
a review by nashyyyy

a review by nashyyyy
Ill try to touch on stuff that other reviews don't so reading this is worthwhile. When I first rated this movie, I gave it a 7. Shinkai provides a lot of tiny details which highlight the bigger picture and the idea of fate such as the trains going in different paths and the braided cord on the wrist of taki. This movie has sooo much to appreciate in terms of its stellar animation, detailed art, and awesome soundtrack. I felt that I was truly in the bustling streets of tokyo, or the breathtaking overhead view of itomori. It's clear that this movie was made to stand out among other movies and be a movie of the likes of which we have never seen before, in which I can safely say they delivered, both positively and negatively. Going back to rating the movie, I could give this movie a 6 or 7 just as easily as I could give it a 9 or 10. It has some fatal flaws and killer strengths. I am not sure if I can call it a masterpiece but it has to be a classic movie. With that being said, at the time of this review(sunday august 21st, 2022), kimi no na wa or your name has an 8.86 rating on my anime list and is by far, the most popular anime movie, but I must say, it MUST be a little overrated, you are lying to yourself if you say otherwise. Onto the negatives. Again I won't touch on this too heavily but boy are the plotholes crazy in this movie, there are random sci-fi ideologies that do insanely random stuff with a NUMBER of different climaxes. In the second half of the movie after a specific turning point, the plot becomes IMPOSSSIBLE to follow, their attempt to overwhelm you with the limited time of around 1 hr 30-35 min backfires heavily here. You simply cannot understand what is going on unless you paused the movie and looked back and/or did some research. It feels as if the supernatural and absurd things are made up on a literal whim just for the convenience of the plot and viewer. Although I had a small idea of what was going on, having to keep a mental timeline throughout the entire movie required far too much brainpower because there is a level of work you have to do yourself. As the movie draws to an end, the inconsistencies in the plot are evident and the only thing that is clear is that fate is what draws them to each other. How they remember things are unclear, how they forget things are unclear, why they forget is unclear, why they remember is unclear, what makes them remember is unclear, what makes them forget is unclear, the extent to which they remember and forget and what enables them to remember is unclear. Sorry for the rant but you have to turn your brain off and just watch the movie with an intent to enjoy. The saving grace of this movie is the ending, it is vague with the intent to leave it up for interpretation which is what led me to give it an 9/10. I really hate vague endings and it keeps stuff on my mind for a while which really made me annoyed at the end of the movie of how confusing everything is. But after doing some research on the movie, it makes me feel as the attempt to overwhelm was intentional and the varying, conflicting events of the movie were intentional because the ending can be interpreted in different ways, dont wanna spoil it but the ending is actually quite perfect, after researching, there are hundreds of theories on what happens after the ending all of which cite different events from the story. Maybe im just giving too much credit to shinkai but if this is true, it surely is a genius move. There are hundreds of details in this movie with many breathtaking, climactic moments, and even small 1-second details which come back later influencing how you interpret the movie. Shinkai knows this and while there hundreds of ways the story could pan out, and why certain things happen the way they do, there is one thing that we can take away for sure from this movie. You know your fate when you see it, the reason why isn't always clear but there is a moment in time when you realize what your fate and destiny truly is and there could be many reasons for it but it doesn't ultimately matter. Love does not always need a reason, to feel complete is as good a reason as any to love. They knew it when they saw it and they chased it, and all they needed was a name, tiny details to the end.
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