(Disclaimer: I do go into spoilers beyond my favorite character section as a warning.)
Makoto Shinkai is far and away my favorite director/storyteller/writer in anime. There's something so relatable, so raw and human, in Shinkai's work that simply speaks to me on a level that nothing else ever has before, leading me to state that Your Name is my favorite piece of entertainment of all time. Not anime, not movie, but of all forms of entertainment. With that being said, I was obviously beyond hyped to see Weathering With You. I was so excited to see how Shinkai would follow up his magum opus, whether he would try and emulate the success or continue to try to innovate and refine his style. Thankfully, Weathering With You is more of the latter, despite possessing many of Shinkai's trademark themes and stylistic choices. All the familiarity is there with Weathering With You despite it being a slightly different kind of story told.
Before I dive more into the themes and such, I've got to touch on the technical aspects of Weathering With You, starting with the outstanding visuals. What new praise could I possibly heap upon Weathering With You and CoMix Wave for their stunning aesthetic, impeccable animation quality, and the most beautiful burger ever put on screen? I mean, what more is there for me to say about this beauty?

Favorite Character: Nagi Amano


Weathering With You is a movie about choices and how those choices affect those around us. Keisuke makes a choice to help Hodoka get to the shrine to save Hina, despite it not really being in his best interest to do so. Hodoka makes a choice to save Hina over all of Tokyo when, typically, this where the trope that the hero has to sacrifice something precious to him to save the world. It's really interesting, especially because of the light in which utilitarianism versus moral idealism is displayed in Weathering With You. Usually, you see utilitarianism take precedence, but in this movie, we see the moral idealistic choice win out. Hodaka chooses to save Hina and not respect her sacrifice to save Tokyo, because to him, she's the precious one, not the city. He chooses her because he "wants her more than any blue sky"- a line that hit me harder than a ton of bricks and one that is going to stick with me for a very long time.
I think Weathering With You doesn't quite reach up to the masterpiece that is Your Name, but it doesn't need to. While Your Name is such a tightly woven narrative, with such a laser focus and little room for sidetracking; Weathering With You is more broad and sweeping, focusing on more of an experience as a whole, instead of telling a tight story. It's really such a different movie that you can't really compare the two on that level, despite everyone, including myself, doing so. It won't supplant Your Name anytime soon, but its such a cute and heartwarming movie with such different strengths that it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on experiencing it out of prejudice or simple belief that it could never match up to the titan that is Your Name.
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