Kimi no Na wa.

Mitsuha Miyamizu, a high school girl, yearns to live the life of a boy in the bustling city of Tokyo—a dream that stands in stark contrast to her present life in the countryside. Meanwhile in the city, Taki Tachibana lives a busy life as a high school student while juggling his part-time job and hopes for a future in architecture.

One day, Mitsuha awakens in a room that is not her own and suddenly finds herself living the dream life in Tokyo—but in Taki's body! Elsewhere, Taki finds himself living Mitsuha's life in the humble countryside. In pursuit of an answer to this strange phenomenon, they begin to search for one another.

Kimi no Na wa. revolves around Mitsuha and Taki's actions, which begin to have a dramatic impact on each other's lives, weaving them into a fabric held together by fate and circumstance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyamizu, Mitsuha Main

Kamishiraishi, Mone Japanese

Tachibana, Taki Main

Kamiki, Ryunosuke Japanese

Yukino, Yukari ing

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Okudera, Miki ing

Nagasawa, Masami Japanese

Miyamizu, Yotsuha ing

Tani, Kanon Japanese

Teshigawara, Katsuhiko ing

Narita, Ryou Japanese

Miyamizu, Hitoha ing

Ichihara, Etsuko Japanese

Fujii, Tsukasa ing

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Natori, Sayaka ing

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Takagi, Shinta ing

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Bezerra, Wendel Producer

Kawamura, Genki Producer, Planning

Itou, Kouichirou Producer

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer

Reviews

Jun 5, 2025

super_toad_fan

Recommended

I went to the cinema back then when we had an official German release, and I was really hyped — but I left with a pretty neutral feeling.
It’s a super pretty anime, and I really like the setting, but to be honest, it just wasn’t a 10/10 for me.
In my opinion, the movie is a little too long for what it actually is.

That said, I have to it I really liked the ending (the last 3 minutes) — it’s a weirdly romantic ending that worked for me.
I’d watch it again if I had the chance, but I’m not sure if my opinion would change for ... the better.

In the end, it’s a nice, chill movie — but it’s not one that really tries anything new. It plays it safe.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by super_toad_fan (10)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 3, 2025

IShouldDoThat

Mixed Feelings

As I'm writing this, I have to it to myself that my experience with this film was undoubtedly tampered by watching it under the impression that it would be one of the greatest, if not the absolute greatest, anime film of all time. This is a film that has given me many thoughts and left me feeling emotions I've never felt towards any piece of media before. For that reason alone, I think it's worth experiencing. Most importantly, this film should be experienced with an open mind; free from any biases that you may have from any reviews left on this site or anywhere else. ... If this was a more obscure or underrated film, I'd probably give it an 8/10, but as is I can only give it a 5.5/10.

In other words, this film's reputation has forced me to be more honest with myself about it.

Let me start with the positives:
The animation is wonderful. It's not always the smoothest, but it's ed by wonderful art direction and shot composition. The characters, locations, and setpieces are all designed beautifully, with the characters in particular feeling very distinct.
The music is equally amazing, with the exception of a few insert songs that feel very out of place. All of the instrumental tracks do a perfect job of setting the tone, helping to set up the wonder and the sheer scope of the film's story.
Honorable mention to the story itself, which ended up being a lot more fantastical than I thought it would be. It's more concerned with conveying emotions than it is with explaining how or why anything is happening, which works to its benefit. It also impressively managed to weave in a lot of commentary about Japanese society, conformity, and cultural and gender norms between everything.
One thing that's not often talked about in anime is voice acting, and I think the voice actors did a great job with this film. Both leads do a good job portraying a wide variety of expressions and personalities as they change through the film.
Overall, there isn't a lot to dislike about this film.

Now for what I disliked about the film:
Montages.
So.
Many
Montages.
As a huge fan of the Rocky film series, I can handle a montage or two. I think they can be used to great effect to show your characters growing over a long period of time. In fact, I don't think making a film where the runtime consists primarily of montages is a bad thing at all. I think it's a great artistic tool that can heighten the emotional stakes of a story.
The issue is the timing. A film like Rocky III or Rocky IV uses montages as a response to an inciting incident. In Kimi no Na wa, the montages are used as a bridge from one plot point to the next. It's a sort of fast-forward through the narrative to the next interesting plot point. On the one hand, this keeps the film's pacing up. I never once felt bored during the entire 1 hour 45 minute runtime.

On the other hand, the first major twist of the film throws its two main leads into peril before I've even had the chance to grow attached to them. Then it happens again, and again, and again one last time at the end. It's true that I wasn't bored, but I can't say I was engaged either. I wanted to be. I really tried to emotionally invest myself in the struggle of these two characters, and by the time it looked like I might finally have my heartstrings tugged, I was aggressively pushed into the next dramatic twist. Credits rolled before I even knew what our two leads liked about each other.

I can't help but ask myself what kind of film Kimi no Na wa is. Wikipedia lists it as a fantasy film, but it's clear from watching that the fantasy elements themselves only exist to serve the romance. Does that make it a romance film? I honestly can't tell if the love the two leads feel for each other is meant to be romantic since they barely spend 1/3rd of the runtime together. Is it a drama, then? It certainly isn't a comedy, but I can't say enough time is spent on the characters' internal struggles for it to succeed as a drama. The closest thing I can compare this to is a recap video, where all of the basic information of a story is conveyed and presented beautifully yet succinctly. It feels like a recap of itself, like the writer himself is describing a story to you that they're really excited about writing, but they don't actually have the technical prowess to write all of the little character moments between that are needed to make it work.

