Makoto Shinkai, director of Your Name, released his newest film, Weathering With You in Japan in 2019, which was then released in the US in early 2020. After seeing Your Name, I had high expectations for this film, after experiencing the incredible animation of his previous work and being moved by the heartfelt script of his previous work.
Also Read: Cherry Review – Fell Flat in Almost Every Way!
Weathering With You follows Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo) who leaves home to travel to Tokyo, to start a new life by himself. He struggles financially until he lands a job as a writer for a small occult magazine. Simultaneously he meets Hina, (Nana Mori) who he discovers is a “sunshine girl.” This means that Hina is able to control the weather and clear up rainy skies, as Tokyo has been experiencing dreary weather for months. Once this is established, the film progresses in ways that fulfilled by expectations visually but unfortunately did not fulfill those expectations story wise.
It goes without saying that the animation was exceptionally beautiful. The way the city is animated is breathtaking. Along with this, the scenes accompanied by music amplies the emotion and grabs the audience. This film is clearly a commentary on climate change and does a great job of using its premise to drive home the message that interrupting mother nature will lead to undesirable impacts. However, the romance between Hokaka and Hina is not tied well enough to this theme and even ends up taking center stage by the end of the film.
The beginning of the film was much more interesting when focusing on Hodaka and his desire to live in poverty rather than be controlled by his parents at home. This story was more intriguing to me than the direction the film goes. However, I did like the idea the film presents that our moods and feelings are tied to the weather. As a result, the message that our feelings for another and that a person can provide “sunny weather” in the darkest of times is admirable.
As I have seen from many discussions of the film, audiences have been whisked away by Weathering With You and the story it tells. Unfortunately, I was not as taken back by the film, which may be more because of personal preferences rather than Shinkai’s storytelling. Regardless, this is a magnificent spectacle to be viewed, even if the story does not land as well as other anime films.
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