User reviews

I can't help but suspect that writer/director Makoto Shinkai did make this movie because he thought he had an interesting story but simply because he wanted to play with rain animations.

I'm okay with that. The animation is stunning, and no one is quite so good as taking something as simple as drops in a puddle and creating a gorgeous symphony as Shinkai.

All the same, a story would have been nice and there really isn't much of one here, nor does what exists make any particular sense. But the characters are charming, the movie is funny and touching, and while it's no "Your Name" it is Shinkai's third best film (Garden of Words is 2nd).

Well worth watching.

I'm interested in this movie because of shinkai's previous works, and I think considering his last movie's success, many people also feels that way, so it's very hard to not comparing shinkai's next work with "your name". I'll start with the animation and visualization in this anime, it's better than "your name", and it captures the metropolitan culture of tokyo's Japanese people very well, though i miss the depiction of japan traditional culture and rural area in this movie. About the music, they have similar aura with "your name", moving moments in the movie are captured brilliantly with the music. Storywise though, "your name" was a better love story than this movie, and "your name" made more sense than this movie. It is still a very good movie though, but I think it won't top "your name" success.. I hope shinkai will make many more good movie after this, and with this much of quality, I think many people would still want to watch his future projects.. I know I would.

Weathering With You is an anime fantasy film produced by CoMix Wave Films. Written and directed by Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, 5 Centimeters Per Second), it is yet another poignant story from the acclaimed anime artist that stands well above most other animated films of this era.

In Tokyo, young high school student Hodaka Morishima attempts to find work and a place to live after running away from home. At the time, Japan is going through severe rain, halting the progress of many important events. After finding work at a small publishing company, Hodaka is tasked with researching urban legends around the local area, interviewing people who may have knowledge of such a subject. Eventually, Hodaka meets a mysterious girl named Hina, who to his surprise, has the amazing ability to control the weather by simply closing her eyes and praying. Intrigued by her powers, Hodaka decides to befriend Hina to understand her better as a person.

Beautifully animated and touching, Weathering With You is guaranteed to provide just the right amount of entertainment for any fan of Makoto Shinkai's work. While it doesn't quite reach the level of cleverness as "Your Name", it still has enough originality to separate it from its predecessor and stand on its own without drawing too much comparison. The animation is simply gorgeous, easily on par with Studio Ghibli, perhaps even more so. The attention to detail on the raindrops and water is highly reminiscent of Shinkai's 2013 film "The Garden Of Words", another of his work that used rain as a plot device. The characters are likeable and well developed, particularly Hodaka and Hina. Every scene they were together I could always feel the growing friendship between the two. However, the one major gripe I had was that the story was highly predictable. By the time the third act has begun, it's very obvious how things are going to end. Aside from that, this anime film is certainly worth one's time. The version I watched was in Japanese with English subtitles, but I am interested in seeing a dubbed version when it is readily available.

I rate it 8/10

Weathering With You. From Makoto Shinkai, director of the smashing hit Your Name comes a story following a young runaway who flees to Tokyo to start a new life. He befriends a girl with a tokubetsu gift of Weather manipulation and the story progresses from there.

First of all the soundtrack was top notch. Radwimps who also composed and wrote music for Your Name were pretty much just as good. The way the music was used makes the scenes more engaging.

The animation was also what should be expected from a Makoto Shinkai film. It was beautiful. Ohhh my, that's intro scene was kirei.

The plot however felt a little bit messy. The first two acts were very satisfying, and the chemistry between the characters were what made the story really interesting. Hina and Hodaka were really cool together. All the other characters were really interesting and engaging characters. The direction of the third act really felt all over the place. It's hard to explain. Your name's ending was a bit similar, but was felt more complete. The film also had no major twists. There was lots of tension though.

The voice acting was really good. The actors are all unknowns but really sounded good as their characters.

This film was original. With many bad Disney CGI remakes out there, I'd rather watch this a hundred times more. It brings us a new story with engaging characters.

