When I went to watch this movie, I had high expectations. I didn't expect it to be another Your Name, but I did expect the movie to be beautiful, to be touching, and to have the classic Shinkai charm. Weathering with You more than delivered on these expectations, but beyond just those expectations, what I saw in this movie was a fundamental, yet subtle, shift in the type of anime Makoto Shinkai creates.

Makoto Shinkai is practically a franchise now. The legendary director has produced a number of movies characteristic of their stunningly beautiful art and emotion-rich stories. However, his most recent two movies are a bit different. His earlier works, such as 5 Centimeters per Second and Garden of Words seem to use the story as a vehicle to show the art, and indeed much of the criticism of these movies focus on the simplicity of the plot. Your Name, on the other hand, had a more complex storyline which didn't just complement the animation, it was the reason why the movie was so great.

While Your Name was the intermediate between art and storytelling, in Weathering with You, the story takes front stage. The plot was more complex and more fleshed out, the characters, even side characters, were more developed, the message was more clear, and even the comedy was more abundant and hit the spot more often. The drama kept the viewers always thinking about what will happen next, what choices the characters will make. As Shinkai works always do, the movie precisely taps into the feelings of love and separation, but this time it isn't merely that which makes it impactful.

I especially loved how the movie takes the time to develop each of the characters. The bandages on Hodaka's face, his reaction to being slapped, and murmuring something about his family when asked why he ran away lead you to conclude that he was abused by his parents, without ever explicitly showing it. Suga reveals bit by bit his past and what happened to his wife, which explains why he changed his mind and helps Hodaka find Hina in the end. Even Nagi's chick magnet abilities are actually important to the plot when he uses his female acquaintances to escape from the police station.

However, along with the more detailed plot, I fear that Shinkai is also starting to fall into the typical cliches of anime. Comments and jokes about boobs, partners staring off into fireworks, innocent questions that sound like love confessions are all tropes that I have seen too many times, and as funny or touching as they are, I wish Shinkai did not have to start relying on them to develop the story.

I am sure that many viewers will consider this work to be worse than Your Name due to the more complex plot and the weaker ending, and I agree, but this movie still has a lot going for it. This one is simply different from the type Shinkai has historically made, and I for one like the variety.

While the spotlight shined on the story, the art has in contrast slid back. Don't get me wrong, this movie is still absolutely gorgeous, but I do have some extremely minor criticisms and I cannot consider this movie to be Shinkai's best work of "art" in terms of animation and music. The use of CGI is not bad, but it is somewhat noticeable, and noticing the CGI elements inevitably draws my attention to them and ruins the zen of admiring a beautiful scene. The music was good, but it wasn't in perfect sync with the animation and the mood like Your Name was. At the climax of the movie, the moment the chorus hits was perfect, but in other places the music didn't feel exactly right, or was fighting for your attention when there was dialogue going on.

Granted, there were some really great parts to the art as well. The food scene put real life food to shame and made me drool. The raindrops, the reflection in the puddles, the immense amount of detail in every scene were all stunning. The camera pan to show the city, similar to the opening scene of Your Name, made you feel immersed in the world the characters were living in. If you are expecting incredible, Shinkai level animations, you aren't going to be disappointed by Weathering with You. If any other person was the director of this movie, I would have nothing but praise, but since it is Shinkai, it needs to be compared with his other works, which is an almost insurmountable standard.

I see Weathering with You as Makoto Shinkai's resolute declaration that he doesn't just have an amazing artistic vision, but also a masterful ability to tell a story. Although still distinctly Shinkai, this movie focuses more on the drama and less on the art.