Anime Movie Reviews!

Anime and Manga have recently established a strong foothold in the western entertainment industry. Just walk into your local Barnes and Noble and look at the manga section. It has increased exponentially and is even slowly eating away at the American comics section. For anyone out of the loop on nerd culture, manga is essentially Japanese comic books. When I refer to a chapter of manga, think of an issue of an American comic such as Batman. Anime is simply the animated form of manga. Manga is adapted by an animation studio into TV shows which have also become popular in the west. More and more often anime is being adapted to western audiences and dubbed into English faster than ever before. With the rising commercial success of anime and manga, some animation studios are even trying their hand at the American movie market with frequent success. The following are my reviews of Anime movies I have seen in an attempt to show you if you are missing anything by ignoring this growing medium.

Your Name (2016)

Your Name directed by esteemed director Makoto Shinkai is probably the highest- rated film in this collection of reviews. It was one of the first anime films to gain prevalence in the west that wasn’t a studio Ghibli film (You may notice studio Ghibli films are excluded from this piece, I, unfortunately, have not seen any of them). Your Name is a drama following the stories of both Taki Tachibana (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha Miyamizu (Mone Kamishiraishi) who have begun swapping bodies across time and space. They must learn to deal with their new body-swapping power that they cannot control while also saving a town from an imminent natural disaster. It is interesting to note that this is one of the few movies in this collection of reviews that is completely original and not based on a manga.

I watched Your Name about 2 years ago with high expectations considering the staggering 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I must say I was severely disappointed. Admittedly, the film does have good moments. While I would not say body swapping is a novel concept, I believe it is done well in this film. It’s fairly entertaining watching Taki and Mitsuha deal with the drama that comes with adapting to their very different lifestyles. Taki is a city boy and Mitsuha is from the countryside making it interesting to see them swap. To add to the hijinx, both Taki and Mitsuha are from different time periods which creates even more strange moments. Your Name is also visually stunning. While I will not get into spoilers in any of these reviews, a particular scene towards the end of the film involving a “red string of fate” sticks with me as a beautiful piece of animation.

Where Your Name falls flat is with its ending. I believe part of this has to do with the expectations I had coming into the film. I spent the whole film waiting for a romance that never reached the heights I was expecting. Additionally, the cultural difference may have affected my enjoyment. The movie’s natural disaster plot which I believed was strange and out of place was inspired by the 2011 earthquakes in Japan. Perhaps if this was an event more relatable to someone like me in the West who was only 6 at the time of this disaster would have appreciated this movie. Regardless, contrary to most reviewers I would give Your Name a 5/10 for being exceptionally average and not leaving much of an impact on me as a viewer. Not bad but certainly not special.

A Whisker Away (2019)

A Whisker Away is a film directed by Junichi Sato. The plot follows a girl by the name of Miyo Sasaki (Mirai Shida) with a crush on her classmate Kento Hinode (Natsuki Hanae). Miyo struggles to get her feelings across to Kento until one day she meets a mask seller who turns her into a cat. As a cat, she can be close to Kento indefinitely (or about 15 years considering a cat’s lifespan). At some point Miyo ends up in a cat dimension... and there’s a subplot about pottery in there too. At least that’s what I gathered from the Wikipedia article. This movie is also not based on any manga similar to Your Name.

I joke about this movie with my friends because even though I am certain I watched it in its entirety, I cannot tell you what was going on. I was more bored than I have ever been during a movie. Of the information I mentioned in the previous paragraph, here's what I remembered. There’s a girl who turns into a cat to be with her crush, and there’s a cat dimension.

That’s it. I did not remember a single name, a single character trait, nothing. If some of the people I watched the movie with informed me I had actually fallen asleep during the viewing without noticing, I would not be surprised. To put it simply, A Whisker Away blows, unless you really like cats... or middle school romance. 2/10. (It gets above 0 because the movie is very pretty)

A Silent Voice (2016)

A Silent Voice directed by Naoko Yamada is probably the first movie I saw out of all the films I am reviewing. It is also the only film on this list that I watched alone. A Silent Voice follows the story of Shoya Ishida (Miyu Irino) who struggles with depression and cannot bring himself to look at his classmates because of his self- hatred. Throughout the movie, Shoya learns to accept himself and the people around him by reconnecting with Shoko Nishimiya (Saori Hayami), a deaf girl whom Shoya had bullied in his childhood. The film is based on the 7-volume manga by Yoshitoki Oima which follows the same plot. A Silent Voice is definitely the most relatable film in this collection. While I am not a superhero or frequently body- swapping, just about anyone can relate to the struggle of social anxiety (to varying degrees of course). A Silent Voice depicts the most realistic version of social anxiety and depression that I have seen in films in general, not just anime films. Like other entries on this list, A Silent Voice boasts stellar animation to go with its story produced by the legendary Kyoto Animation studio.

Something to pay close attention to in A Silent Voice is its soundtrack. One of the main characters in the film is deaf and to reflect that, the music is muffled throughout the movie. This effect was achieved by placing the mic to record the music (which is mostly just piano) inside the piano itself to create a distorted effect. This technique gives the film a unique score that is immediately recognizable once you have heard it for the first time while also contributing to the plot of the movie. Admittedly, I struggled to write about A Silent Voice more than any other movie in this collection.

You may notice in the last paragraph I do not seem to have much to say. That’s because to put it simply, the movie is just good. While I would never go back to watch any of the movies on this list, A Silent Voice is different. This film profoundly affected me and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of if you care about anime because it is simply a good movie. I confidently give A Silent Voice a 10/10 for its beautiful portrayal of mental health and stunning visual/audio design.