This was an interesting, kind of like Freaky Friday, gorgeous and beautifully made anime film. The film starts off with briefly in the present. But then we learn how this boy and girl met by going back into their own pasts. Let’s just say that Mitsuha wakes up and doesn’t remember how she got into her room. Her grandmother noticed that her eldest granddaughter was in a better than she was for a typical teenager. Her friends thought it was stress that caused her wild behaviour. Since her mother’s passing, her father has left his two daughters in the care of their grandmother and been rather firm with them, all because he wanted to be re-elected as mayor. During one of her classes Mitsuha finds a note written in one of her work books asking, “Who are you?” while her teacher talked about “twilight” which become a key factor in this film. Mitsuha friends spoke to her about her behaviour the day before and Mitsuha explained that she’s been having weird dreams lately about someone else’s life but couldn’t remember it clearly. And then her friends remind her about the ritual coming up. And all Mitsuha wants was to graduate, go to Tokyo and have a life as with the small town she lives in there’s nothing much there:
· One train stops every two hours
· All the shops close at 9pm
· No book stores
· No dentist
· Only two pubs for unknown reasons
· No jobs
· No one dateable
· Short sunlight hours
· And no café’s
Let alone they don’t have a nice café; they only have a rubbish café located next to a bus stop. As a matter of fact the café is a vending machine. Thank god Mitsuha went home rather than have something to drink from that vending machine. But she did get home on time to do her part as a shrine maiden for the Shinto shrine ritual and made Kuchikami. But can’t say that I blame for hating the life she has.
All the way in Tokyo Taki had woken up with the same feeling as Mitsuha which is Mitsuha waking up in Taki’s body, which explains why they don’t remember how they got there in the first place. I like how the sceneries in this anime film were so beautifully done. At least Tokyo has cafes and everything that Mitsuha wished. But however Taki wishes the opposite, wants to leave the big city and live in a small country town. Can’t say that I blame him because sometimes I’d think that I’d rather live in a seaside town. Taki is one organised boy, I’d like that. The next day Taki wakes up and back to his old self but couldn’t believe what had happened the day before. And does Mitsuha. But does Mitsuha’s sister have to shout at her every morning telling her it’s breakfast time? I don’t shout at my big sister all the time. Well we both did when we were little, but we don’t nowadays because we now both have a normal sister relationship exactly like Anna & Elsa.
They’ve now started to realise what was going on with themselves after figuring out that they’re actually switching bodies with each other. This is turning out to be like Disney’s Freaky Friday but only two to three times a week and what triggers it is sleep at random with no causes whatsoever. They somehow decided to lay out some ground rules to protect each. Which is making a list of “Do’s” and “Don’ts” and leave reports to each other reports on each other’s phones so that they work together to help each other get through with it. Their friends certainly show the confusion when the following day after the switches because their memories get hazy after that.
One day Mitsuha’s grandmother decided to take Mitsuha and her sister to a shrine called a Shinto shrine. It is a most important building used for safekeeping of objects, and not for worship. Their grandmother explained to her granddaughters what Musubi really is. It’s an old way of calling the local guardian god. It means “union.” And it has a profound meaning. Tying thread is a union, connecting to people is a union and the flow of time is a union. These are all part of god’s power. Sometimes they unravel, break, and then connected again. That’s what time and union is. In the first Frozen the union between two sisters was broken until Anna did an act of true love by saving her sister and that’s what reunited Anna and Elsa. The offering that they made is an important custom as it connects god with people. What lies ahead is the underworld. But in order to exchange for returning to their own world they have to leave something behind that is most important to them.
