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Your Name
2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film by Makoto Shinkai From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Your Name[b] (Japanese: 君の名は。, Hepburn: Kimi no Na wa.; lit. 'Your Name is...') is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, produced by CoMix Wave Films, and distributed by Toho. The first installment of what critics deem Shinkai's "disaster trilogy," whose three entries each share themes inspired by the frequency of natural disasters in Japan, it depicts the story of high school students Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, who suddenly begin to swap bodies despite having never met, unleashing chaos onto each other's lives.
The film features the voices of Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi as Taki and Mitsuha respectively, with animation direction by Masashi Ando, character design by Masayoshi Tanaka, and its orchestral score and soundtrack composed by the rock band Radwimps. A light novel of the same name, also written by Shinkai, was published a month prior to the film's première.
Your Name premièred at the 2016 Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016, and was theatrically released in Japan on August 26, 2016; it was released internationally by several distributors in 2017. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its story, animation, music, visuals, and emotional weight. Until it was surpassed by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train in 2020, Your Name was the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, with a worldwide gross of US$400 million after re-release, breaking numerous box office records and dethroning Spirited Away. It received several accolades, including Best Animated Feature at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the 49th Sitges Film Festival, and the 71st Mainichi Film Awards; it was also nominated for the Japan Academy Film Prize for Animation of the Year.
A live-action remake is in development by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot.
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Plot
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Mitsuha Miyamizu is a high school student in Itomori,[note 1] a rural town in the Gifu prefecture of central Japan. Having grown bored of her provincial life, she wishes to be reborn as a boy from Tokyo. Soon,[c] she begins to intermittently switch bodies with Taki Tachibana, a high school student (and part-time waiter) from Tokyo's ward of Shinjuku. On certain days, Taki and Mitsuha wake up in each other's bodies and must live the entire day as the other, reverting when they sleep. The two set up ground rules for sharing their bodies, communicating via writing messages on paper, their phones, and their skin. Mitsuha (in Taki's body) sets Taki up on a date with his coworker, Miki Okudera, while Taki (in Mitsuha's body) helps Mitsuha become more popular at school. While in Mitsuha's body, Taki accompanies Mitsuha's grandmother Hitoha and younger sister Yotsuha to a Shinto shrine in the Goshintai[note 2] crater near Itomori,[d] leaving an offering of kuchikamizake fermented with Mitsuha's saliva. Hitoha explains that God is sovereign over both time and the connections between humans. Mitsuha informs Taki[e] that the comet Tiamat is expected to pass nearest to Earth on the day of the autumn festival. The next day,[f] Taki goes on a date (at the National Art Center in Roppongi) with Okudera in his own body; Okudera enjoys the date but says she can tell Taki is preoccupied with someone else, owing to his unusual behavior. Realizing he is falling for Mitsuha,[g] Taki attempts to dial her number, but cannot reach her. The body-switching stops as inexplicably as it started.
Taki, Okudera, and his classmate Tsukasa Fujii travel to Hida to search for Mitsuha.[h] As Taki does not know the name of her village, he sketches its landscape from memory. A ramen-shop owner in Takayama recognizes the town as Itomori and offers to take the trio there. When they arrive, they find the town completely in ruins (with Mitsuha's messages simultaneously vanishing from his phone), having been almost entirely decimated by fragments that fell from Tiamat. Since the comet passed three years earlier, Taki realizes that he and Mitsuha were separated by three years, with her living in 2013 and him in 2016. At Hida City Library, the three discover that Mitsuha, her family members, and friends were among the five-hundred victims killed by the comet's impact. Taki then begins to lose his memories of Mitsuha. Frantically, Taki leaves his inn accommodation[i] and rushes to the shrine at Goshintai to imbibe Mitsuha's kuchikamizake. Upon doing so, he faints, undergoing a vision chronicling much of her life, and realizes that she once came to Tokyo to find him.[j] Although he was unaware of whom she was, she passed her crimson kumihimo braid to him, which he has worn as a good-luck bracelet ever since. He then awakens in Mitsuha's body on the morning of the festival.[k] Hitoha undergoes an epiphany upon observing "Mitsuha's" uncharacteristic behavior; speaking directly to Taki, she reveals that the body-switching phenomenon has been in their family for centuries. Realizing he has a chance to save Mitsuha and the entire town, Taki convinces Mitsuha's friends, Sayaka and Tessie, to assist in broadcasting an emergency signal to evacuate Itomori before the meteor fragments strike. He then rushes to the shrine, where Mitsuha has just woken up in Taki's body. As twilight falls,[note 3] their timelines intersect, allowing them to finally meet in person. Taki returns Mitsuha's braid, and they attempt to write their names on each other's palms, but twilight ends before Mitsuha can write hers.
