As a fan of Makoto Shinkai from his early days, with my favorite film still being his full-length debut The Place Promised in Our Early Days, it was incredibly fascinating to see ‘Your Name’ take the world by storm in a way I’d always hoped his other works would. At the time I couldn’t imagine why his other films hadn’t captivated general audiences in the same way, that is until I caught up with ‘Your Name’ and realized Shinkai had truly honed all his abilities for this film, in a way that’s positively impacted ever release of his, and undoubtedly many other anime films in particular, since.

‘Your Name’ tells the story of Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, the former a young high school boy from Tokyo and the latter a high school girl from the rural town of Itamori. Mitsuha in particular, though arguably both of them, are seeking more in life, and one day after she makes a wish to become a young boy in Tokyo she wakes up in Taki’s body. She thinks she’s in a dream going about someone else’s life, until she realizes that Taki had the same experience only in her body. Taki and Mitsuha both try to understand their new predicament, which draws them ever closer together even as they are miles apart.

Makoto Shinkai’s ‘Your Name’ (Source: Funimation)

In most anime, the concept of body switching would take up the whole film, and indeed that’s what I expected. However Shinkai throws a curve ball about halfway through the film that illuminates the body switching was just the catalyst, as more lingers beneath the surface. Since at the time all I knew was ‘this is the film where they body switch’, I was delightfully caught off guard, and its one of the first points that really demonstrates Shinkai’s prowess in this moment, as even he years earlier might have stopped at that point with a simpler resolution.

What is perhaps most familiar, though again used to its most incredible extent, are the common themes Shinkai loves to use for nearly all of his films. In particular we have a relationship between two characters (doesn’t always have to be romance in his films, though it often is) that spans a distance, with some impediment between the protagonists. One of my best friends has always loved the body-swapping genre as it truly allows characters to literally get under one another’s skin to better understand them, and Shinkai uses this expertly for this conceit. What’s revealed in the second half (that I won’t spoil here) as well is that Shinkai also found another way to twist the concept of two characters connected yet separate, and its not only surprising but incredibly well executed.

Shinkai also loves to examine the concept of memory, with memory being at the forefront of his previous films, in particular The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Shinkai doesn’t let the idea of memories and memory loss linger to the end though in this film (though it is there too), in the same way he does with his feature length debut. Instead here it’s a constant question to a near-Memento like degree, though with a less convoluted execution. (No slight on Memento though as that’s the point in that film.) Shinkai loves the idea of the ephemeral, whether that’s beauty, a falling cherry blossom, a comet, and most importantly a human connection.

Makoto Shinkai’s ‘Your Name’ (Source: Funimation)

Lastly Shinkai loves space, which I think especially since his first short film Voices of a Distant Star, created almost entirely by Shinkai, he uses as a perfect metaphor for the vastness that can lie between us especially when his protagonists so often are seperated. Space plays an even more direct role in this film than most. So though Shinkai’s visuals have always been incredibly striking (I have several scenes as my rotating computer wallpaper), ‘Your Name’ allows him the opportunity to illuminate the beauty of space even more incredibly than perhaps he has before.

Shinkai’s films don’t work solely off of beautiful visuals and familiar themes, though they almost could, but instead its his characters that really allow this film to sing. For Shinkai fans such as myself, Taki and Mitsuha may have elements of the familiar, but they’re fleshed out and fully realized in ways that really bring us into their lives and feel for what they go through. The conceit of the body swap allows us as well as Taki and Mitsuha to delve deeper into their lives, and by the second half when Shinkai pivots we are fully invested because of how much we already love these characters. Shinkai of course needs us to care for these characters, to really appreciate the full melodrama of his films, and fortunately that is well-earned by the character development.

Now in 2023, with the release of several hits since, including Weathering with You and Suzume, we can see the world that Shinkai built lives on. More and more anime films are having a moment, and more and more are exploring melodrama in a way that clearly seems inspired by ‘Your Name’. Its no wonder too as this film, as I learned upon my viewing, really does stand apart and clearly earned all the adoration and accolades it received. Even as much as I loved Shinkai’s early works, and still treasure them, ‘Your Name’ is clearly the film where he perfectly executed every aspect of his craft. We are living in a post-‘Your Name’ world, and we are all the better off for its existence.