In conclusion, I don't understand why everyone likes this movie.

It's okay, I guess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by IShouldDoThat (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Apr 20, 2025

Capacocha

Not Recommended

***Possible weird wording to avoid spoilers***

Kimi no Na wa is an illogical, pseudoemotional, slogfest of a movie.

Slogfest:
The first part of the movie is kind of a time waster, because it primarily serves as a really long and drawn out exposition focusing on a concept that, if removed, wouldn’t meaningfully change much of the movie. Nevertheless, the story must begin somewhere, so it gets its foot in the door as a basic slice of life as lived by two high schoolers of different families. The additional premise to the scenery-pornographic slice of life would be the body swap. Granted, the fact that this film is rated ... PG-13 in addition to the lack of a setup led the writers to write off the concept as a cheap gag. Near the end of the film, it receives a cheap explanation, but it ultimately contradicts the two characters’ behavior (but not motivations) in the beginning (see paragraph 2 title). Additionally, the characters aren’t even endearing or interesting in any sort of way because they’re barely indistinguishable from each other. It honestly feels like both of the characters were added in to be [generic male protagonist] and [generic female protagonist] to make the writing easier. At best, the body swap premise works as a simple plot device to both waste the viewer’s time and move the plot forward.

Illogical:
The second part of the story is frustratingly illogical because it relies on characters written to be stupid for the sake of drawing the story out longer than it needs to be. Plot conveniences are practically everywhere, so, without delving into spoilers, the generic male main character (not even going to try with this one) is written to coincidentally forget certain past events, and whether they’re important or vital for the plot plays out conveniently. Additionally, the second "plot twist" (yes, there's two) relies on the [generic male protagonist] being functionally illiterate since it relies on something that needs him to read to realize, which reinforces the grating nature of his inability to things. Given that he is written to be not so bright, he is somehow able to one of the special places he's been with the [generic female protagonist], which then makes him one specific clothing piece that belongs to her. Basically, the explanations provided in the series only amounts to nothing other than random astronomical bullshit thrown in for the sake of conveying a corny message.

Pseudoemotional:
The movie tries to be emotional, but it just fails. For a romance to be heartfelt, the characters need to be interesting. The main issue with the characters is that they aren’t realistic and the “emotional connection” between the two is extremely forced. This can be noted by the characters’ lack of chemistry with each other. I mean, the [generic male protagonist] had already developed feelings for his coworker. Surprisingly, the story handles this in the most hilarious way possible (funnier than all of the other “comedic” moments of the series), because the [generic female protagonist] helps set up a date between the two. This would only make sense if she has a weird cuckoldry fetish or something, but even then, she needs to firstly convince him to indulge in the same depraved fetishes she does. In addition to this, writing can be seen as being incredibly corny. Barely any of the dialogue spoken by the two felt natural and grounded in reality. For example, the [generic female protagonist], after helping the [generic male protagonist] with a girl, texts to herself “it’s all thanks to my feminine side,” or whatever. Firstly, the [generic male protagonist] is already a spineless pussy indistinguishable from his female counterpart, and secondly, no real human writes like that. What does congratulating oneself for aligning themselves with a trait stereotypical of their kin even accomplish? Additionally, a lot of the astrological bullshit also ties into both of the characters needing to save the day together and stuff, as if the movie couldn’t be any more of a purposeless mess.

The art is phenomenal, but that’s all the entire movie has going for it.

At the end of the day, the entire story is a generic teenage “star-born lovers” and “we were just meant to be together” garbage. The movie is incredibly boring, characters as well; their motivations, behavior, and romantic feelings for each other don’t make sense. To top it off, the only explanation this series offers is utter nonsense. I felt absolutely nothing from start to finish, I was just immensely bored.

Side note: I'm curious as to know why this review is "confusing.”

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Capacocha (33)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Greatest Anime of All Time.

by MPFSTUDIOS

11 Entries · 4 Restacks

Time for a Good Cry (Tear-Stained Cheeks)

by ManiixieTerror

40 Entries · 82 Restacks

For cozy rainy days

by soloLunA

28 Entries · 15 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for August

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for August Week 1: August 4 - 10 Anime Releases Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II (I...read more

Aug 2, 2020 10:29 PM by Discuss (3 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for November Week 1: November 7 - 13 Anime Releases Cheer Danshi!! (incl. Recap & Specials) Complete Colle...read more

Nov 6, 2017 8:55 AM by Discuss (16 comments)

	Poll: checkdafool - Jul 3, 2016	1,445 replies	by »» May 31, 8:33 AM
	maikeru3 - Sep 3, 2016	16 replies	by »» May 31, 1:48 AM
	kaenkoi - Dec 19, 2024	45 replies	by »» Jan 19, 1:55 AM
	middle_pickup - Oct 22, 2024	30 replies	by »» Jan 17, 2:21 PM
	no_comparisonBM - Jul 3, 2024	22 replies	by »» Nov 14, 2024 4:50 PM

Is Makoto Shinkai's Tenki no Ko "The Next Kimi no Na wa."?

There's been a ton of hype surrounding Makoto Shinkai's latest film after the success of Kimi no Na wa., but it's not quite what everyone's been expecting it to be.

by Shymander

105,576 views

Spoiler

What the Anime Industry Can Learn from Kimi no Na wa. (Part 2)

Kimi no Na wa.’s brilliant story, setting, and music captivated its young audience, satisfying fans and critics both in Japan and overseas, which led to the overwhelming popularity of the film.

by MAL_Articles

31,525 views

Spoiler