Therapist Reacts to YOUR NAME (Filmmaker falls in LOVE)

Taki writing „I love you“ was so smart because he knew that the name would vanish in the same way that his diary entries did. So he wrote something that was not adressed at Mitsuha’s memory but at her heart. This way, even though they did not remember each other explicitly, they knew there is someone who they dearly love which is why they find another again after all these events.

I love that the film opens with Taki and Mitsuha as adults, talking about how they both feel like they've lost something important. This helps the audience to get into the same headspace as the characters, since we also don't know what they've lost.

Glad you guys liked this movie! A cool note about the sharpie-handwriting scene: Taki wrote "すきだ" (I love you) and Mitsuha wasn't able to finish writing her name...but she actually wasn't going to write her name in the first place. You can see that in Taki's hand is a long horizontal stroke which isn't how you would start "みつは”, the first stroke is short and to the left. You could argue that she was going for "三葉" which is the Kanji equivalent but its unreasonable to write the second character in what would presumably be a short time. In other words, she was actually going to write something else that starts with a long horizontal stroke...There's not many characters that fit this bill, depending on your handwriting style, but the character す will always start with a long horizontal line in any handwritten form. Which means that she was probably intending to write "すき" (I love you) herself. 10/10 moment.

What I love about this movie is the dichotomy between Mitsuha and Taki; Mitsuha has her whole life ahead of her and was given purpose by the people around her which was suffocating for her and put a lot of responsibility on her while Taki doesn’t really have that and just sort of does his own things like a wanderer. It was only until they swapped bodies was Taki able to find purpose and pursue Mitsuha and Mitsuha was able to stand up against her father and start paving the way for her own purpose. It’s like they found purpose in each other.

I remember hearing someone say "Miyazaki makes the magical feel like the everyday while Shinkai makes the everyday feel magical" and I think this film is a great example of that

The biggest part of Mitsuha's "laughter through tears" is that she was going to write the same thing. She was starting to write the characters for "I love you" as well. That's part of why she laughed.

12:01 love how you can see Mitsuha running more "boyishly" and Taki running more "girlishly" because they switched bodies

"Dad, why did you name my sister Rose?" Me: "Because son, we decided to name our children after our favorite things" "Cool, thanks dad!" Me: "No problem, Your Name"

From a phycological standpoint, Violet Evergarden would be a great show to go over. Dealing with loss and the switch from war to civilian life is done so well. And she learns what the meaning of love is by writing letters for people who have their own stories to tell.

That "I love you" scene hits you harder than the comet...

Big note for the dub that made me love it is that Radwimps is bilingual and actually did all the lyrical songs in english too which for me adds so much to those moments like her seeing his message.

Beautifully made, poignant, emotionally fulfilling, but you also get plenty of laughs, especially when Mitsuha's little sister keeps opening the bedroom door at the worst possible moment.

I love how the creator of "Your name" Makoto Shinkai perfectly captures the feeling of being a teenager in love in this and his other films. The longing, the awkwardness, and how life or death it feels, all while you are trying to figure out your life, become an adult, make important decisions and etc. I surely felt that way when I was 16-17, so I get a sense of nostalgia watching his films.

I think another thing that's implied to explain why they forget each other is that Taki went to the "underworld" in order to find Mitsuha again, and as Mitsuha's grandmother said earlier in the film, you must give something up to return, hence Taki loses his memories. There is so much incredible symbolism, both overt and subtle, woven throughout this film that really just takes it up a level with every rewatch. I read somewhere that Shinkai wanted to build from the idea of seeing someone for the first time and having the inexplicable feeling of knowing them...and man did he nail that. I'm so glad you covered this film, you articulated so many things that I love about it. Thank you so much!!

One of the things that I've come to love about this movie as well is the quiet mythology that lives in its margins. On the first watching or two, it's easy to just get a surface level read on the scenes with her grandma--she's teaching the traditions of the family, immersing her grandkids in the family history... But she's also subtly explaining that all of this has happened before. She mentions that their shinto temple that they run has a bunch of traditions and practices, but the old temple burned down along with all the writings, so nobody has known for generations WHY they have these traditions. Then we learn that the women of the family have been doing the body-swap thing, from Mitsuha to her mom to her grandma. We see that the traditional sake can put you in touch with someone you switched with. We see that not only is the holy of holies a crater, but on the ceiling the comet is painted. And the braided cords the family makes are a) a phenomenal use of a Japanese trope, the red string of fate, but also they allow you to better keep your memories of when you switch. It's so beautiful.

Something that I keep coming back to, that I love you guys experiencing, is that animation isn't a genre--it's a medium. Anime in particular is viewed through such a specific lens in Western culture, and I cannot begin to tell y'all at this channel how much I appreciate the venture into these movies!! It's such a unique expression/art-form and deserves the appreciation that you have certainly given it. Thank you!

The moment that Mitsuha opens her hand and sees "I love you" on her hand, that was the moment that broke me in this movie. I had liked it up till that point, had an interesting premise and beautiful art, but that was the moment I was fully immersed and wanted everything to work out.

Fun fact, when they right dummy and idiot on each others faces, it’s actually a dialect thing. People in the countryside of Japan use Baka for idiot, and people in Tokyo specifically use Aho instead. So they aren’t just calling each other stupid, they are correcting each other’s dialect so they will speak properly in the location they are in

The movie is the embodiment of Makoto Shinkai's love for animation. I love how when the "camera" pans around corners, the light dims like there's a camera with a shutter. I have to constantly remind myself that there is no camera.

I think the part that is important when Mitsuha opens her hand to see Taki wrote "I love you" instead of his name is that his name didn't matter. Mitsuha don't need to know his name in that moment, what she needed to know is that someone, somewhere, wanted her to survive, to fight, to go forward. His name was unsignificant. A detail. Taki not only confessed his feelings to her but also saved her life in every way. This film is really one of my all time favorite, everything about it is beautiful. If you haven't yet, I think you should watch AKIRA. Katsuhiro Otomo masterpiece that Americans actually wanted to adapt really bad but still thankfully hadn't, lol #DontTouchAkira It's very very different but Akira influenced so many both in filmaking and storytelling, will it be for anime or live action that I think it's an important watch.