Returning to Itomori by foot, Mitsuha observes that the evacuation plan had failed. She then successfully convinces the mayor, her estranged father Toshiki, to order an evacuation drill. Beginning to forget Taki, she discovers that he had written "I love you" on her hand instead of his name.[note 4] Taki awakens in his own time with no memory of Mitsuha.[l]
Five years later, Taki, who has graduated from university, struggles to find a job: he is haunted by persistent feelings of longing and emptiness.[m] He has continuously fixated on the impact of Tiamat, from which the residents of Itomori were miraculously saved by a fortuitous evacuation drill, but is unable to determine why. Eventually, on April 8, 2022, he glimpses Mitsuha, who has moved to Tokyo, on a parallel metro train, and they race to find each other. On the steps of Suga Shrine, Taki calls out to Mitsuha, and the two simultaneously ask for each other's names, declaiming the film's title (Your Name).
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Characters
- Taki Tachibana (立花 瀧, Tachibana Taki)[n]
- Voiced by: Ryunosuke Kamiki[6] (Japanese); Michael Sinterniklaas[7][8] (English)
- A seventeen-year-old student in his second year at Jingu High School[o][p] in the Tokyo Metropolis; he was born on December 1, 1998 (exactly three years after Mitsuha). He is a talented sketch-artist and aspiring architect, collecting numerous books on the subject. Impulsive, straightforward, and belligerent (when Mitsuha first awakens in his body, his cheek is bandaged, owing to his penchant for quarreling), he is nevertheless well-meaning and considerate, and holds to a rigid system of moral principles. Taki often spends time with Miki Okudera and his best friends Takagi and Tsukasa; the four serve part-time as waiters at Il Giardino delle Parole,[q] an Italian restaurant in Shinjuku. Taki lives with his father,[r] who works in Kasumigaseki; Shinkai stated that he thinks "his mother[s] divorced his father a few years ago."[9]
- A running gag throughout the film has Taki awakening then realizing he has swapped bodies with Mitsuha that day. He immediately begins to fondle "his" breasts in amazement, only stopping once Yotsuha sees "her." Mitsuha herself condemns Taki's perversions upon their first physical acquaintance during the twilight hour.
- By the end of the film, Taki, who has an architecture degree, searches for employment opportunities, specializing in disaster prevention.
- Taki (as an architecture student) would later cameo in Shinkai's next film Weathering with You alongside his paternal grandmother Fumi Tachibana (who does not appear in Your Name) during an Obon rite for the soul of his paternal grandfather (Fumi's late husband).[t]
- Mitsuha Miyamizu (宮水 三葉, Miyamizu Mitsuha)[u]
- Voiced by: Mone Kamishiraishi[6] (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh[8] (English)
- A seventeen-year-old student in her second year at Itomori High School; she was born on December 1, 1995. Chronologically, Mitsuha is exactly three years older than Taki. Interested in fashion, food, drink, "cute things" (such as hedgehogs), and the latest vogue, she feels inhibited by the rural town of Itomori in mountainous Gifu, where she was born and has lived for all her life. Mitsuha customarily ties her hair in elaborate plaits with a crimson kumihimo braid she wove (which symbolizes the red thread of fate).[v] When switching bodies with Taki, she forbids him from showering, looking at, or touching her body.
- Practicing Shintoism, Mitsuha and her sister Yotsuha (who is nine years younger than her) serve as miko at Miyamizu Shrine. Following the death of their mother Futaba (whom she greatly resembles), their father Toshiki, brutalized by the event, abandoned the shrine to pursue politics, eventually becoming the town's mayor. Owing to his temperament, the two sisters refused to live with him. Instead, they moved in with their maternal grandmother Hitoha.
- Demure, affectionate, straightforward, idealistic, and sometimes stubborn, she yearns for a metropolitan life in Tokyo and to avoid inevitable encounters with Toshiki. Mitsuha resents her liturgical role in Miyamizu Shrine, which notably includes the ancient tradition of creating kuchikamizake. Its production, which has one chew rice then expectorate it for fermentation, attracts much derision from both classmates and other residents. Her speech is notably marked with a lilting accent and a lighter form of the Mino dialect[w] (as with much of her fellow Itomori residents); when possessing Taki's body, he insists she speak hyōjungo (Standard Japanese). When Taki possesses her body, he attempts to learn her native tongue.
