Japanese anime ‘Your Name’ goes in delightful directions
What starts out as a “Freaky Friday”-type body exchange becomes a rumination on time travel, cataclysmic fate, rural-urban dynamics and, of course, a love story in novelist-turned-anime director Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name.”
Taki is a high school boy in fast-moving Tokyo, and he works as a waiter on the weekends.
Soon, they begin texting each other, and because this keeps happening — with no rhyme or reasons as to why it’s happening or how to stop it — they begin leaving diaries, notes and other helpful tips on how to negotiate their time in their new bodies.
Mitsuha’s feminine touch, for example, helps Taki draw interest from a co-worker he has a crush on.
Taki’s assertiveness helps Mitsuha dominate on her basketball team.
If “Your Name” kept to this simple but delightful plot, it may have been too slight to fill out a feature-length film.
Skies, trains, cityscapes, etc., stand out in bold, vivid colors.