Weak plot, weak characters, beautiful art, and amazing musical score. Plot and "romance" between our characters were far too contrived for me. I mean, so it starts out with our protagonists switching bodies AND time traveling (as we later find out) which is cool and all, but the movie doesn't even try to explain it; or how it started or what made it stopped... The plot just sort of moves along and tells you "well, just cuz bro".
Time travel and body switching are both cool concepts that deserve to be a bit more than simple plot devices. So many unanswered questions that the writing didn't even attempt to explain. Why did both characters have the ability to travel through time and switch bodies? Why did they both have relapsing amnesia throughout the film? Was it so we could have that silly ending? What the hell was the purpose of that cafe chick? She was just kind of there and the scenes just added in for a longer runtime.
Why do these characters fall in love with each other when they barely speak throughout the movie? Speaking of which, I never really cared for either, both were very flat paper dolls, especially Taki. Then we have the whole "save the town" thing; so why does this guy get to travel back in time, inhibit this girls body and save the town; was it initially Mitsuha that initiated the switch when she randomly yelled about wanting to be a Tokyo boy? And it seemed pretty lazy that the entire climax happened OFF screen (as the female protagonist perfectly remembers everything that is about to happen but not the dude's name) and one second later everyone is saved, killing any suspense that could have been built upon. There are so many disconnects in the story with no clear direction or logical progression; the music was amazing, but not enough to cover the weak, underlying writing for me personally.
I love anime as a medium and it can be a beautiful way to tell a story, but I feel it gets abused sometimes where style is often the focus over substance. I just could not find myself connecting with the story or the characters, which unfortunately made the beautiful soundtrack often feel out of place.
