Makoto Shinkai strikes again with his latest anime film, Your Name. Your Name is loosely based on the Heian Era tale, Torikaebaya Monogatari, where two siblings take on each other’s traits. Rather than repeat this tale Shinkai expands the idea to focus on Mitsuha Miyamizu, a girl living in the countryside of Japan, and Taki Tachibana, a boy living in Tokyo. One day, despite being miles (kilometers) apart the fate of Mitsuha and Taki becomes intertwined as they switch bodies every few days and live each other’s lives.
Mitsuha Miyamizu is an unpopular high school girl living in the rural town of Itomori. She is bored with her life and wishes to be a handsome boy living in Tokyo in her next life. Right after she makes this wish she begins to switch bodies, every few days, with a shy high school boy, Taki, who lives in Tokyo. Mitsuha and Taki at first don’t realize that they have been switching bodies, instead they view it as a dream. It is not until their friends point out that the previous day they were acting weird that both Taki and Mitsuha begin to question what had occurred. the two of them begin to communicate with each other through the use of Mitsuha’s notebook and memos on Taki’s phone. They establish ground rules to what is acceptable behaviors while switching bodies. In a very playful way, these ground rules are broken very quickly as Taki chooses to feel Mitsuha’s breasts when he wakes up in her body. While in her body Taki chooses to make Mitsuha an outgoing person and popular at school, which is the opposite of who she was before Taki came into her life. Mitsuha, while in Taki’s body, bends the rules as well as she spends all of Taki’s money on sweet desserts, flirts, and develops a relationship with his co-worker Miki. This intertwines Taki and Mitsuha together as they are making choices for each other that significantly affects the other person and forms a trust between them that each one is doing what they think is right in the situation.
This concept is explored as Taki, while Mitsuha, understands how important the alcohol ritual Kuchikamizake is to Mitsuha. He accompanies her grandmother and sister to the shrine on the mountaintop to provide her offering to the village guardian god who is responsible for all human experiences and connections. During this time, Mitsuha, as Taki, understands that Taki has a crush on Miki, yet he doesn’t know how to make a move, so she does it for him setting up a date between the two of them. This further aligns the them as they are understanding and acting upon what the other finds to be important to them. Before going to bed Mitsuha mentions to Taki in a memo about a comet that is expected to pass over her village on the day of a festival and they should watch it together, thus implying that she has feelings towards him.
On the day of the comet Taki goes on his date with Miki, who notices that he is not the same person who asked her out. As a result, his date with her ends poorly, and he tries to call Mitsuha as he is watching the comet, but cannot reach her. The body switching has ended and his text messages to her have disappeared, which prompts Taki to hunt for her. While looking for her he sketches an image of the village, which is recognized by a restaurant owner who explains that the village, Itomori, was destroyed by the comet three years ago. Taki is devastated to learn of this. Due to his strong bond with Mitsuha he decides to go to the shrine as a means to reconnect with her. Once there he drinks her Kuchikamizake and he sees through a vision that Mitsuha has fallen in love with him. She has met his past self while attempting to meet him personally.
Taki wakes up the morning of the day the comet is supposed to destroy the village with the intention of saving Mitsuha and the town. He puts into place a plan to change the fate of the town, which ultimately fails. This forces Taki to return to the shrine where he realizes Mitsuha is in his body. Initially the two sense each other, but are separated by three years. Once the twilight falls they return to their original bodies and meet for the first time.Taki writes down his name and when Mitsuha is going to write down hers she disappears as the timelines have pulled them back to their own worlds.
In Mitsuha’s time she is needed to convince her father to evacuate the town to prevent people from dying. On her way, back her memories of Taki are fading and she reads his name to find out he has written “I Love You” on her hand. Throughout his time with Mitsuha he has fallen in love with her. Despite having a second chance the comet crashes to Earth and destroys Itomori. At the same time Itomori is destroyed, Taki wakes up in his own time at the Shrine remembering nothing that has occurred with Mitsuha.
Five years later Taki feels that he is missing something important. He has learned, even though it provides no significance, that the residents of Itomori have survived by following the Mayor’s order. While out at a restaurant Taki recognizes some of Mitsuha’s friends from Itomori but cannot place them from his memory. Then one day, Taki and Mitsuha pass each other while on different trains. Immediately they are drawn to one another as they both have the feeling they know each other, but have never met. They ask for each other’s name.
You can purchase Your Name here.
