Your Name, or Kimi No Na Wa, is an overrated anime movie. And it’s a lot LESS impressive than it’s given credit for.
Some people praise Kimi No Na Wa simply because Makoto Shinkai made the movie, and that’s expected when you’re a fanboy of a certain creator.
It’s not the best measurement of a good opinion, though.
Others like Your Name because they feel it’s sad, emotionally relatable, and emphasizes “distance” in a romantic sense, making it sad as a result.
But I completely disagree.
Heres why I say Kimi No Na Wa is overrated.
1. Poorly executed concept
Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) is about distance, getting to know each other through body-swapping, and things of that nature.
It builds on this and does it in a fun way. You get to know the characters through this, and each character gets to know each other more intimately than they imagined.
This is what makes Your Name interesting as a romance movie. The approach is slightly different, and it has a nice build-up that makes you want to keep watching.
But ultimately, as pointed out in the next few points, this falls on its ass, and it’s not executed as well because the visuals and aesthetics take the lead over everything else, like substance.
Selling a lot of copies has nothing to do with quality. That’s called marketing. And Your Name, similar to Demon Slayer, did a good job of that.
But that has no bearing on the quality, which is lacking and overrated in my eyes.
2. Too much beauty, not enough depth
This is also the same issue with other Makoto Shinkai movies. Examples like Garden Of Words and 5 Centimetres Per Second make my points loud and clear.
The animation, the visuals, the aesthetics (especially for their time), and the designs are still so gorgeous In 2023 and beyond.
But what good is beauty if there’s no depth? It’s like a beautiful woman with no brains, no common sense, and nothing else to offer except eye candy.
It’s enough once the magic of beauty starts to wear off, revealing the emptiness that follows.
Related: How I Feel About Makoto Shinkai’s Anime Movies (Good, Bad, Ugly)
3. A lifeless, empty shell
like a barbie doll, it’s a lifeless empty shell. With no depth at all. It feels more like acting, making it seem forced and exaggerated when expressing itself.
I wrote this years ago in a separate article, and It’s true to this day. Your Name is a surface-level movie, a surface-level piece of content that is weak when you peel back the banana and see what’s underneath.
It’s not anything worthy of being called a masterpiece when you do peel back the skin, and that’s because it’s prettier and sexier on the surface than it is underneath, where the depth and content should be so much more impactful.
Related: 25 Of The Most Awful Anime
4. The build-up was underwhelming
This is a similar problem I noticed with the anime series Anohana. The build-up was good when you first watched it, but in hindsight, after seeing everything from start to finish, it’s WEAK.
That’s because the ending and how it ended didn’t have the assumed impact it was supposed to have, based on what happened before the fact.
The emphasis on distance, the pain of that, and most importantly – FORGETTING the names of each other was supposed to be a major turning point for emotional impact.
But it was underwhelming.
5. Boring characters who aren’t memorable
I don’t remember any of the names of the characters. The main female character and the main male character – I have no idea the names of these love interests.
I always judge an anime based on HOW well I remember it and how memorable it ends up being. That includes the characters, the scenes, the emotions, the plot, and everything else in between.
If none of these elements is memorable enough and after months or even a year, you can’t remember, was it really worth watching, and was it as good as you thought?
The answer is a definite NO.
6. Exaggerated elements
From the movements to the way the characters interact, react, display their emotions, and intricate details like this feel exaggerated to me.
This isn’t a major gripe for the anime and how I viewed it, but it does add to all the other points I made already.
When comparing an anime movie like Your Name to other romance anime (not movies) like Clannad or Violet Evergarden or something similar, you can feel the difference.
It’s clear as day.
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In the end, Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) is a tad overrated and not the best anime movie (A Silent Voice feels more genuine and fleshed out).
There are better anime movies or romance anime out there that have sold much less or are less popular but are so much better in quality and what you get from them.
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