I am a huge anime fan, but I don't often get to see anime movies until they have been released for quite a while. This was definitely the case when it Comes to "Kim No Na Wa", or to give it's english speaking title "Your Name. I first heard about the movie through film critic Mark Kermode who had raved about the film for quite some time. I don't know about you, but hearing so much praise for a movie, even if it is only from a single source can put a dampener on your viewing of that movie - sometimes you are let down because either the person raving about it has an inflated view of the movie or they look for different things in a movie than you do, so your perception of the film will be different. Equally, though the movie might be as good as they said, because they have gone on, and on - and on - about it, you go into the viewing biased one way or the other. I must admit I did go into viewing this film worried this may happen. Thankfully it didn't
Following the well trodden body-swap trope used regularly in the teen movies of Hollywood (such movies as Freaky Friday, 13 Going On 30 come to mind) Your Name manages to bring something new to the table. Often with these films, the two people who swap bodies know each other somehow - such as being mother and daughter in both Freaky Friday movies. In this film the protagonists have no idea who or even where they are when they swap. This adds an intriguing dimension given that initially they have to find these things out before they can start discovering the main question of why it is happening. The other marked difference is that the swap only happens while they are asleep - therefore they also have an impact on the others life, with immediate impact on the other person. Meaning they have to work out how to live without making changes to many changes the others life while they are there.
From the way the trailers play out, it can be easy to invisinge this movie to be romantic in nature, and while there are indeed elements of this in the film, I would say anyone seeing it for that reason maybe slightly disappointed as it is to my mind far more of a film about discovery than anything romance.
It would therefore be wrong of me to say much more than that. This is wonderfully directed movie by Makoto Shinkai, who manages to capture the same beauty as his previous masterpiece 5 Centimeters Per Second, all while bringing something unique to the table.
A movie is only as good as it's ending, and I can certainly say that this movie has one of the most satisfying open ended endings going. It really is a movie one should, and must see!