[Spoilers ahead] The monumental success of Makoto Shinkai’s “Kimi no Na wa” is something that cannot be understated. It was a popcorn film that catapulted an already respected anime director to the superstar status often associated with the likes of Hayao Miyazaki. As such, all eyes were on him to make a follow-up to the 2016 juggernaut with another smash hit. As such, in 2019, Tenki no Ko hit theaters. It was not a particularly good movie, however, it is one that does show improvements over its predecessor despite some tremendous setbacks of its own. At first glance, the visuals seem to be of similar quality toKimi no Na wa. There are several shots of detailed landscapes and weather effects that look absolutely gorgeous. The almost photorealistic backgrounds have been stressed more than in Shinkai’s previous work. There are several well-animated cuts of characters running or of out of control nature wreaking havoc. The character designs also feel less plain than last time thanks to more casual wardrobe being worn instead of just school and work uniforms. However, looking more closely reveals some faults. I’ve never been a fan of the art style of Shinkai’s films, as they often felt bland and with awkward facial expressions. At times, the heads made it seem like a diet version of Dennou Coil’s art style. Even worse, the CGI in this film is far more rampant than last time. Ugly-looking vehicles, moving camera shots, and overhead shots of 3D buildings and people are a constant eyesore in an otherwise well-animated movie. The presentation of scenes can also feel a bit cheesy and heavyhanded, like when a character realizes he’s crying and we see streams of tears gushing one by one, or when sunshine cascades over windows and objects during a musical montage like in an anime OP.
Another aspect that’s worse than last time is the music. The actual background OST is fine, particularly the parts where a piece distorts itself whenever something strange happens in the movie. There aren’t any particularly memorable pieces, but that isn’t the problem here. The insert songs are the real issue, as we have several bland and overproduced “happy” and “emotional” songs by RADWIMPS and other artists. Every montage has to have one regardless of if it fits all that well, and every time the final act has a big emotional moment, one of these songs has to be there. The last 25 minutes have about 5 of these songs, including 2 EDs. They are all so overdone to the point where it either feels like they’re just trying too hard to force an emotion a scene or montage is meant to invoke, or like they’re emotionally manipulative. The insert songs in Kimi no Na wa weren’t very memorable either, but they never felt this overdone or like there were way too many of them. There is absolutely no restraint here whatsoever.
That said, a film is more than just its audiovisuals, and Tenki no Ko has some promising improvements. There are actual characters in this film instead of just bland teenagers and adults with up to 2 personality traits and no chemistry to speak of. The adult side characters have some actual life to them, particularly Natsumi and Keisuke Suga. The former is a peppy girl often down on her luck and ready to tease others while the former is a sassy alcoholic with a scoundrel side to him. They write articles on the supernatural and bounce off our main characters nicely. However, with one step forward comes a concussion-inducing fall back. While the characters do have a bit more life in them and chemistry between each other this time around, the character arcs in this film are miserable. Keisuke Suga’s arc of trying to get over his smoking habit in order to be with his daughter with asthma gets introduced before the concept of him smoking or trying to quit gets shown. The only time he struggles with it is when he sees a cat and decides “no, kitty, you’re right” before crumpling his cigarette. His arc is then resolved offscreen and halfway through the movie, he tells the main characters/the audience that he got custody over her and now hangs out with her regularly. He then smokes and drinks ⅔ into the movie, only for that to never come up again as he no longer needs to overcome anything. He’s already won offscreen.
The main characters have it even worse. Hina is a typical altruistic teenage girl, so she’s about as uninteresting as Kimi no Na wa’s main duo. Then, there’s Kodaka, who is absolutely abysmal. Everything he does in this movie is solely born out of a refusal to accept reality. Why does he run away from home and move into Tokyo? He felt suffocated in a stagnant environment, and moving out officially would most likely be out of the question. I say that because the idea was never brought up in the film itself. Why does he decide to flood the city of Tokyo for 3 years? He wants to be with his the girl he fell in love with as they were doing their rain-reversal gig together, consequences and the world be damned. He made his parents (who we never see) worried sick by disappearing for at least a month, never once considering the idea staying in contact with them or trying to move out in order to start a new life in a way that doesn’t involve ghosting his family. Even knowing the eventual fate of Sunshine girls such as Hina, he never once tells her the potential risk of overusing her rain-reversal powers. He has no reason to not consider that the legends he researched regarding her and those like her might be true given that he found out firsthand that she has those mythical powers. He has no reason not to at least warn her. He certainly has no reason to not see this coming, and then he gets all desperate and crestfallen once it comes true. He then decides to bring her back, knowing that she had to be sacrificed to the clouds to restore balance to the weather so that it didn’t rain for 3 years in a row, nonstop. Imagine the thousands of people were displaced from their homes, the millions who have to learn to adjust to a world where everything is flooded 24/7. Imagine all the industries that cannot operate in such inclimate weather, leaving thousands without a job, and hundreds forced have to play indoors or just not have a sports career for several years. The film already showed us and the main characters how flea markets couldn’t operate in the rain. So much for any air travel in Japan for the next 3 years without there being absurd delays at best. Oh but it’s ok since this outstandingly inconsiderate decision was Kodaka’s idea and Tokyo was originally Umi bay until humanity and nature eventually made it not that so maybe it’s ok for it to return to that form even though he never actually cared about any of that in the slightest. The idea of him needing to grow up and face reality is reduced to a mere suggestion instead of a character arc since clearly the adults who don’t 100% support his reckless endeavors are wrong. Clearly the irresponsible and inconsiderate brat with absolutely no life experience beyond getting beat up a few times is right. Gotta appeal to the teenagers frustrated with adults and the world around them somehow, even if such excessive romanticization and bias gets in the way of all logic. Maturity and sensibility are overrated, anyway.
