You Name ( Kimi No Na Wa )

YOUR NAME

It was a great anime movie, Makoto Shinkai's talent and hard work surely is not exaggerated. I experienced joy, sadness, anxiety, fear, and relieve all through its 100 minutes of duration.

But still, the feeling something in me till now is... sadness Or fear.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't even a horror or thriller movie. So how can I feel sadness or fear in the end of a romantic movie with happy ending?

It's because of this scene below.

The most awaited scene, when finally Taki and Matsuha meets, after running and falling and shouting each other's name and racing with time. For that one moment, the void between them vanishes and they can literally see and touch each other.

Dusk; the time of the day when all dimensions collided, the time when those who are alive and not alive are in the same dimension.

When the dusk is nearing its end, Taki suggests Matsuha to write the other's name on each other's palm so they won't forget it once they get back to their own body. Taki does Matsuha's palm.

Then when Matsuha is halfway in writing her name on Taki's palm, the dusk ends and she's gone.

There. This very scene that haunts me: the scene where the boardmarker falls and the music stops abruptly.

Taki standing in the crate, alone, Mitsuha's gone, there's a single scratch on his palm where Matsuha is halfway in writing her name. And I began to cry, all at once like a broken dam. It was as good as watching two souls reuniting happily in tears when suddenly a truck came out of nowhere and hit the girl, dammit like wtf????

To be fair I should've expected them to be separated again once the dusk ends, but it was the happiest moment in the movie, and it was stopped as sudden as it was started. The separation ends too soon without a chance of saying goodbye, like a flow of dialogue stops in midsentence. It is cruel.

What's worse is that the two of them get into the amnesia again, not long after they can't literally see each other again, right after both has shouted to themselves "There's still time (to warn people about the comet). I will never, never forget you. I will remember. Your name is.. your name is.." there's where they trail off. Time and space and the unwanted oblivion, again between them.

What's worse is when Matsuha's back to her time and looks at her palm to see what he has scrawled there, instead of finding his name she finds the words

"I love you"

So she cries, saying "this way I will not know your name.."

That separation is terrible.

Darkness yanks her out from out of nowhere, leaving him blinking puzzledly while comprehension creeps into his mind, that she's gone. Again.

That scene left me breathless.

Even after the end of 100 minutes they get a happy ending, with the promised happy tears, still I went to sleep and woke up this morning with that scene still haunting me.

Separation.

Doesn't it feel like your soul is being mutilated? And the worst literal separation of all; death. The fear of knowing that we can irrevocably lose our loved ones, never to see and talk to them and hearing their voices again.

Overall, for me the movie is about destined love. I was going to write 'true love' but the words make me cringe.

Still, being the (sometimes) hopeless romantic that I am, I like the movie.

All the stories about a red thread tied on your pinky, linked to your still-unknown mate's pinky, that could transcend time and space.

It's strange yet somehow calming. Knowing that maybe, just maybe, it is true that your soul is made in pair, and that exact pair is waiting for you, looking for you just like you're looking for him. That your body reacts to him too without you knowing, just like when Matsuha cries the first time they meet again in Tokyo five years later, despite not remembering who he is, not knowing why the sight of him moves her to tears.

Her soul and body just know, even if she doesn't exactly remember.

Makoto Shinkai is a genius, this one movie of his is absolutely a rollercoaster ride of emotion. It left deep impression on me.

The movie conveys one message: love can transcend time and space to change one’s fate. And it does so astonishingly well. Allow me to elaborate.

Now onto the main message. I’d say the film has a pretty tight story, most things tie into each other and very little time is wasted. First half of the film conveys that love can transcend time and space. It is pretty obvious that the main characters were forming a bond despite their distance/background. But the film did not reveal the two were actually in different timelines until much later. Eventually, their love for each other endured despite everything else being stripped away and reduced down to a mere sense of longing. This again emphasizes that love is above the four dimensions we operate in and is beyond our intellectual capacity. The meteor symbolizes fate, which drives the second half of the film. Shinkai spent quite a bit of time on unfolding the climax, which I think diluted the message a little bit, but it was certainly gorgeous to look at. The message is clear, love can motivate you to do miracles, despite all odds. (Note the meteor struck Earth in both scenarios, but how people reacted to the incoming fate made all the difference. 

Overall, I loved it.

My views on Your Name!

Your Name is full of emotions. You will feel joyful, sad, happy, fear, and discouraged all in 2 hours of movie.

Cheered, when they exchange their body and do weird things.

Rejoiced, their little fights will make you laugh. .

Sad, When they get separated due to tragic event.

You will feel furious at end when it took while to meet each other.

You will feel the pain of separation and hope.

The moment of relief when they finally meet. Finally!!

No. I don’t think it’s about time-and-space-traveling romantic love.

In my eyes, it’s a Who Am I story.

A story that I ask me in the mirror:

”Kimi no na wa?”

My name is Woman.

My name is Man.

My name is making-wine-by-chewing-rice goddess,

or Chinese, or Bread Maker, or Nell, or Mitsuha.

Is my life a dream?

Is my dream a life?

Does life mean traveling between dream and real, real and dream, me and another me and next me?

Do I see life a self-redemption? Or a journey of identification? Or a musubi of me and world?

I learned this Japanese word from the movie:

Tasogare

I knew it meant dusk (written as 黄昏) aka the moment between sun and moon. But I didn’t know it could also be written as 誰そ彼 (Who is he?)

On Mitsuha’s palm, she thought he wrote his name down. She looked at it:

“Dai suki (I love you)”

Time is musubi. It expands, twists and connects. So does universe.

I ask me,

Who are you?

Between sun and moon, I answer me,

I love you