Kimi no na wa (aka Your Name. or 君の名は)

From when I was a small child, I loved Japanese animation. I still remember that I watched City Hunter, Sailor Moon, and Dragon ball Z on repeat. I also made it through the horrible high school years by looking forward to my Saturdays, on which I allowed myself to put away school work and just slack around by reading 4 books of manga in a row. I am surprised that I never really shared much anime or manga related things on my blog, while it had been such a significant part of my life. I learned many life lessons from them, such as girl power, working hard even though there are setbacks and challenges, and that even the coolest and strongest guy can be like a little lamb in front of the woman they love. That's why I plan to share some of my favorite anime and manga on my blog. I am starting with the Japanese animation movie, Kimi no na wa.

It is about a girl, who is living in a small village, and she wishes to escape from the boring and repetitive life that she is having. For some reason, she ends up exchanging bodies with a boy living in Tokyo. It happens very randomly, when they are asleep, and they don't have any control over it. In the beginning, everything is hard to get used to, as they don't know each other, and you get the usual scenes of boobs touching and awkward toilet moments. But slowly, they change each other's lives for the better. The girl becomes more courageous and doesn't let anyone walk over her and the boy becomes more sensitive and in control of his emotions. It really shows how much well-rounded a person can be if we let go of gender roles. Just do whatever that makes you feel comfortable in your own skin and happy. Learn from each other and be open to pick up things that are useful. The boy and the girl find out that they are actually from different time zones, but they need to work together to stop a village from getting destroyed. Fighting against a large group of disbelievers (doing the right thing, sometimes requires you to swim against the stream) and their memories of each other keeps disappearing too. Basically, they need to make the impossible possible. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I think it is pretty. At first, I didn't really understand the very last ending scene. But you need to keep in mind that Japanese people can be a bit shy (they don't just talk to a person on the street that they have never met) and they don't know for sure if the other person remembers them. Japanese manga, anime, and film often portray a very subtle and innocent love, but still, you know that it runs deep.  


Popular Posts