Kimi no nawa (2016)
Character introductions are actually decent. It reminded us of the good bits of Ranma 1/2 (wacko, sort of out-there humour), since the idea is essentially a body swap - the boy sometimes wakes up in the girl's body and vice versa. Through that they then learn to know each other. It's not a very original idea, but if you can make it work, it can be good. The characters have funny interactions and there's potential for the girl to have some actual depth in her character with her relationship to her dad. But then...we come to the half-way point of the movie, where the plot takes over the characters and they start to act stupid. And when we say stupid, we mean mind-numbingly moronic. One of the things that ruin the characters is the stakes being too high for a cheesy romance flick. But we'll expand on that in just a moment. We're sorry though, we can't get over how goddamn stupid the boy is. When it has been made clear that they forget about each other the minute they change back into their own bodies, it is incomprehensible, and by no one's standards should be considered a grand gesture of romance that the boy writes 'I love you' instead of his own name on the girl's hand. The body swap is your basic cheesy anime romance idea, which, when executed well, can be quite entertaining. This is not that. The stakes are that the girl is dead and she and her entire town were destroyed by a meteor and the boy is the only one who can prevent that from happening.
First of all, there are supposedly two main characters but when everything about the girl's past and her relationship to her dad is shown through the boy's eyes, that's no longer the case. So you see, the boy writing 'I love you' and not his name makes us eternally frustrated. It means that the boy didn't care enough to actually say it out loud to her when she might die and they can never see each other again. Also, that denies the chance for the girl to affirm her feelings for him, maybe the last time ever. Additionally, it's not just she who's dying but her entire town full of people. Yet her survival is more important for the boy than the other people. What a selfish brat. The most insulting part for us, though, if we're being honest, is when it's shown that the girl cares more and is more upset about forgetting some boy's name than her entire town being destroyed. A film that has as its main characters people who are more concerned about their potential relationship than a city full of people dying, is ludicrous.
The worst part is that this movie tries to be so poetic and deep when it's simply a corny "destiny love" romance ("destiny love" is a term we coined for every story that wants to be Romeo & Juliet). Now, anybody who reads our blog knows that we love good romance. And romance that is truly well-crafted is deep and poetic. This "destiny love" crap is nothing but shallow and pretentious. Ultimately, perhaps we're just holding a grudge, since this movie has near universal acclaim from both critics and viewers and was finally the film to dethrone Spirited Away as the highest-grossing movie in Japan. That is fucking unacceptable. On the other hand, in the West, shitty movies have in the last 30 years made the most money, so it's about time Japan caught up. And we can't help but feel that part of the adoration for this movie is because it's anime and we hate that kind of thinking. Anime is like any other movie or series - it's entertainment, pure and simple. The positive we have for this film is that it is hand-drawn and it looks about 50 million times better than any CGI trash we are exposed to in today's cinema field. The music is some of the J-poppiest of J-pop we have ever heard and thus insufferable for us (sorry not sorry all J-pop lovers).
Koe no katachi (2017)
An announcement before we begin: Our lived experience has made us biased for the themes presented in this movie. However, if this was shittily made, we might hate it more than the previous movie.
The subject matters in this film are depression, loneliness, suicide, and hating and loving oneself. Is it any wonder that we felt an instant connection? Most characters are teenagers in this movie too, but they come across so much more real than in Kimi no nawa. Whereas the high stakes are never addressed in Kimi no nawa, this movie is completely prepared to deal with the high stakes it has set. In this movie, the main character is a boy and we see everything from his perspective - there is no false set up of two main characters. Nevertheless, that does not rob any of the other characters of depth. We were actually amazed how well this film used visual cues and imagery to convey emotion or build character. And though it clearly had a lower budget than Kimi no nawa and has way more CGI in the background, the animation is gripping and knows how to utilize its smaller budget to its advantage.
The basic story of the movie goes as follows: the boy was a bully in elementary school to this deaf girl who transferred to his school. He was so cruel to her, in fact, that she was forced to switch to another school. This acted as a catalyst for all his classmates to shun him for his actions. All that together turned him inward and made him consider his actions. But instead of dealing with the emotions and feelings healthily (like talking about them) he starts to live inside his head blaming and hating himself to the extent that he thinks he does not deserve to live. Before killing himself, he wants to make amends to the girl he bullied. In the process, he becomes friends with her and that kind of sets the movie in motion and is a starting point for the main character to begin connecting with other people around him.
The film has actually bothered to make the girl into a real character - somebody who is self-loathing to the point that she believes she's a burden on everyone and that everyone would be better off if she just died. This is where a connection is created between the main character and the girl. They are, in fact, the same. The realization that two people who were introduced to us as complete opposites with totally different backgrounds and personalities can have the same human experience. The story's point is basically learning to love oneself and human connection. Simple and incredibly effective. We love all the characters and love that the film doesn't treat anyone as a villain. The boy's best friend is a particular favourite of ours. All in all, this movie is wonderfully heart-warming, uplifting and life-affirming in the best sense. We would unreservedly recommend this nugget of cinematic gold to everyone.
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