It’s rather difficult not to blow up at all this, as it’s easily the most outrageous part of the film, actively ruining what was an otherwise decent, if somewhat contrived and dubiously presented movie. The final act even outside of the abysmal ending relies on contrivances for characters to meet up at the most opportune and inopportune of times and for Hodaka to get thrown into and thrust out of sticky situations. This isn’t mentioning plotholes like how Hina learned to summon lightning in order for it to strike down so she can get everyone away from the police in a sequence that could’ve been better if they had just outran them as Hodaka did before, or why she never uses it again. The film had a few decent characters and ideas going for it in the first hour. However, cuz this popcorn blockbuster absolutely must have a hectic climax and a happy ending, it had to throw everything down the drain for a morally bankrupt and deeply inconsiderate main character whose antics only ever get a slap on the wrist at worst. He’s almost always in the right for his awful decisions in a film that already struggled at writing character arcs. It’s a shame the final act had to wash away an initially acceptable movie, even if it is still better than Kimi no Na wa.
At least the characters held hands in this one, so it did somewhat address Tomino’s complaints on Shinkai not letting its characters have any physicality in their relationship whatsoever. Maybe next time they’ll actually kiss or something. Hopefully, the girl is actually older than the guy this time so he doesn’t feel cucked out of that specific fetish. We all know Shinkai puts his kinks into these movies while his characters are constantly cheated out of them...right?
MaMarinate1016
July 19, 2019
Recommended
Looks like i'm one of the first reviews here, I'll go in the history books, lol! Well, let me start by saying Tenki no Ko is a great continuation of the form that Shinkai's been in for the past decade starting with Garden of Words. The character designs, story, pacing, art, animation and sound are all top notch as to be expected. I, however do encourage you to lower your expectations. Not that the film isn't good, it is. Great even and really enjoyable for me. It's just not Kimi No Na Wa 2, which I feel many people will be expecting going in and bedisappointed. This is a different type of story and film that in my opinion feels closer to 5CM per second and Garden of Words than to Kimi No Na Wa. Keep that in mind going in. That doesn't spoil anything, the endings are different, before anyone(mod) complains. I'm just referring to the storytelling method and type of story being told. It's much more grounded and is its own unique thing involving a much more realistic narrative and a fresh MC backstory/internal struggle.
What do I mean by that? I don't think I'm spoiling anything here by saying that the plot while being fantastical, is very grounded in nature. A huge part of Kimi No Na Wa was the magical aspect, here you've got that, but the story is much more rooted in the characters, their interactions and relationships. The whole "weathering with you" is more secondary to the actual inner struggle that the MC is going through and the hardships he's been through which will resonate with many.
Art was top notch as I said before, usual Shinkai style with amazing detailed environments and amazingly detailed character designs. Sound was also really good, soundtrack was great and definitely set the tone for several scenes during the climax. Can't wait for it to be released. Additionally the sound design with rain, weather and other day to day things sounded extremely lifelike and added to the immersion of several scenes. Animation was mainly stellar, but there were a few choppy scenes that I noticed when the characters were running or moving rapidly and I found it a bit jarring, not the biggest deal, but it was there. Mainly, the way the characters' necks and legs moved.
Pacing was good in my opinion, I didn't ever feel overwhelmed by the story, confused or lost. I felt that the script took me from A to Z properly and characters were given their time to shine. Main story and subplots progress smoothly.
Now for the negatives. The CGI was, in my opinion, kinda iffy at times and was a bit subpar in general. I personally think that if I can tell there's CGI being used, it's bad. That could just be me, but there's several scenes where the CGI is really noticeable and so I have to dock points for that. That's my personal definition. I also saw very little actual growth out of the MC from start to end. I know it's a film and not a series, but I wish I would have seen more of his development. I like to see Protags grow and evolve over the course of a film and learn new things. I did not get that in this film.
