| Release Date: 17 January 2020 (USA) Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy IMDb Rating: 7.5 Director: Makoto Shinkai Cast: Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Shun Oguri |
I’m a sucker for anime and romantic stories, so Weathering with You is more than perfect for a good movie time. While it’s more of a romantic fantasy film, it still has a few touches of comedy here and there, and, I believe that Makoto Shinkai could be the “Nicholas Sparks” of modern anime movies… possibly.
Set in Japan in a time of exceptionally rainy weather, the story is about a high-school boy who runs away from his home to Tokyo and befriends an orphan girl who can manipulate the weather.
One of the things I have to recognize about this director, he takes a simple premise and works on it to make it special and entertaining.
You don’t end up getting your typical love story, which is rare nowadays when pretty much all romantic stories have been told in one way or the other. There are some similarities with his previous movie Your Name (which I recommend checking out before you see this one). The love story of this movie is innocent, and yet I can’t help wishing for something as real as this one, it makes your heart feel tender and mushy on the inside.
You know how these characters are going to end, but first, they take their time to develop a friendship between them. So once you reach the climax, you are all in, wanting that happy ending. It might be a fantasy, but I believe that’s how true love is born between two people.
When I say exceptionally rainy weather, I mean the weather in this movie took Rihanna’s words “let the rain pour” very seriously. To be clear, this is not a negative element of the movie, quite the opposite, the rain in this movie serves as an important storytelling tool. It’s the thing that holds the main characters together, helps advance the story, and my personal favorites, it serves to elevate the animation and as the antagonist of the story.
Animation has the potential to break the limits of storytelling, and the people who make anime know it.
I’ve said in past reviews, I’ll say it here again and in any great animated movie that comes along in the future.
The animation in this movie is amazing, but the moments that include water or the weather make it a work of art thanks to its attention to detail for the simplest things like clouds after a rainstorm, puddles in the street, or water drops on an umbrella.
Then there’s the antagonistic element of the rain. It serves as the problem that the main characters are trying to fix, so instead of relying on a villain with nefarious motivations, it’s a natural phenomenon that in the real world doesn’t have an actual solution. That’s where the fantasy element comes in. Does the film explain how the weather magic works?…in a way yes. Did I fully understand it and didn’t read Wikipedia? no.
If I had to say something bad about the movie, it would be that the backstory of the characters is not entirely clear, and I think that could be something that could help you empathize more with the characters. And that even though it is fast-paced with some instant cuts and classic anime montages, I felt like the movie was long.
But in the end, I had a fun time watching Weathering with You, and it’s quite enjoyable.
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I could watch it again, but I think it is best suited if you watch it for a special romantic occasion with someone else.
