Capital of the East
Introduction
Is the weather essential in building human relationships? As a child, I used to rejoice when going for a walk when the weather was rainy. But as I grew up, I started to prefer when the weather was ’nice’. How is it that the weather being ’nice’ means to be sunny in a deep blue sky for the majority of people. This mere personal experience had me wonder for years whether people liking a sunny weather better was due to social upbringing or whether humans naturally yearned for a walk under the green wood during a sunny afternoon in May with some friendly company.
‘Weathering with You’ is the new piece made by the creator of ‘Kimi no na Wa’. Due to the many similarities between both movies (art, plot, tropes, character types, etc.), it is tempting to review this new movie in the light of the previous one. However I’ll sum up the comparison between both in a separate paragraph in order to facilitate the reading of my review for those of you haven’t watched ‘Kimi no na Wa’.
As a remark, the original title of the movie in japanese means ‘Child(dren) of the Weather’. In a sense, the English translation emphasizes romance a little bit more, which is not a bad thing as this aspect is hightlighted of the movie.
=== Story 5/10 ===
High-school boy Hodoka fled from his remote village to Tokyo, hoping to find freedom in the marvelous capital city of Japan. However, the boy has to cope up with harsh ordeals since he has to survive as a lone 16-year-old boy. Indeed, he must hide and seek help in secrecy due to being an underage runaway. That is until one day when he makes the acquaintance of another high-school girl who happens to hold certain surpernatural powers that connnect her to the weather.
The general plot of the movie does not shine particularly for its originality. However you can find there all the different necesary steps : the initial arrival of the main protagonist in the tremendous Tokyo, sequences of his everyday life to find a way to sustain himself, the encounter with Hina, the development of their relationship, a series of trials that ultimately finds resolution in a typical fashion.
Nevertheless, some might say that the scenario had various plotholes that don’t help the spectator to accept certain turns of the events. There are multiple instances when you might seriously doubt how such events can happen. I take it that an anime doesn’t need to be a realistic photography of our world, but these lack of consistency harms the suspension of disbelief. I won’t describe the scenes any further but I will still give a list of places where such instances can be found : police station, an abandonned building hosting a long forgotten temple manipulating the od with the weather.
=== Characters 6/10 ===
Besides what you could refer as to ‘unrealistic’ turns of the events, ‘Weathering with You’ features numerous unanswered questions that drive that whole mechanics of the movie and the psychology of the characters. Examples of such undisclosed information refer to the background story of some characters.
Personally, I don’t mind not being explained everything. What is it that matters the most ? Knowing what pushes someone to run away from home to achieve her dreams in Tokyo ? Or what connections she establishes with people that are equally yearning for unforgettable moments with others.
I tend to think the latter is the most important. In the end, doesn’t it tell much more about the evolution of a character rather than spending time on something that already ended before?
=== Art 10/10 ===
Watching a movie-format anime is always a feast for the eyes. ‘Tenki no Ko’ is no exception and features plenty of gorgeous frames of Tokyo, and the least one could say is that you could spend minutes to contemplate them because they are amazingly detailed and the colors are vivid. Even taken individually, many panels have the potential to be regarded as pieces of work of their own.
=== Soundtrack 7/10 ===
As usual, the voice acting and music are top-notch. The voices for both protagonists fit well with their personalities and character types. However I must say I wasn’t fond of the repetitive songs that appeared too often in my opinion. What could be a cinematographic method to enhance the emotions in a spectator was overused multiple times. Because of this, I had difficulties being in the right emotional state when the movie reached the climax because I didn’t feel that the movie reached a critical moment when the song started playing out for the nth time.
=== Overall 7/10 ===
Although the story suffers from both an excessive elliptic narrative and character development, the astounding visual art and the melodic soundtrack only might good enough a reason to watch this movie. I had a real fun breezing through the 1 hour and 50 minutes during which I was given the chance to travel and discover this cursed-under-the-rain Tokyo ; and meet the people who strive to live their lives.
— A word of comparison with ‘Kimi no na wa’ —
Coming up with an even greater work after the tremendous success ‘Kimi no na wa’ was is no easy task. In the end, ‘Tenki no ko’ might have not lived up to the expectations that was put upon it, but the fans of the previous work will likely be overjoyed to see the different easter eggs.
What I think is a pity is not the fact that it did not succeed in touching me as profoundly as when I watched ‘Kimi no na wa’. It’s rather the disappointement to be served with a movie that shares so many similarities that you might doubt the sincerity of the artist. Among the many similarities you can find the same configuration - a boy and a girl, strange abilities - manipulating the weather or swapping bodies, the perks of growing up as a teenager, the disappearance of one character, the final fateful reunion proof of the strong link between the two protagonists.