Additionally, By the end of the film, there are still some unresolved questions and plot threads that I really wish would have been answered during the film, but I do have the Light Novel and am hoping that we will get more answers in that. I also found the ending to be really abrupt and not well led into. Again, think 5CM per Second and Garden of Words type endings. I reiterate, that's not spoiling anything, I'm just comparing it to comparable works and types of stories. The ending is its own thing and completely unrelated. I just dislike how it was abrupt and left more to be desired. I like to see endings eased into. Hopefully the LN will tie up what the film couldn't.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and while it won't break records like Kimi No Na Wa did due to its more grounded nature, it is a really solid film with a unique story, beautiful character designs, great soundtrack and amazing art that I definitely recommend checking out if you can. I imagine there won't be many people reviewing it on here for a year or so, so if you have any questions regarding the film or Light Novel, feel free to hit me up/add me.
Recommended
After having just watched Tenki no Ko in Koufu, I have decided I'll make this my first review, which I'll make spoiler free and using the categorisation format. I am currently stuck between whether I'd call this movie a 9 or a 10, so as I've only seen it once and don't want to over analyse, enjoyment comes first after all, I've put the lower to account for that hype we all feel when we first watch an anticipated release. Story-8: The synopsis provided on the site is ample, so you can read that yourself and I'll cover my personal takes. While manywill foremost associate Shinkai with Kimi no na wa and will expect connection to it, this takes on an approach far more grounded in realism and it's the characters constant interaction and chemistry which draws people in. More like say, Kotonoha no niwa, but still very different. There's no anime movie out there the same as this, it feels fresh and individual. Without giving any spoilers, it takes the very simple concept of a girl who can make the rain disappear by praying and really makes strong use of it, with a well paced and natural progression but also realistic, yet interesting issues which arise from having this power. There were one or two slight loose ends though, and I would have liked a slightly further drawn out ending. overall very well written and interesting.
Art-10: This will have instantly gripped many people as early as the trailers to how well it was done. The character designs are simple and effective, continuing this realistic feel and there was nothing crazy. Underrated aspects even like the rain animation, or the more physical character interactions in the crumbled building with the police at the end are very well done to go with the realistic backgrounds. Of the many places in Toukyou referenced, anyone who has spent time in Shinjuku in particular will really feel a level of satisfaction watching this due to the well illustrated background references. These small details really help bring the movie to life and help create a connection with the audience. My one small complaint being the product placement early on wasn't overly discrete. In the grand scheme that's nothing though as this movie is truly visually stunning.
Sound-10: Not a lot to say other than that it really brings a lot to the movie. RADWIMPS have really brung their A game again, as they did in Kimi no na wa. While theres no chart destroying song like Zenzenzense, the soundtrack perfectly adds to the emotions specific scenes try to convey. The falling scene with Grand Escape will sending shivers down near any viewer's back, but also more subtle ones like the more electro/beat backing in the chase scene adding a greater sense of urgency. Voice acting also can't really be flawed as they really brought the characters to life, with a personal special mention to Daigo Kotarou, the voice of Hodaka. There was nothing that sounded forced or out of place, really deserves huge credit.
Characters-9: The characters are really refreshing and there is nothing stupid, over the top about them. Thankfully no annoying anime tropes. Two teenagers with their own struggles, one trying to make himself at home in a vastly new environment while the other tries to make ends meet supporting herself and her brother. To be safe incase some see it as a spoiler, the detail with Hina's age was a very good touch, anyone who's shared her struggle has been there. The interactions between the two main characters too are very refreshing and again realistic, with small details making all the difference and driving the story. I really found myself caring about the two main characters which is something I really highly value, watching the two of them get closer while their personalities compliment each other and actions perfectly reflect their ages. My one slight complaint being that while I loved watching Hodaka's relationship with Hina grow, I didn't really feel that he had personally grown outside this as much as I'd have liked by the end. The supporting characters too also all bring something to the table and are equally consistently written. Nagi, Keisuke and Natsumi really provide a likable bunch of different supporting characters, and seeing their efforts, or in Keisuke's case, conflicted effort, to support Hodaka towards the end was really beautiful. Seeing Keisuke make the necessary clutch decision really made me smile. They all bring important aspects which add to the story, while letting the main two characters shine. Finally shoutout the Taki and Mitsuha references!
Enjoyment-10: I was hyped for this movie and it payed off, I really enjoyed it. While the story was great, the character in particular really resonated with me and I left that cinema thoroughly satisfied. One scene in particular, which you'll know if you've seen the movie really gave me goosebumps, and I'm a very emotionally monotone person, so that takes a lot of doing.
Overall-9: To be precise I'd call this a 9.5 out of 10 for me. I don't believe it's perfect, but I very thoroughly enjoyed it and believe it could have been a 10 with a slightly more drawn out ending and one or two threads smoothed. To the international audience, be patient, you'll really enjoy this one. It's not Kimi no na wa, so don't go in expecting it to be. It's very different in how it carries itself, so please, judge it on it's own merit and don't go in expecting too much. A very strong showing from Shinkai as expected and I'll continue to look forward to his future projects.
