would've been used as the method to evacuate everyone and save all the lives they did, then okay. Stupid, but it would've worked a lot better. But, that's too simple, and would've ended the film too quickly, so we just have to stretch everything super far until it doesn't make any sense. Doing things the Makoto Shinkai way.
The tragedy is prevented and somehow, no time paradox is caused even though literally hundreds of people who should be dead in the current timeline are still alive. Life continues on as it normally would for the guy and nothing changes for him into the future. After an unspecified number of years later, the two of them meet again by pure accident and it's implied that they end up remembering everything, since the movie is ended with, "do I know you?" All thanks to the power of nonsense and plot convenience. And bullshit.
The movie is a perfect example of exploiting every single type of lazy plot convenience that exists out there as opposed to actual good writing, but that's all forgotten about because it's animated well in order to maximize the amount of feels you get without having even a small hint of good writing or logic. You're expected to forget what's going on and instead view everything like you would a show with a laugh track. Enjoy the amazing art, laugh, cry, and not give a single shit about the actual quality of writing. Kimi no Na wa is yet another example of how bad a majority of modern anime are. Tons of plot conveniences; time resets, amnesia, all without any explaining.
Imagine a gift box, wrapped up very nicely with tons of bows and ribbons with a tag that says it's to you from the most important person in your life, or the biggest crush you have, or whoever you'd most want a present from. But you open it up, and it's completely empty. That's basically what Kimi no Na wa is. A pretty box with nothing in it. Something that looks nice but has no substance.
In short, Kimi no Na wa is a film that looks amazing, sounds even better, but fails in so many other regards. The story isn't that bad at the beginning because it plays off like a comfortable time killer with only a few issues outside of the actual series composition. However, during the second half, everything turns to an absolute shitfest of plot convenience and nonsense. The characters throughout the entire movie are extremely one-dimensional, as they're simply just horribly characterized AND developed, which during the first half really doesn't matter but it's definitely a problem in the second half. Overall, Kimi no Na wa is simply just a failure of a film, only saved by great presentation and how comfortable and safe of a watch it was during the first half, and the first half ALONE.
Given how sick I am of talking about this series, the only recommendations I'm going to give are extremely obvious and extremely lazy: 5 Centimeters per Second, Garden of Words, Children who Chase Lost Voices, and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. They're all of Makoto Shinkai's other full-feature film works, and they all follow very similar story structure and overall film composition that I'm sure you'll like them if you're one of the many Kimi no Na wa fanboys out there. Outside of those obvious recommendations, I have nothing that I'm gonna attempt to offer you as of right now; maybe I'll edit my review one day and add some actual unique recommendations of series' that do what Shinkai tries but ultimately fails to do. Who knows.
