Wednesday, January 4, 2017

T5W#73-Top 5 Reasons I Need to see Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name”


I was listening to Anime News Networks end of the year podcast tonight, catching up on things, when IT came up again.  No I’m not talking about Yuri On Ice (which may or may not show up here soon).  I’m talking about the other Anime that no one can seem to stop talking about this season.  A simple, two word title simply known as…Your Name.  Almost overnight, this title came out of nowhere and has taken the Anime world by storm.  And this isn’t just Attack on Titan, Yuri On Ice, Dragon Ball Z levels…this could be something else entirely.  Having opened back in August, the accolades continue to mount, amongst other things.  So for the first T5W, I present to you my Top 5 reasons I need to check this movie out.
 
#5-Shinkai’s First Good Movie?
One of the big things I took away from the ANN Podcast coverage…Makoto Shinkai’s works are generally not that great.  While he might have an artistic hand, his writing is sort of…not that great.  Ive heard of a couple of his other titles, “The Place Promised in Our Early Days” and “5 Centimeters Per Second” and both didn’t have a lot of praise about them from those I know who have seen them.  To hear that he’s managed to not only win but win BIG with Your Name is kind of shocking.  It’s almost like Ridley Scott not having done a really good movie since 2005’s Kingdom of Heaven (THE DIRECTORS CUT!!!) and suddenly coming back to form with 2015’s The Martian.  Whatever the magical circumstances, Shinkai has found a good story to match his animation and the world loves him for it, some might even call him the next Miyazaki…but that might be premature.  One things for sure, the pressure will be on him now for his follow up film…I don’t envy that responsibility.
 
#4-What is it about?
I have no honest to God clue about what the hell this movie is even about…that’s a tough feet to pull.  The IMDB summary is pretty cryptic and Wikipedia has a full blown summary of the movie cause it’s been out for so long (Naturally I haven’t taken a look).  From what I’ve gleamed from listening to the ANN Podcast, it’s got fantasy elements via dreams but it also has some ties to the disastrous 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami that rocked Japan.  Naturally, this has caused the movie to have a heavy “feels” aspect to it.  Do these two things connect?  If so yeah, it’s going to be a heavy and emotional ride.  But again, it’s not everyday I head into an Anime with almost ZERO knowledge about the plot…bravo Your Name, bravo.  I haven’t even glimpsed at a trailer.  And you know what, unless I hear more from a friend, im going to go in with ears closed and eyes open, the movie might surprise me more that way.
 
#3-Only Anime to rival Yuri On Ice this year
If people weren’t talking about one, they were talking about the other.  Yuri On Ice broke the internet on a weekly basis with it’s amazing animation, heavy emphasis on a same sex relationship, and plot twists that drove the fans mad.  When the news wasn’t about the hot and heavy developments on the ice, they were about the accolades and continued news of financial victories Your Name was winning.  It really wouldn’t shock me if fans of Yuri On Ice loved Your Name equally and vice versa.  The Summer belonged to Your Name and the winter was all Yuri On Ice, but did one really overtake the other in 2016 or was it an almost even fight?  I can only vouch for Yuri on Ice so I’ll have to get back to you on that.
 
#2-So much money
There is hardly a week that goes by that I don’t hear about Your Name shattering one international box office record after another.  Already, it is the fourth highest grossing film in Japan and continues to climb.  It apparently held the #1 spot in the Japanese box office for over 12 weeks straight.  It was briefly dethroned by Death Note: Light Up the New World before being knocked off the top spot for good by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  That aside, Your Name has opened everywhere except the US and has broken records in China and Thailand amongst others.  It’s set to make it’s US debut this month (I think, don’t quote me).  And after all the buzz and money it’s earned so far, God only knows what it might do here.  The last Anime film to make a sort of splash in a limited release was Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F back in 2015.  But this film is being praised as much as DBZ…it could do just as well if not better.
 
#1-Oscar Worthy?
When I heard this story break, I nearly lost it.  Just what is it about this damn movie that makes it an Oscar contender?  It isn’t even a Ghibli film for crying out loud.  Well, it hasn’t been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar yet.  If the film should get the Oscar nod when everything is announced soon, that will clinch the need to go see this film as soon as possible.  A lot of really good animated films have come out this year from Zootopia to Finding Dory to Moana.  Betting men would put their bucks on either Zootopia or Finding Dory to take home the Gold.  But if a film as surprisingly successful as Your Name can swoop in for the win…it will be the second Anime in history to win the award, after Spirited Away.  Yuri on Ice may have had this in it’s theme song, but maybe this is the Anime that was “born to make history.”

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