- Her birthday contradicts the film's setting that she is seventeen in the summer of her second year in high school;[x] Shinkai stated: "In their mind, they both kind of assumed that they were both born on December 1."[9]
- Mitsuha would later cameo in Shinkai's next film Weathering with You as a jewelry saleswoman at a shop in LUMINE, a mall in Shinjuku.[y]
- Katsuhiko "Tessie" Teshigawara (勅使河原 克彦, Teshigawara Katsuhiko)
- Voiced by: Ryo Narita[7] (Japanese); Kyle Hebert[8] (English)
- Mitsuha's classmate, nicknamed "Tessie" ("Tesshi" in the English dub); as of 2013, he is seventeen (born January 18, 1996).[z] He is infatuated with Mitsuha. The son of the president of the local Teshigawara Construction company, Tessie is a frequent reader of Mu, a monthly periodical devoted to the occult and paranormal. He is interested in mechanics and engineering.
- Tessie is deeply ambivalent to Itomori. In the manga, he says: "It makes me want to destroy it all, leaving only beautiful memories." From his own perspective, he initiates concrete measures to improve the town's situation,[aa] earning him Taki (in Mitsuha's body)'s sympathy.
- In the epilogue, Tessie and Sayaka tease each other over their upcoming marriage. Tessie is namesaked from Teshigawara, a character in the seventh episode of Shinkai's 2014 novelization of The Garden of Words.[9][10]
- Along with Sayaka, he has a cameo in Weathering with You.
- Sayaka Natori (名取 早耶香, Natori Sayaka)
- Voiced by: Aoi Yūki[7] (Japanese); Cassandra Lee Morris[8] (English)
- Mitsuha's classmate and best friend; as of 2013, she is seventeen (born February 1, 1996).[z] Her personality is calm yet volatile; she harbors a crush on Tessie. Sayaka is part of the school's radio broadcasting club: later in the film, she is tasked by Taki (in Mitsuha's body) and Tessie with broadcasting the false emergency evacuation alert. Her elder sister, who works at the town hall, makes a brief appearance in the film.
- Like Tessie, Sayaka is named after a character in the seventh episode of Shinkai's 2014 novelization of The Garden of Words.[9][10]
- Along with Tessie, she has a cameo in Weathering with You.
- Tsukasa Fujii (藤井 司, Fujii Tsukasa)
- Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki[7] (Japanese); Ben Pronsky[8] (English)
- Taki's classmate and best friend of both him and Takagi; as of 2016, he is seventeen (born October 1, 1999). Loyal and phlegmatic in personality, he is, like them, interested in architecture. With Taki and Takagi, he also serves part-time at Il Giardino delle Parole. Tsukasa worries about Taki whenever Mitsuha inhabits his body.
- In his last appearance toward the end of the film, he is seen wearing a ring on his left hand. Upon inquiry, Shinkai commented: "It's just a backstory, but I believe Tsukasa is engaged to Okudera."
- He would later confirm that Tsukasa and Okudera married by the epilogue; the two have an age gap of seven years.[9][ab]
- Shinta Takagi (高木 真太, Takagi Shinta)[ac]
- Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa[7] (Japanese); Ray Chase[8] (English)
- Taki and Tsukasa's classmate and best friend; as of 2016, he is seventeen (born 1998 or 1999). Crisp and optimistic, he has a well-built figure with an athletic appearance. Like his dear friends, he is an aspiring architect. Along with them, he likewise has a part-time job at Il Giardino delle Parole. He is the most extroverted of the trio.
- Miki Okudera (奥寺 ミキ, Okudera Miki)[ad]
- Voiced by: Masami Nagasawa[11] (Japanese); Laura Post[8] (English)
- A student at the University of Tokyo and a close friend and coworker (at Il Giardino delle Parole) of Taki's. As of 2016, she is twenty-four (born January 22, 1992). Before body-switching with Mitsuha, Taki originally had a crush on Okudera. Fashionable, extroverted, and admired for her appearance, she is popular with male waiters. She develops closer feelings for Taki when Mitsuha inhabits his body. Okudera is a smoker: Tsukasa discovers this as they spend a night together while accompanying Taki on his search for Mitsuha. She is commonly referred to as Okudera-senpai ("Miss Okudera" in the English dub) by her colleagues.
