The critically acclaimed hit anime movie of 2016 is riddled with more problems than people would like to admit

It's impossible to talk about Kimi no Na wa without acknowledging the critical acclimation. It's an aspect you would like to ignore because it's not pertinent to the content itself. However I couldn't really turn my ahead away from the overwhelming reception, that is the buzz behind Kimi no Na wa. It is by far the most successful anime film in the Post-Miyazaki era; it's crushed box office history in Japan and it has crushed rankings on anime databases such as MyAnimeLIst, etc. When something is this popular and this well received it becomes a work of art that reveals what a large collective audience likes and finds compelling, and that is important to talk about. I will go ahead and spoil you: no, I do not think Kimi no Na wa is a masterpiece. Despite the fact that I'm probably not the target audience for the film, it's not really an excuse to ignore where the flaws are in the narrative and the lack of central theming that, in my opinion, a "masterpiece" should have.

Kimi no Na wa is a love story. The way it's told isn't exactly simple, and that's a good thing. If the movie moved linearly it would have been a lot more boring, the way it bounced off of two intertwining perspectives made the experience interesting. While I wouldn't describe the execution as being anything groundbreaking, it pulls it off decently. The pacing is awkward, and the way it bumbles from scene to scene can sometimes be contrived or not really thought out as well as it should have been. I thought the climax got a bit too silly, and even unsatisfying the more and more it went on.

There's not much to say about the characters. They are pretty lackluster, though they have about as much personality as you can have in a 100 minute movie, their growth is unfulfilling. The two main leads are pretty simple and "self-inserty", teenage boys are supposed to identify with the teenage boy character, teenage girls are supposed to identify with the teenage girl character. While there is some poetry to them, they're pretty much just unoffensive simple devices to tell the story of a commercially driven movie. That's all there is to say about them, really.

I want to talk about animation, artstyle and directing in the same package since they're tightly knit together and I'm not really adding anything insightful about these aspects. They're the main source of Kimi no Na wa's critical acclimation, and for good reason, it deserves the praise it gets for what it does visually. The animation is consistent, it doesn't cut corners, it's more than what you should expect for movie production values. While there's not many individual cuts that stand out to me in terms of sakuga (there's an incredible cut in the middle of the movie, you'd know when you see it), there's nothing to really pick at either. Artstyle is about the same. It's attention to realism is not really my cup of tea, but it works in it's favor the more and more unrealistic the circumstances become. The shot composition is pretty textbook and palatable, while it's not anything new, it's done right. The lighting and colors look beautiful, and the storyboard makes the most out of an inconsistent narrative.

People really love the Radwimps in this movie from what I've seen. This is my first Shinkai movie that I've seen but apparently this was new for him to pick a pop music band to do the soundtrack in order to differentiate himself from Hayao Miyazaki. The music isn't bad but I have a problem with the inserts. I think Shinkai made this decision to do the music like this as an afterthought, or maybe even post-production, because none of the insert songs have any sense of choreography to them on a visual-audio level. They don't mix, they're awkward, they were simply slapped onto the scenes. When you want to use insert songs to invoke emotion or to grandiose a scene you craft both to coexist with one another. I like the music, just not the way it's used.

I can see a lot of the reasons why Shinkai is disappointed with the movie, and why he didn't want it to win an Oscar, even though he directed it. There was more he wanted to do with it, but he had to make a final cut that he wasn't really proud of. Even though I wanted to see it nominated, since it was anime, I don't really think it would have "deserved" to win (ignoring the fact that the Best Animated Movie award process is a joke). The only difference between Kimi no Na wa and the nominations that made it is that it was marketed towards teenagers instead of children. I can see the reason why Kimi no Na wa getting so much praise due to the fact that it's accessible for people who aren't fans of the medium. This is why I think Shinkai cannot escape the Miyazaki comparison, because he makes content aimed at a broad audience.

I don't think Kimi no Na wa is a bad introduction to the medium of anime at all either, there will be an entire generation who grows up on it. I think there is an inevitable wall that this age group will face when they grow older and their tastes mature, at some point I think they will either grow away from anime when they realize that most of it isn't like Kimi no Na wa, or they have to acknowledge that there are better things out there. Sometimes when you have something that you think is a masterpiece, you have to ask yourself if you will feel as passionate about it in 5 to 10 years from now. For a lot of people that is taking things too seriously, for people who are fans of a medium, that is why they stick with it, because they enjoy exploring it and they hold their favorites close to their heart. If you hold Kimi no Na wa close to your heart, wonderful. If you don't after thinking about it for a while, think more about why.

Like I said it's impossible to ignore Kimi no Na wa without addressing it's success, and this review was about the success more than I wanted it to be. Even though it appeared mostly negative, I think it's a good movie at best. Without the success I probably wouldn't have seen it as soon as I did, nor would have I made a review, but either way in terms of the content alone, I would feel the same. It's not perfect by any means, but I do think it's good overall, so I rate it a