This is the masterpiece we’ve all been waiting for.
What They Say:
From director Makoto Shinkai, the innovative mind behind Voices of a Distant Star and 5 Centimeters Per Second, comes a beautiful masterpiece about time, the thread of fate, and the hearts of two young souls. The day the stars fell, two lives changed forever. High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other. Yet, somehow, it works. They build a connection and communicate by leaving notes, messages, and more importantly, an imprint. When a dazzling comet lights up the night’s sky, it dawns on them. They want something more from this connection – a chance to meet, an opportunity to truly know each other. Tugging at the string of fate, they try to find a way to each other. But distance isn’t the only thing keeping them apart. Is their bond strong enough to face the cruel irony of time? Or is their meeting nothing more than a wish upon the stars?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Makoto Shinkai has been making waves since the turn of the century. His first two works were some of the most impressive achievements in the history of anime, as Shinkai singlehandedly accomplished every aspect of their production (except for music) on his own personal time and equipment, to the extent that the characters were voiced by him and his future wife. After his talent became impossible to ignore, he started getting real budget and staff to create full feature films for wide theater release. With each consecutive work, he filled slightly fewer roles, but still fills more in all of them than probably anyone else in the industry, with his idol Miyazaki perhaps being the only one to match him in that respect. Shinkai isn’t just an auteur; he’s personally working all the main jobs involved in filmmaking, and doing so with incredible care. His skill at crafting beautiful anime features has invited no shortage of comparisons to that one true master of the medium, Miyazaki himself, but he has always presented himself with the utmost humility, and despite their beauty and emotion, his works have always been too lacking in other key aspects to truly be called masterpieces on a level that would even entertain such a comparison. As the premiere of Your Name approached, there was no real reason to think it would be anything particularly amazing. But as it almost instantaneously became the biggest hit in Japan, more eyes were suddenly on Shinkai than ever. He hadn’t just delivered another Shinkai movie, as nice as that might’ve been. This was something so much more, and that’s a wonderful thing.
It is most definitely a Shinkai movie in all the ways you’d hope, though. It is a stunningly gorgeous piece of art in every way. Shinkai has been immaculately crafting breathtaking visuals for the entirety of his career, and he hit a peak that still stands as one of the finest pieces of eye candy a decade later, but he and his team still managed to pour so much passion and effort into every aspect of the artistry that it somehow manages to stand on its own level even in that respect. Shinkai is without a doubt a phenomenal director, but the more he’s involved in the cinematography/photography, the editing, and the color design, the more all of his talents for visual storytelling shine. The distinctive and rightfully lauded Shinkai aesthetic is characterized by its rich wash of vivid colors, by its potent contrasts brought to life by light and shadow, by its artfully cinematic flow of animation cuts. Those elements are more critical in this film than any of his prior works, not only for the atmosphere but often for the plot itself, and the spectacle he presents to lead you through this experience is in many ways unmatched.
If there’s one thing Shinkai has shown to make a higher priority in his films than even their technical beauty, it’s their emotional effect. He is certainly a master of delivering incredible pathos in the short periods of time he has available to him, but his greatest weakness throughout his career has been his writing focusing on this aspect at the expense of a solid story and engaging plot progression. Suddenly, he figured out the balance, so expertly that it’s amazing that his previous works could be so lacking in some of the greatest strengths of this one.
In less than two hours, Shinkai’s script accomplishes a thoughtful execution of a premise that is not entirely original but still fresh enough, an exploration of themes with universal appeal though some in interestingly different ways depending on the viewer’s familiarity with certain aspects of Japanese culture, intense development of impressively well-realized characters, and an absolutely captivating plot that is so uncharacteristic in the greatest way. Instead of letting up on the emotional resonance, the movie succeeds in becoming far and away the master’s most poignant work, not in spite of any of those factors but in large part thanks to them. Shinkai also tends to forego comedic elements for similar reasons, but his unusual inclusion of a delightful bounty of quality humor this time around is just as effective in proving to yield the opposite result. We wouldn’t be nearly as invested in these characters if we hadn’t shared in the lighter moments of their life, getting to know them in fun ways and seeing them as realistically depicted people.
Every bit of this is critical for a work that still places the greatest importance on its emotional through line that doesn’t let up once it gets going and leads an unforgettable ride to its magnificently gratifying climax. The journey is full of twists that manage to be genuinely shocking and clever without ever feeling remotely contrived, weaving together sincere feelings of identity, love, and loss in ways that complement and strengthen each other until everything ultimately culminates in its brilliantly profound coda.
While music is the one area of filmmaking Shinkai has never touched, he has always treated it as an essential component on the same level as anything he has been honing his own craft for all these years. The third act of his only other work that I place among the greats is almost entirely a music video, which shows just how skilled he is at using music, if not necessary creating it. More of that can be found throughout this movie, this time exclusively featuring tracks created specifically for this production though in generally shorter bursts before taking a backseat and returning the focus to the dialogue. But the most surprising piece of the staff list is that the entirety of the background music was composed by the same rock band that performed the four with vocals featured in key moments. Radwimps is an excellent band that anime deserves more of, but the skill sets required for composing rock songs meant to be at the forefront with driving vocals and scoring a film that covers a wide spectrum of emotion have notably minimal overlap. The band’s lead singer-songwriter Yojiro Noda proves to be a natural at both, blurring the line between “background music” and “theme/insert songs” in a way that plays to the strengths inherent in each category while helping the full musical component feel more cohesive. Tenmon always seemed like the one collaborator Shinkai needed to fully realize his visions, but Noda has succeeded him as well as one could ask for, while also bringing something new to the table.