- Upon her long-awaited reunion with Taki in 2021, she is seen wearing an engagement ring, and informs him of her upcoming wedding. According to Shinkai: "It's just a backstory, but I believe that Tsukasa is engaged to Okudera."[9] In the light novel, Okudera works (as of that point) at the Chiba branch of an apparel manufacturer.
- He would later confirm that Tsukasa and Okudera married by the epilogue; the two have an age gap of seven years.
- Hitoha Miyamizu (宮水 一葉, Miyamizu Hitoha)
- Voiced by: Etsuko Ichihara[11] (Japanese); Glynis Ellis[8] (English)
- The abbess and matriarch of Miyamizu Shrine and maternal grandmother to Mitsuha and Yotsuha; as of 2013, she is 82 (born March 4, 1931).[z] Her principal family tradition is kumihimo (thread-weaving). She educates her grandchildren in the history, theology, and traditions of the shrine and the Shinto faith.
- Hitoha is still alive as of 2021, according to the manga.
- Yotsuha Miyamizu (宮水 四葉, Miyamizu Yotsuha)
- Voiced by: Kanon Tani[11] (Japanese); Catie Harvey[8] (English)
- Mitsuha's confident and ebullient younger sister; as of 2013, she is nine (born July 2, 2004) and in fourth grade.[z] Yotsuha assists her grandmother and sister in preserving family tradition at Miyamizu Shrine. She regards Mitsuha with suspicion and deems her erratic, yet nevertheless supports her and loves her unconditionally; the two participate in producing both kumihimo and kuchikamizake. At the end of the film, Yotsuha is seen attending high school.
- She has a cameo in the film Weathering with You.
- Toshiki Miyamizu (né Mizoguchi) (宮水 俊樹, Miyamizu Toshiki)[ae]
- Voiced by: Masaki Terasoma[7] (Japanese); Scott Williams[8] (English)
- The estranged father of the sisters Miyamizu and widower of Futaba; as of 2013, he is 53 and campaigning for re-election. A retired folklorist and anthropologist who originally came to Itomori for research (having abated his career and prearranged engagement in order to marry Futaba), he carries a jaded, draconic personality owing to the loss of his wife. Toshiki renounced the priesthood following her death, horrified by how the town's residents regarded her as a mere miko, and capitalized on the prestige of the Miyamizu clan to be elected as its mayor two years later.
- He was born in Nara in 1959, and formerly lived and worked in Kyoto.
- Futaba Miyamizu (宮水 二葉, Miyamizu Futaba)
- Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara[7] (Japanese); Michelle Ruff[8] (English)
- Mitsuha and Yotsuha's mother, Toshiki's wife, and only child of Hitoha; she was a priestess at Miyamizu Shrine. She appears in a scene where Taki undergoes a vision of much of Mitsuha's life. Prior to the events of the film, Futaba succumbed to severe illness, aged thirty-six.
- She was born in Itomori in 1971 and died there in 2007.
- Yukari Yukino (雪野 百香里, Yukino Yukari)[af]
- Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa[12] (Japanese); Katy Vaughn[8] (English)[ag]
- An introspective teacher of Classical Japanese at Itomori High School specializing in literature and poetry; as of 2013, she is 27 (born February 27, 1986). She teaches the class about the word "kataware-doki."[note 5] Yukari was a character in Shinkai's previous film The Garden of Words.[ah]
- In September 2013, Yukari actually lived in Tokyo (as seen in The Garden of Words) and taught in a high school there; she would later continue teaching while moving back to her hometown, Imabari, Ehime.[13] It is, according to Shinkai, "up to the viewer's imagination" as to why she was seen in Itomori.[14]
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Production
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Perspective
Makoto Shinkai conceived the film's plot following his July 2011 visit to the fishing village of Yuriage in Natori following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Reflecting on the devastation, he thought: "this could have been my town." He subsequently conceived an idea for a film in which the positions of the residents of Yuriage would be swapped with the viewers. During his visit, Shinkai produced various sketches, some of which have been displayed in exhibitions.[15]
Shinkai delivered his initial film proposal to Toho on September 14, 2014, with the original title of Yume to Shiriseba (夢と知りせば, If I Knew It Were a Dream), derived from a line in a waka attributed to Ono no Komachi.[16] Its title was later changed to Kimi no Musubime (きみの結びめ, Your Connection) and Kimi wa Kono Sekai no Hanbun (きみはこの世界のはんぶん, You Are Half of This World) before being finalized as Kimi no Na wa (lit. 'Your Name is...').[17] On December 31, 2014, Shinkai announced that he had been writing the film's storyboard.[18]
Inspiration for the plot was derived from various literary works, including Shūzō Oshimi's Inside Mari, Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½, the Heian period tale Torikaebaya Monogatari, and Greg Egan's short story The Safe-Deposit Box.[19] Shinkai also cited influence from Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014).[20] Meanwhile, Shinkai and his team scrutinized their earlier work for reference, such as Crossroads, a television advertisement for Z-kai (2014), and 5 Centimeters per Second (2007).
