Makoto Shinkai’s animated film, newly released in North America, is a magical and ultimately optimistic coming-of-age story that taps into the country’s unique anxieties.
A fact that will come up in nearly every review of the film Your Name as it opens in theaters across North America this weekend is how it was the highest-grossing film in Japan last year. Makoto Shinkai’s animated feature about two body-swapping teenagers has thus far pulled in over 24 billion yen (around $214 million), becoming the second highest-grossing movie in the country ever, trailing only the revered director Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 Spirited Away. It’s shattered records for Japanese films across Asia, and is now the most profitable picture from the country in China. Before even arriving stateside, it has nabbed the title of the top-grossing anime movie of all time , while also enjoying critical raves. ( The Atlantic ’s David Sims praised it as one of the best teen movies in years.)
Yet these numbers fail to capture just how big a pop-cultural force Your Name ( Kimi no Na wa in Japanese) has become in its home country. Since arriving in movie theaters late last August, it has spawned limited-run cafes, dating events , and merchandise ranging from sake to a home planetarium. The film centers on a pair of adolescents, one living in Tokyo and the other in a town in the countryside of Gifu Prefecture. And so travel companies have organized walking tours of Your Name’s metropolitan locations, while a bus tour out to the rural areas that inspired Makoto proved popular (Gifu as a whole has seen a big economic boost in the film’s wake). Turn on the TV and many shows reference the film, while the songs from Your Name have become staples at karaoke and junior high schools across the archipelago. Traditional Japanese kumihimo (or threads) have become a trendy accessory on Instagram after playing a central role in the story.
Your Name Is a Dazzling New Work of Anime
All of which is to suggest that Your Name resonated with Japanese viewers deeply, and it appears set to become the defining film of the decade, not just financially but also in a more meaningful cultural sense. Your Name is a coming-of-age story—a common variety of Japanese cinema, give or take the switching-bodies-while-dreaming part—but woven into this familiar genre are issues weighing on the nation in the 2010s. Among other themes, Makoto touches on vanishing rural communities, trauma following the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the ever-present unease around natural disasters that has followed.
Given Japan’s rapidly graying population and a lack of full-time employment, Your Name arrived at a time when prospects for the future look bleak for many in the country, especially those entering adulthood. And yet a youthful optimism has been reflected in some of the most popular cultural products of the past few years, ranging from viral songs to TV shows with huge ratings such as Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu. Your Name might be the most hopeful creation yet; Makoto himself has frequently said he made the movie for younger audiences, so that “ they can believe in their future.”
The director, who has made animated features since 2004 (though never on a level close to Your Name ), has been tagged by many as “the next Miyazaki,” referring to the Studio Ghibli co-founder and mind behind beloved films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo.