If there’s one thing more unusual than the entire score being credited to a rock band, it’s that the English dub actually features new English-language renditions of the vocal tracks, still written and performed by Noda. It’s not unheard of for Japanese artists to dub their songs into English, but the result is often clunky Engrish that’s more comical to listen to than anything. Thankfully, this decision was not made on such a gimmicky whim; everyone involved in the production of this film would do anything to avoid that kind of distraction from the immersion of this perfectly constructed experience. It’s immediately apparent that Noda has a much stronger grasp on the English language than most who have attempted that idea, and indeed he lived in the US for several formative years and was inspired to become a musician by listening to English-language artists. Although he does his best to rework the lyrics in a way that convey the same intent while sounding natural in English, the voice is an instrument like any other, and these songs were clearly composed around the flow of the Japanese language that simply can’t be replicated in English. By no means are they anything short of great songs even in this form, but the originals are at least slightly superior. Anime Limited has already confirmed that their releases will feature audio options for the dub with both the Japanese and English versions of the songs, so as long as Funimation does the same, everyone can be happy, and having such a unique option (particularly because it was done well) is greatly appreciated.
Just as Shinkai wears every hat in the production of his movies and Noda composes, writes, adapts, and performs the theme songs, insert songs, and background music in both Japanese and English, the more traditional side of the English dub is headed up by two of the most diverse talents in the industry, Michael Sinterniklaas and Stephanie Sheh. In addition to working with nearly every studio scattered across the country, the two can be found doing basically every job involved in anime dubbing for most of the dubs by NYAV Post, the bicoastal studio that Sinterniklaas has run since founding it, and the go-to studio for companies outside North America who want anime or any other foreign animation dubbed, including Japan. While Funimation would’ve likely produced a fantastic dub in-house (probably directed by their absolute best, Mike McFarland, and potentially featuring Sinterniklaas and/or Sheh, as both are active at the studio among the many others), the fact that Anime Limited jumped on the English adaptation first meant that NYAV Post got it, and I couldn’t ask for more. In addition to voicing the two leads, Sheh and Sinterniklaas share directing duties and Sheh also cast the dub. The only major roles they weren’t involved in were the script adaptation and engineering, although both have done their fair share of each at the studio.
Protagonists Taki and Mitsuha are the focal points of the film to the point that the characters can easily be categorized as “the main pair” and “everyone else,” so all ears are on Sinterniklaas and Sheh. Sinterniklaas continues dubbing Ryunosuke Kamiki’s characters after both voiced the lead in another of the greatest anime movies, Summer Wars, and he proves a natural fit for Kamiki’s English counterpart once again. Sheh is often typecast as especially high-voiced anime girls, but her performances in roles like Mitsuha can show greater range while feeling more human. Conveying the necessary emotion that these characters experience is already a feat that demands actors of their caliber, but being a body swap story, this adds another challenge to the performances: each actor must play their own character physically while playing the other character psychologically, with the emotion just as strong for each character in each body. Having the two of them direct the dub makes more sense than ever, not only because they’re both talented at doing so in general but also because it allows each of them to ensure the other actor is staying true to their character while taking over the vocal duties. The effort put into making this work is clear, as they pull it off perfectly. Nuances like the accent of the country characters already enrich the product, but when the dialects swap along with the characters, the attention to detail is even more appreciable. This is something that deserved the best dub it could get, and that’s exactly what it received.
While this film alone, even combined with 5 Centimeters Per Second, isn’t enough to put Shinkai on the level of Miyazaki, or even Mamoru Hosoda, overall, it is better than any single work by either of those masters. In fact, Your Name is easily the greatest anime movie of all time. The strength of writing Shinkai displayed in this film does put him above Hosoda in that respect, as his first few films were written entirely or in part by another writer. With the weight of the new expectations this puts on Shinkai going forward, there will likely be disappointment in store for anyone who expects something this great from everything he makes after it, but he shows such great improvement as a creator that the future is still exciting for Makoto Shinkai. For having released so many films, he is still quite young, so he’ll have many opportunities to impress us to any fraction of the degree he did this time. Even if he somehow fails to do so for the rest of his career, this is a landmark that none can deny, and he deserves eternal recognition for it.
In Summary:
Makoto Shinkai deftly delivers not only his own magnum opus by a wide margin, but the greatest masterpiece in anime film history in Your Name. In one fell swoop, he displays perfect mastery of all of the strengths he has been celebrated for throughout this career on a level that defies even the most optimistic expectations, and somehow demonstrates the same degree of expertise for the elements that he has been lacking up to now, keeping him from standing among the greats as he now does. Everything is executed flawlessly, making for a staggeringly resplendent, profoundly poignant, and brilliantly penned piece of art with passionate creativity yet universal appeal. With an English dub as perfect as the original Japanese version, this can’t come to theaters and discs worldwide soon enough.
Grade: A+
