Weathering With You

Weathering With You is the latest film by famed Japanese director Makoto Shinkai. He's well known now for his big hit "Your Name" a few years ago that was not only successful in his home of Japan but also over here in the U.S. I've been a huge fan of his movies since I saw one of his earlier movies "5 Centimeters Per Second" years ago and his work has continued to impress me over the years. This new movie "Weathering With You" was one I was very excited to see knowing the man behind it has a really good catalog of movies under his belt.

The story picks up with a teenage boy named Hokada who is running away from home to Tokyo on a boat. Tokyo at this time has been experiencing non-stop rainfall and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. During the storm, Hokada nearly slips off the boat into the ocean but is saved by a man named Keisuke. With no place to go in Tokyo as a runaway, Keisuke lets Hokada stay with him at his place as long as he helps him write articles for his business. One of the articles he's working on is about a legend of the Sunshine Girl, a girl who is said to have the power to control the weather and stop the endless rainfall. Turns out to be true as Hokada ends up meeting a girl named Hina who happens to be said Sunshine Girl. Together they form a friendship as they both learn about her powers and the consequences that come with such a powerful ability.

There were a lot of similarities between this movie and Makoto's last movie "Your Name". The story plays out in a similar fashion, but that's not to say it's a bad thing. I think the fact that "Your Name" was such a big hit sort of created the formula for this next movie. It sort of feels like an unofficial sequel of sorts, though it doesn't have anything to do with the last movie. Even with all that, I still really enjoyed this movie a lot and I think it might be the closest thing to a Studio Ghibli film we can get these days unless they make more of those. The characters are all very likable and they all grow throughout the movie. The story progresses smoothly and the stakes get higher as the movie goes on, which keeps things interesting. It doesn't actually play out the way I thought it would and it actually has a lot of surprising moments that I didn't see coming. The movie establishes rules about the weather-changing powers and it sticks by them until the end, never taking any shortcuts, which I really liked.

The animation is as beautiful as "Your Name" if not better. The way the movie presents Tokyo feels incredibly familiar to the actual city and the amount of detail they put into it is pretty amazing. The colors and animation really pop out and it's a treat to the eyes the entire time. Along with a really great Japanese soundtrack that elevates the emotion in a lot of the scenes, very similar to the way "Your Name" did it.

I know Anime is still kind of considered a "niche" of sorts, even though it's also as popular as it's ever been. Niche isn't the right word, but I know a lot of people will write this movie off just because it happens to be anime. I think this movie is on that Disney, Pixar, Ghibli level of animation and storytelling though, so anyone who likes those studios should give this a chance. This is not only one of the best anime films I've seen in a year, but also one of the best films in general. It was beautifully crafted and it told a really interesting story through amazing visuals and fun characters.

Overall Grade for the movie is easily an "A".