While the town of Itomori, one of the film's settings, is fictional, the film drew inspirations from real-life locations that provided a backdrop for the town. These include the city of Hida and its library.[21]
Many locations in Your Name were based on real-life locations. From left to right: Suga Shrine in Shinjuku, Shinanomachi Station pedestrian bridge, and Yotsuya Station.
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Music
The score of Your Name was composed by Yojiro Noda, the lead vocalist of the Japanese rock band Radwimps. Shinkai requested him to conceive its incidental music "in a way that the music will (supplement) the dialogue or monologue of the characters."[22] Aside from various instrumental tracks, Your Name features four songs performed by the Radwimps:
- "Yume Tōrō" (夢灯籠, Yume tōrō; lit. 'Dream lantern')
- "Zenzenzense" (前前前世, Zenzenzense; lit. 'Past-Past-Past Life')[22]
- "Sparkle" (スパークル, Supākuru)[23]
- "Nandemonaiya" (なんでもないや, Nande mo nai ya; lit. 'It's Nothin'')[22][note 6]
The film's soundtrack was well-received by critics and audiences alike and is acknowledged as one of the factors behind the film's commercial success.[22] It was runner-up in the "Best Soundtrack" category at the 2016 Newtype Anime Awards, with Zenzenzense being the runner-up in the "Best Theme Song" category.[24]
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Release
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Perspective
Your Name premièred at the 2016 Anime Expo convention in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016, and later was released theatrically in Japan on August 26, 2016. The film was released in 92 countries.[25][26][27] In order to qualify for the Academy Awards, the film was released for one week (December 2–8, 2016) in Los Angeles.
The film was also screened in Southeast Asian countries. Purple Plan streamed an English- and Chinese-subtitled trailer for the film, premièring the film in Singapore on November 3[28] and in Malaysia on November 8, with daily screenings onwards.[29] In India, PVR Cinemas released Your Name as the opening film of the "Makoto Shinkai Film Festival" on May 19, 2023.[30] M Pictures released the film on November 10 in Thailand,[31] earning ฿22,996,714 (approximately US$649,056) in four days. In Indonesia, the film distributor Encore Films and cinema chain CGV Blitz announced that they would screen the film, with the former hosting its première on December 7.[32] Pioneer Films screened the film in the Philippines on December 14 and it immediately became the country's highest-grossing animated movie of 2016.[33] In Hong Kong, the film opened on November 11, and earned HK$6,149,917 (approximately US$792,806) in three days. The film premièred in Taiwan on October 21 earning NT$64 million (approximately US$2 million) in its first week while staying in the first position in the box office earnings ranking. By October 31, 2016, the film earned NT$52,909,581 (approximately US$1.666 million) in Taipei alone.[34] The film was released in Chinese theatres by Huaxia Film Distribution on December 2, 2016.[35]
The film was released in Australian cinemas on limited release on November 24, 2016, by Madman Entertainment in both Japanese and English.[36] Madman also released the film in New Zealand on December 1, 2016.[37] The film was screened in France on December 28.[38] The film, distributed by Anime Limited, was also released in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2016.[39] The film, distributed by Funimation, was released in North American theaters on April 7, 2017.[40] In Germany, the film was screened in over 150 cinemas in January 2018, being completely sold out on the first day.[41] It ranked as one of the top ten movies of that weekend.[42] Due to high demand, additional screening days were arranged.[43][44]
Home media
Your Name was released in 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 26, 2017 in Japan by Toho Pictures. The release was offered in Regular, Special, and Collector's editions.[45] Funimation announced on July 1 at Anime Expo 2017 that the film would be released on Blu-ray and DVD by the end of 2017, but did not specify a date.[46] At Otakon 2017, Funimation announced they were releasing the film in both Standard and Limited Edition Blu-Ray and DVD Combo Packs on November 7.[47][48] In the first week after release, the Blu-ray standard edition sold 202,370 units, the collector's edition sold 125,982 units and the special edition sold 94,079 units.[49] The DVD Standard Edition placed first, selling 215,963.[50] Your Name is the first anime to place three Blu-ray Disc releases in the top 10 of Oricon's overall Blu-ray Disc chart for 2 consecutive weeks.[51] In 2017, the film generated ¥6,532,421,094 (US$58,238,797) in media revenue from physical home video, soundtrack and book sales in Japan.[52]
Overseas, the film has grossed over US$10.5 million from DVD and Blu-ray sales in the United States as of April 2022[update].[53] In the United Kingdom, the film was 2017's second best-selling foreign language film on home video (below Operation Chromite)[54] and again the second best-selling foreign language film (below My Neighbor Totoro) in 2018.[55]
Domestic broadcast
