Art-
Well it is Shinkai so as expected, the world in animation is brilliantly detailed. Like his old works, Shinkai manages to breath life into even the most inanimate object in his movie. From a mug of frothy beer to flying messages on screen to raindrops falling on puddles- each one of them felt lively. Tokyo cityscape looked amazing and Shinkai managed to capture the entire city in this movie not only from ground but from the high skies too. Each and every single of these shots were breathtaking.
Music-
Easily one of my favourite part. The blending of songs at key moments was perfect and RADWIMPS delivered it just fine. They managed to keep me glued to seat till the credits stopped rolling.
Story and Character-
Now here is the thing- this is a 1.9 hr film and I am not there to make any deep connections with characters or searching for their entire family history or be the Roger Ebert of anime world. Heck neither did I entered the theatres with expectations that this movie will surpass previous Shinkai works. In fact, this was the right kind of Shinkai movie and he delivered it.
One thing that I liked about this film was the presence of supporting characters. They had ample amount of screen time and never felt left out. Main cast was loveable and fortunately none of them succumbed to classic anime tropes.
Enjoyment-
I was honestly hyped for this film solely because of the fact that it was the first major anime movie released in my country. Movie was running houseful in multiple cities and I personally believe every rupee I spent on it was worth it.
Cons-
For me there is only one con in this movie and that is product placement. The amount of product placements that was there in this film is massive. While subtle advertisement is something we can easily ignore, there were at least two instances where they felt super intrusive; as if they wanted to shove it in our face. I assume Kimi no Na Wa's roaring popularity created a sugar rush at Shinkai's office and every corporate wanted to get featured in film.
This is the only gripe I have with this film.
Overall I would recommend this movie for any casual viewer out there.