During one their switching’s Mitsuha organised Taki to go on a date with one of his friends which didn’t go down well at all because it’s a date that she wanted to go on. But by the time the date was over Taki tried phoning Mitsuha. But unfortunately no one answered, as it was unreachable. However Mitsuha did get a phone call from her friend Tessie and met up with her for the autumn festival after cutting much of her hair. The comet that Mitsuha saw looked incredible but deadly as it looked like it was on a collision course with the small town where Mitsuha lived. Taki made a bold decision to go that town to find her, accompanied by Miki Okudera (who Taki had that rubbish date with) and Tsukasa Fujii (one of his schoolmates). But they only accompanied him to keep an eye on him. But they have no idea what she looks like or whereabouts she lives. They only had Taki’s sketch of the landscape of Itomori, where Mitsuha lived. But all they found in Itomori is nothing because three years ago that comet that became a meteor before hit it. But the connection between Taki and Mitsuha started to fade away. 500 people, including Mitsuha has perished. I think these switching’s they’re trying to help Taki help Mitsuha save her town from the meteor. When Taki found Mitsuha’s shrine it was still standing. All Taki found inside the shrine were the two sakes that Mitsuha and her sister made during the ritual. Three years in the past. Their timelines somehow got tangled. The sake is half of Mitsuha and all Taki asked is for one more chance.
The next scene was incredible, stunning and very hard to describe what was happening.
Another day and Mitsuha is freaking out which has by the look of it upsets her little sister Yotsuha slightly as it made her decide to head off to school without her. Her grandma noticed Mitsuha’s change in behaviour for a while, after watching her granddaughter, which caused her to remember things from her past and Mitsuha’s mothers past. She told her granddaughter to enjoy the experience while she still can before they fade away. That very same morning Mitsuha warned her grandmother about the impending comet striking Itomori that very night and killing everyone. But her grandmother told her that no one would believe her. Mitsuha rallied her friends into saving the town from the impending disaster and came up with a plan to get everyone to evacuate to the school, while Katsuhiko "Tessie" Teshigawara (Tessie is just his nickname) creates a bomb, hijack the towns warning system so that Sayaka Natori can broadcast the evacuation warning from the school and Mitsuha can talk to the mayor (as she’s his daughter) and convince him. All three of them are in it. The mayor won’t even listen to his own daughter? What kind of a father is he? He’s just hasn’t been the same since his wife died. Yotsuha reminded her big sister that she went to Tokyo to find Taki. In a flashback we see Mitsuha travel to Tokyo but at first couldn’t find Taki until she spotted him on a train looking at his phone, but that was three years ago and neither of them haven’t met each other yet.
At twilight hour it was time for Mitsuha (three years in the past) to meet with Taki (three years into the future). The scenery for this scene was beautiful and their meeting was bitter sweet. It looked like love at first sight between two 17-year-old teenagers. Taki wrote his name in the palm of Mitsuha’s hand. But before Mitsuha continued writing her name on the palm of Taki’s hand twilight hour was over and the connection was broken, which meant they’ll be no more switching bodies. But Taki swore he’d find her again not matter where she might be. But at that very same moment he forgot her name. But what’s important right now is to save Itomori from a collision course with the comet. Eventually Mitsuha forgot Taki’s name. And the mayor made need a bit of a kick to get him to listen. Turns out that Taki didn’t write his name on the palm of Mitsuha’s hand, only just to say he loves her. The comet and meteor shower looked spectacular in the film. And thank god the residents of Itomori were saved and unharmed. Years later Mitsuha grew up, left school and left her small town life for Tokyo.
Eight years later Taki is all grown up and left school. Miki Okudera looked like she married someone else, so her life must have gone well for her. She hoped that one day her friend would find happiness too. Tessie and Sayaka are engaged to be married, as they walked passed each other Taki and Mitsuha sensed each other but never saw each other’s faces. It’ll be another day till they actually meet. The following day even though they took separate trains into town, they saw each other for what looked like to them for the first time in years since they last saw each other and then they eventually meet on a public staircase and asked each other for their names.
This is an incredible film to watch, one of the best non Studio Ghibli films I’ve ever seen. I strongly recommend this film. This film will make you smile. The plot for this film can be confusing but once you’ve put the pieces together from both Taki and Mitsuha’s timelines you will understand what’s happening between these two characters. I give this film a thumbs up and five stars.
It has been announced in 2017 that a live action remake of this film is in the works, under Paramount Pictures. Can’t wait for that to happen.