Your Name was broadcast on Japanese television for the first time on November 4, 2017, transmitted by the satellite television broadcaster Wowow. In addition, the channel aired a special program dedicated to Shinkai and his previous works.[56] The film furthermore received a Japanese terrestrial television première on January 3, 2018 via TV Asahi, with its initial broadcast received a 17.4% audience rating.[57]
International broadcast
On February 18, 2018, Your Name premièred on Philippine television through the free-to-air broadcaster ABS-CBN and its HD television service. However, it was shown in a truncated form (lasting 75 minutes), having been for commercial breaks.[58] According to Kantar Media Philippines statistics, the first free-to-air broadcast of the film received an audience rating of 9.2%, while according to the AGB Nielsen NUTAM statistics, it received a 3.1% audience rating.[59][60] On April 9, 2020, as part of its Holy Week presentation, the film was aired again (with minor cuts for content) and a longer runtime of 102 minutes (excluding commercials in its 2-hour timeslot), immediately becoming a trending topic through social media platforms. Shinkai conveyed his gratitude to the those who watched the latter broadcast through a post on his Twitter account.[61]
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Reception
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Perspective
Box office
Your Name was a major international commercial success; until the release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, it was the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, grossing US$400 million worldwide.
Domestic
The film's greatest success came in its native Japan,[62] where it grossed ¥25.17 billion, 10% of the nation's entire box office revenue for that year.[63] It achieved the second-largest gross for a domestic film in the country, behind Spirited Away, and the fourth-largest ever, behind Titanic and Frozen.[64] It is the first anime film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than US$100 million (~¥10 billion) at the Japanese box office.[26] The film topped the Japanese box office for a record-breaking twelve non-consecutive weekends, holding the number-one position for nine consecutive weekends before being overtaken by Death Note: Light Up the New World in the last weekend of October. It returned to the top for another three weeks before being overtaken once again by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.[26][65][66]
International
The success of the film also extended beyond Japan, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film in China on December 17, 2016.[67] Having grossed US$81.3 million in China, it is the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in the country.[68] The film was screened in over 7,000 theaters, earning an estimated US$10.9 million on its opening day from 66,000 screenings and attracting over 2.77 million viewers, becoming the biggest traditionally animated film opening in China.[69][70] It also held the record for the highest-grossing non-Hollywood foreign film in China until it was surpassed by two Indian films, Dangal and Secret Superstar, in May 2017 and February 2018, respectively.[71][72] On July 19, 2024, Your Name was re-released in China, earning over US$5.3 million on its opening day alone.[citation needed]
The film reached number one on its opening five days in South Korea, with 1.18 million admissions and a gross of US$8.2 million,[73] becoming the first Japanese film since Howl's Moving Castle to reach number one in the country.[74] The film eventually drew a total 3.81 million admissions in South Korea[75] and grossed US$23.6 million,[76] making it the highest-grossing anime film in South Korea until it was surpassed in 2023 by The First Slam Dunk and Suzume (which was also directed by Shinkai, and is the third installment of his "disaster trilogy").[75][77]
In Thailand, Your Name grossed ฿44.1 million (US$1.23 million).[25] By December 26, 2016, the film grossed US$771,945 in Australia[78] and US$95,278 in New Zealand.[79] On December 20, Australian distributor Madman Entertainment stated that the film made over A$1 million in the Australian box office before closing its limited release run.[80]
In the United States and Canada, the film grossed a total US$5,017,246.[81] In the United Kingdom, it grossed £500,000 (US$675,000) in 2016, making it the year's fifth highest-grossing non-English and non-Hindi film in the country.[82]
Critical response
Your Name was met with widespread critical acclaim. Based on 119 reviews, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As beautifully animated as it is emotionally satisfying, Your Name adds another outstanding chapter to writer-director Makoto Shinkai's filmography."[83] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[84]
