Film Review: Weathering With You

The works of Japanese animation maestro, Makoto Shinkai, often defy simple genre categorization, but elements that you will often see repeating throughout his filmography are the use of young protagonists who find themselves in way over their head, a magical realism component, and story that operates more like a melancholic fable where emotional logic is often given priority over straightforward, economic plotting. And of course, the stunning animation, which combines expressive characters with near-photorealistic backgrounds. The same goes for his latest anime, Weathering With You, which is his first film following the breakthrough success of the excellent Your Name in 2017.

Weathering With You follows Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo), a 16 year old runaway who goes to Tokyo to start fresh. After struggling to find work at such a young age, he ends up joining a small publishing company where he assists in writing articles about urban legends. One such legend they hear about involves a woman who can apparently control the weather. Sure enough, Hodaka eventually meets Hina (Nana Mori), a young woman who turns out to be the “weather maiden” he’s been hearing about, having the ability to stop the near constant rain that’s been happening in Tokyo with a quick prayer. The two begin to develop a bond, but complications soon arise, and begin getting in the way.

It’s impossible to under-praise any Shinkai film when it comes to the animation, and Weathering With You is no exception to that. He has a way of making mundane environments so effortlessly fascinating to watch, from bright cityscapes to gloomy alleyways. The detail put in every frame is spectacular, and easily worth the price of admission alone. Of course, given the emphasis on weather, the way the water and the sky is rendered takes on a heavenly and otherworldly presence, which perfectly aligns with the motifs of the films.

The characters are likeable enough, from our two leads to the colorful side characters like Keisuke (Shun Oguri), the shaggy publisher who brings Hodaka under his wing, and Natsumi (Tsubasa Honda), the quirky woman who conducts interviews for the magazine. There’s a lot of personality to these characters, and the film presents them with an incredible sense of earnestness that I find really endearing. Though, it may seem like a bit much for people who can’t get on the film’s distinct wavelength.

Thematically, the film doesn’t veer far from some of Shinkai’s usual interests and fascinations as a storyteller, as loneliness, loss, young love, and the barriers – both literal and physical – that often gets in the way of people who try to form a connection all play into the story being told here. On one hand, Shinkai has such a firm grasp on his particular take on these ideas that they still manage to resonate without feeling derivative, but on the other hand, it’s not executed as smoothly as You Name, which felt like the perfect distillation of everything that Shinkai has explored in his previous work. The plotting is a bit on the clunky side, especially as the stakes are raised in the second half, but not to the point of taking you out of the experience.

Despite some similarities, I think most comparisons of Weathering With You to Your Name will be largely unwarranted. The film has a lot of charm going for it, and characters that are worth rooting for. There are so many unique and bold visual ideas on display here, with one whole sequence containing more ambitious imagery than most blockbusters I’ve seen in the past couple years, that it easily gives the film enough to stand on its own as a lovely, idiosyncratic fable. It’s sense of imagination and optimism is infectious, and while it is by no means flawless, I was swept up by it, and more than eager to see where would take me.