# Best anime for years - Kimi No Na Wa 君の名は。(English title: 'Your Name') **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996 "2017-06-03T11:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/1 "2017-06-03T11:37:43Z")
I’ve seen nothing here yet about the Japanese anime Kimi No Na Wa 君の名は。(English title: ‘Your Name’). It seems to be worth discussing. I watched it a couple of days ago. In fact, when I got to the end I went straight back to the beginning and started watching it right through again. It’s that kind of movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve found any movie so gripping, in any genre. Last year it was the top movie at the Japanese box office for 12 weeks. The director is Makoto Shinkai, who is being called the next Miyazaki, though his style is very different. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie is rated 98% by critics, 94% by audiences. It starts out with a teenage boy and girl who begin to wake up in each other’s bodies every few days. At first they think it’s a dream, then it seems that it’s real, and they start leaving messages for each other. You may imagine from this that it’s a light teen comedy, like Freaky Friday or something, and that you can predict where it’s going. But you can’t. The first 45 min is fairly light, but then there is a _major_ unexpected plot twist… and it really starts to get interesting. It’s an intelligent movie, with an intricate plot. You have to pay careful attention to the details and think about what’s happening and how it all fits together. It takes at least a couple of viewings to pick up the subtler details. It’s also emotionally exceptionally powerful, and the visuals are stunning, even better than Studio Ghibli quality. _“Once in a while when I wake up, I find myself crying. I can never remember the dream I must have had, but the feeling that I’ve lost something lingers for a long time after I wake up.”_ Trailer: The Japanese soundtrack with subtitles is far better than the English dubbed version. **Watch out for spoilers if you read the reviews.** ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/2 "2017-06-03T11:42:08Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > _snip_ Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out this weekend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/3 "2017-06-03T11:57:15Z")
If we are talking about recent great anime movies, I’d say [Koe no Katachi](http://randomc.net/2017/05/30/koe-no-katachi/) is also worth mentioning. I did love Kimi No Na Wa as well and of the two it was easier to watch - I have trouble watching tense social situations and Koe no Katachi had a lot of those. It was refreshing if a bit painful to see school kids being brutally mean in an anime, most of them have a lot lighter tone. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/4 "2017-06-03T15:23:35Z")
I took my 12-yo-daughter to see it a few weeks ago. We both loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/5 "2017-07-05T20:17:20Z")
bump Finally saw the movie and thank you for the recommendation. I was genuinely surprised. The opening 45 minutes or so really did feel like standard stuff, but I did not guess the twists and thoroughly enjoyed the last hour or so. Highly recommended. Has anyone seen this director’s other movies? I’m curious about him now. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/6 "2017-07-08T14:00:35Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Has anyone seen this director’s other movies? I’m curious about him now. I have seen\* 5 Centimeters Per Second\* and _The Place Promised in Our Early Days_, but can’t remember enough about their plots to say much about them. I remember that I neither liked them enough to gush over them or disliked them enough to complain over them. (I wasn’t even going to bother posting this lukewarm comment, but nobody else seems to have anything more useful to say about them…) [Both](https://www.google.com/search?q=5+cm+per+second&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUv_jO5PnUAhVBRyYKHQfmAUYQ_AUIBigB&biw=1280&bih=627#tbm=isch&q=5+centimeters+per+second) [movies](https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Place+Promised+in+Our+Early+Days&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFk-mc5vnUAhXCOyYKHRhKDmoQ_AUICygC&biw=1280&bih=627) are really beautifully draw, though, and may be worth watching just to experience that, especially in HD on a big screen. I’ve also seen a few of his shorts, including _Hoshi no Koe_/_Voices of a Distant Star_. _Hoshi no Koe_ is impressive in that it is a 25 minute short that was written, drawn, _and_ voiced by Shinkai. (There are two Japanese language tracks available, the original with Shinkai and his girlfriend, and one with two professional voice actors.) (As for _Your Name_, while I liked most of the movie, I felt that it unraveled a bit towards the end and didn’t quite “stick the landing.”) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/7 "2017-07-08T14:35:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > (As for _Your Name_, while I liked most of the movie, I felt that it unraveled a bit towards the end and didn’t quite “stick the landing.”) [Here’s](http://www.thisisbarry.com/single-post/2017/05/08/Kimi-No-Na-Wa-Your-Name-2016-Movie-Plot-Ending-Explained) a good explanation of the ending, and of the finer details of the plot that are easy to miss. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/8 "2017-09-28T18:35:21Z")
This is getting [a live-action version with lots and lots of lens-flare](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/j-j-abrams-your-name-remake-paramount-1202574994/). ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/9 "2017-09-28T18:48:51Z")
I missed this thread last June but am grateful to see it now; I’ve added this to my list. Thanks to the OP and to **Darren** for today’s bump. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/10 "2017-09-28T18:58:04Z")
I also agree, great movie. I will say that it feels a lot like a Twilight Zone episode… that has a literal twilight zone moment. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/11 "2019-01-10T06:17:59Z")
[Update(ish) on the live-action movie](https://soranews24.com/2018/12/27/writer-for-hollywood-version-of-anime-your-name-says-japanese-side-wants-westernized-viewpoint/). ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/12 "2019-01-10T11:40:04Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > [Here’s](http://www.thisisbarry.com/single-post/2017/05/08/Kimi-No-Na-Wa-Your-Name-2016-Movie-Plot-Ending-Explained) a good explanation of the ending, and of the finer details of the plot that are easy to miss. Thanks for that - I missed a lot when I watched it. But with the explanation its a better film than I first thought. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/13 "2019-02-15T18:30:08Z")
[The latest news on the remake](https://soranews24.com/2019/02/15/hollywood-your-name-anime-live-action-movie-will-feature-native-american-girl-chicago-boy/). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-anime-for-years-kimi-no-na-wa-english-title-your-name/787996/14 "2022-04-13T06:57:24Z")
Trailer for the latest movie from Makoto Shinkai: > **[Jaw-dropping trailer released for Makoto Shinkai’s new anime movie, Suzume no...](https://soranews24.com/2022/04/11/jaw-dropping-trailer-released-for-makoto-shinkais-new-anime-movie-suzume-no-tojimari%e3%80%90video%e3%80%91/)** > > Magical adventure road movie looks to a continuation of the story of the world of Your Name and Weathering with You.