Mark Schilling of The Japan Times gave the film a rating of 4 out of 5 and praised the film's animation for its "blend of gorgeous, realistic detail and emotionally grounded fantasy."[11] He also described the film's "over-deliver[y]" of "the comedy of adolescent embarrassment and awkwardness" and its ending for being "To the surprise of no one who has ever seen a Japanese seishun eiga (youth drama)."[11] Reception outside of Japan was also highly positive.[62][85] Mark Kermode called the film his ninth favorite film to be released in the United Kingdom in 2016.[86] American reviews were generally positive: in The New York Times, Manohla Dargis described it as "a wistfully lovely Japanese tale,"[87] while David Sims of The Atlantic said it was "a dazzling new work of anime."[88] Furthermore, The Boston Globe had a positive opinion of the film, saying that it was "pretty but too complicated."[89] Mike Toole from Anime News Network listed it as the third-best anime film of all time.[90] John Musker and Ron Clements, directors of the Disney animated films The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog, and Moana, praised the film for its beauty and originality.[91]
Despite the praise he received, Shinkai insisted that the film was not as good as it could have been: "There are things we could not do, [the director of animation] Masashi Ando wanted to keep working [on] but had to stop us for lack of money ... For me, it's incomplete, unbalanced. The plot is fine but the film is not at all perfect. Two years was not enough."[92]
Legacy
The protagonists of Your Name, Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, appeared in Makoto Shinkai's succeeding film Weathering with You (2016; also the second of his "disaster trilogy"), as well as in its light novelization.
Nekotofu, creator of the manga series Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister!, cited Your Name as an influence, stating that the popularity of the film motivated the creation of the series.[93][94] According to Crunchyroll, the success of Your Name helped push non-Ghibli anime films into a more mainstream place in Japan, and changed trends in not merely in the production of anime films but also in their promotion.[95]
Your Name has been referenced and parodied in popular culture, including in the eighth episode of Little Witch Academia and the third episode of Gabriel DropOut; others include a pornographic spoof of the film titled Your Rope (2017), Complicity (a 2018 Japanese film), the first episode of Pop Team Epic, Shirobako: The Movie, the video game Last Stop, a promotional advertisement for a season of the online game Fortnite, and the first episode of the second season of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You.[96]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing in 168th place.[97]
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Accolades
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Adaptations
Summarize
Perspective
Books
The film was adapted as a light novel by Shinkai himself. It was published in Japan by Kadokawa on June 18, 2016, a month prior to the film's première, and is 262 pages long.[117]
By September 2016, it had sold approximately 1,029,000 copies. An official visual guide was also released.[118] The novel has sold over 1.3 million copies, while the novel and visual guide have sold over 2.5 million copies combined.[119]
A followup to the light novel was released on August 1, 2016, under the title Your Name. Another Side: Earthbound. It is set during the events of Your Name through the perspective of Mitsuha's friends and family. The light novel was written by Makoto Shinkai and Arata Kanoh, with illustrations by Masayoshi Tanaka and Hiyori Asakawa.
Both light novels, which were also adapted as manga by Shinkai himself, were published in English by Yen Press. An audiobook was released by their subdivision Yen Audio in July 2024.[120]
Live-action film
On September 27, 2017, J. J. Abrams and Eric Heisserer announced that they were developing a live-action remake of Your Name to be released by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot in cooperation with Toho, who produced the original film. The latter is to handle the film's distribution in Japan.[121] Abrams and Heisserer were to be the film's producer and screenwriter, respectively. Heisserer stated that the Japanese right holders desired for it to be made from a Western point of view,[122] with a transposition of the film's settings: a Native American woman living in a rural area and a young man from Chicago discovering they are magically and intermittently swapping bodies.[123]
Marc Webb signed on to direct the remake in February 2019. By September 2020, Deadline Hollywood reported that Lee Isaac Chung had taken over as both writer and director, working off a draft penned by Emily V. Gordon, with Abrams and Genki Kawamura as co-producers.[124] Citing scheduling issues, Chung departed from the project in July 2021.[125]
On October 31, 2022, Carlos López Estrada was announced to be writing and directing the remake, replacing Webb and Chung.[126]
According to Kawamura, the film was reportedly still in production as of October 2023. Progress had been greatly encumbered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.[127]
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See also
Notes
- 糸守; lit. 'thread guard'
- 御神体; lit. 'body of sovereign god'
- Referred to in the film as "magic hour" or "kataware-doki," neologized from "kawatare-doki," an old Japanese word meaning "twilight;" a similar archaic or poetic word in English is crepuscule. "Kawatare" (彼は誰) literally means "Who is he/she?"; "kataware" is homophonic with a word meaning "one part of a couple; fragment" (片割れ). Old Japanese superstition says all manners of supernatural occurrence are possible at twilight.
