“Your Name” is Finally Here!

     Finally, Your Name is getting its official Western release this April, with cinemas screening both the original Japanese audio with subtitles and a new English dub.  Your Name is an anime body-swap love story from Japanese writer and director Makoto Shinkai that took the world by storm in 2016. A critical and commercial success, the film went on to earn more than $328 million worldwide, unseating long-time classic Spirited Away as the highest-grossing anime film of all time.

     Your Name is a fantastic film with an emotional coming-of-age tale, a compelling romance, thoughtful depictions of gender fluidity and gorgeous animation. It follows the magical story of two Japanese teenagers who begin to swap between their bodies at night while they’re asleep. Mitsuha is tired of her quiet country life and yearns for adventure in Tokyo, while Taki is bored of his daily routine in the city. At first they take the body-swapping to be simply strange dreams, but they learn that it’s really been happening when the people around them tell them that they’ve been acting strangely. They develop an intimate connection as they get to literally live in each other’s shoes and they both interfere in the other’s life to change it for the better. But nothing lasts forever, and as some unwanted side-effects of the phenomenon begin to manifest, Mitsuha and Taki begin a tense race against time and distance.

Catch Your Name while you can at AMC Sunset Place and AMC Aventura 24.