'Weathering with You' Is Delightful and Moving, but the Surprise Cameos Could Have Been Done Much Better

Weathering with You is the much-hyped, much-anticipated new movie from Makoto Shinkai, who became a household name after the pop culture success of Your Name a few years ago.  It follows a runaway teenager named Hodaka Horishima who comes to Tokyo during a remarkably rainy season.  While trying to strike it on his own, he meets an orphaned teenage girl named Hina Amano who seems to have the ability to pray away bad weather and bring in clear skies.  Upon the suggestion of Hodaka, they start a business in which she can offer her services to those who want good weather for special events.  As time passes, Hodaka falls in love with Hina.

Your Name is Shinkai at the height of his powers.  It’s definitely his masterpiece.  That’s why, when compared to it, Weathering with You undeniably comes off as the lesser (there’s even an argument to be made that some of Shinkai’s pre-Your Name films – particularly The Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters per Second – are a bit stronger).  Unfair it may be to compare Weathering with You with Your Name, it just can’t be helped.  After all, part of its marketing strategy was to prominently name-drop Your Name.

In addition, there’s this sense that, in its attempt to be the “next Your Name”, Weathering with You is afraid to stray from its predecessor’s established “rhythm.”  Yes, the story and even maybe the coming-of-age themes are mainly original to itself, but there are certain beats and narrative patterns that can bring to mind what one has experienced with Your Name.  Scenes may not be completely similar, but at those particular points, someone watching can easily muse, “That scene there serves the same purpose or delivers the same effect to Weathering with You as that particular scene in Your Name.”  Nevertheless, this isn’t something significantly bothersome.  But it slightly paints  a hint of derivativeness on Weathering with You.

Weathering with You is still a beautiful, technically outstanding anime film, though.

Animation-wise, it’s breathtaking.  Although being an absolute eye-candy is something to be expected or even taken for granted with regards to high-profile anime films, its animation still compels you to gush over it.  I adored every frame.  Notably, the atmosphere is where the animation’s dazzling quality is at its most apparent.  It draws you in, making you feel you are part of that world.  You feel the rain.  It taps into your memory of the worst rains you experienced in the past, and whatever cold, wet, uncomfortable feeling you had from them is brought back at that point – as if you’re experiencing that feeling once again as you watch the film.  On this end, Weathering with You may have had a slim advantage over Your Name.

Meanwhile, the narrative delivers what’s expected of it as a Makoto Shinkia film: it hits right in the feels.  Even when the melodrama gets cringey, it’s so well-executed that you still buy into it.  A superb blend of riveting visual storytelling, powerful dialogue, and swelling music yields an effortless and forceful tugging at the heartstrings – especially during the climax.  Even if you try to stop yourself from feeling emotional since a part of your mind realizes you are being manipulated to feel that way, you will be unable to.  You will still feel.  Your eyes will still well.  And you will realize at that point, if you still haven’t prior, that there’s such emotional response from you because you have grown to care deeply for these characters and have been engrossed completely on their story.

Lastly, Weathering with You actually features (SPOILERS) cameos from Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, the couple of Your Name.  It’s exciting and all, especially if you weren’t expecting it (I didn’t).  If the reaction in my theater (the mostly teenage audience went nuts) is any indication, it successfully serves its purpose as a gratifying display of fan service.  But in retrospect, I was actually disappointed.  Why?  Because those cameos could have been done better.  You see, Taki and Mitsuha have separate cameos.  It would have been better if they had been shown together.  Now, I loved how Your Name ended.  I thought it was perfectly appropriate, cathartic, and poetic.  However, many fans hoped for a more “definite” resolution – they wanted to see Taki and Mitsuka explicitly becoming a couple.  That itch would have been scratched if their cameos in this movie are of them being presented as a couple.  Definitely a missed opportunity, right?!

In the end, I love Weathering with You.  It might not have blown me away in the same way Your Name did, but it still delighted and moved in a noteworthy manner.