- Taki wrote this phrase due to the precedent of Mitsuha's text-messages being erased. If he did indeed write his name, Musubi (the fictional kami of Miyamizu Shrine) would otherwise erase his name; however, since he wrote a confession, he preserved his sentiment in her mind. Makoto Shinkai once said that Mitsuha intended to write "I love you" on Taki's palm for the same reason. In Shintoism, mystical love cannot be erased, being prevented by the lunar deity Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.
- Neologized from "kawatare-doki," an old Japanese word meaning "twilight'" a similar archaic or poetic word in English is crepuscule. "Kawatare" (彼は誰) literally means "Who is he/she?"; "kataware" is homophonic with a word meaning "one part of a couple; fragment" (片割れ). Old Japanese superstition says all manners of supernatural occurrence are possible at twilight.
- For this translation, dynamic equivalence is used, as the title of this song is in the Mino dialect, which is comparable to Southern dialects in the United States.
- Sometimes stylized as Your Name. or your name.
- On September 3, 2013 (September 3, 2016 in Taki's timeline).
- On October 2, 2013.
- On October 4, 2013 in the original timeline (October 3, 2016 in Taki's).
- October 3, 2016; Mitsuha set the date the day prior.
- In the film, minutes before this, Mitsuha was seen crying upon realizing that she was falling for Taki.
- On October 21, 2016. In the meantime, Taki and Tsukasa's friend Shinta Takagi substitutes for the former's shift at Il Giardino delle Parole, where all three are employed.
- On October 22, 2016.
- On October 3, 2013.
- On October 4, 2013.
- On October 22, 2016.
- On October 4, 2021 (exactly five years following the preceding awakening).
- The institution is fictional, but is based on the Motomachi High School in Tokyo.
- The Italian title of Shinkai's 2013 film The Garden of Words. It is based off the Café La Bohème, which occupies its address in the real world. This easter egg was implemented by one of the film's environmental artists.
- The character's name is unknown. They live together in room 608 on the sixth floor of an apartment building in Shinjuku.
- Taki's mother does not appear in the film; neither is she mentioned at any point during the film or its light novelizations.
- It is implied in the Weathering with You light novel (and subsequently confirmed by Makoto Shinkai) that Taki and Mitsuha married by 2024: that is to say, before the epilogue of Weathering with You.
- The name "Mitsuha" literally translates to "three leaves." She was named as such by her parents (in the film, her mother; in the light novel, her father) in line with the nomenclaturial tradition of her grandmother and mother. From Hitoha onward, the Miyamizus are named via "leaves," with which a number (in the kun reading) denotes the ordinality of their geniture: "Hitoha" = one leaf; "Futaba" = two leaves; "Mitsuha" = three leaves; "Yotsuha" = four leaves. The surname "Miyamizu" translates to "shrine-water."
- This dialect is nevertheless reasonably mutually intelligible with Standard Japanese.
- It was implied in the Weathering with You light novel (and subsequently confirmed by Makoto Shinkai) that Taki and Mitsuha married by 2024: that is to say, before the epilogue of Weathering with You. She would later present her kumihimo braid to Taki's grandmother Fumi upon their wedding.
- From the list of Tiamat comet victims in Itomori in the middle of the film.
- For example, upon hearing Mitsuha and Sayaka bemoan the lack of a café in Itomori, Tessie (with Taki, in Mitsuha's body) began to build one for them.
- Takagi is usually referred to by his surname.
- Okudera is usually referred to by her surname.
- During his marriage to Futaba, owing to local religious custom, Toshiki assumed his wife's surname.
- In the English dub of The Garden of Words, Yukino is voiced by Maggie Flecknoe. Kana Hanazawa reprises this role from the original Japanese version of the film.
- The protagonist of the same film, Takao Akizuki (秋月 孝雄, Akizuki Takao) also features in Your Name as a silent cameo appearance, albeit for a few frames.
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References
External links
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