End of review.. 7.5/10 PS: there were some amazing cameos :) Sorry for my bad review. Enjoy.

I thought this film was brilliant in the first half and then everything went south for me. It seems to me that they had this idea of a girl manupulating the weather which results in some of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen in a motion picture (animated or not) and then this idea couldn't evolve into an original, engaging story.

I Left the theater thinking this film had the potential to be one of my all time favorites but at the end I was greatly disappointed.

Living in a country that are constantly hit by all kinds of disasters, Japanese people are more sensitive to natural disaster related topics than most other countries. Shinkai Makoto aptly captured this sentiment and made this heartfelt movie. Blue sky (aozora) is what everyone's heart desires when it kept raining and raining in Tokyo. However, there is a price to pay to get the sunshine back ... Now with global warming getting increasing worse, people all over the world are dealing with all kinds of unusual weathers. This movie thus does not resonate with the Japanese, but also with me as an American. There is a strong message there, and the ending is ... I cannot spoil too much here. In any case, don't just take it as a teenager love story. And needless to say, Shinkai Makoto's graphics is as breathtaking as ever. I like the songs as well. I am glad that we can see it in American movie theaters next year. Thank you GKIDS!

I don't know why this movie gets constantly compared to Your Name, if not for its creator, because these movies are nothing alike. Just wanted to get this out right away.

Also it is often said that the peculiar weather phenomena depicted in this movie were some insinuation to climate change. Though some characters seem to confirm that with their remarks, it doesn't quite fit the narrative in which the weather can be fixed at will by a single person. If it is an insinuation, it isn't a particularly good one.

These phenomena are never really explained. They are merely a weak plot device. And since the show focuses entirely upon Tokyo, the viewer is left wondering what the state of the rest of the world is (for example the home town of Hodoka).

The protagonist Hodoka runs away from home. This is never explained in detail, making it very difficult to identify with the protagonist or at least feel sympathy for him. It's awfully contrived, and Hodoka acts mostly without any forethought. Bad start.

Still, with the help of irresponsible strangers and by avoiding the police, he makes his way in Tokyo; and by a series of extraordinary coincidences, he meets Hina. Her background is just as bland as his and their relationship doesn't go very deep.

On that note: There are no interesting characters in this movie. They are all one dimensional with one line of history. That's just wasted potential.

In Your Name, fate was the enemy; here it is the police, apparently. The chase scenes, violence against police officers, and resistance are completely inadequate. But they needed that to create drama; in opposite to Your Name where drama comes natural. The solution of what stands between them (Hodoka and Hina), the clearing of the final obstacle, is way to simple and unsatisfying. Obviously I wouldn't like to spoiler, but I was left with: "What? It's that simple? That's all he had to do? Why then even bother going through all this trouble?"

Like I said: this movie is nothing like Your Name, but I wished it were.

This movie is still great. Smooth animation with great art direction, relatable characters, and even some fun parts too. The plot still runs smoothly, and has a nice flow to it. But when it comes to comparing to Kimi No Na Wa, director Shinkai's last movie... This movie doesn't quite add up to the qualities that Kimi has. The plot is less complex compared to Kimi, because it only happens in one timeline. The emotional impact is also felt less. The story still has a hidden message about extreme weather, but I still can't spoil too much, so here's the conclusion: Just don't expect you are watching another Kimi No Na Wa movie. So think as it were a teenage love story. Still a great tho.

This film has as a bit of everything, from teenage romance, absconding from home and climate change. The visuals are great, the story disjointed and, if you subtitle, screeching screechy shouty voices that will drive you to distraction!!!

Hina is literally sunshine. She walks through a rooftop portal and becomes the Sunshine Girl. She prays to bring sunshine to a rain-soaked Tokyo. Hodaka is a new arrival in the city. He rescues Hina from a street thug forcing her to work in a club. In order to make some money, they advertise sunshine for pay.

It's an animated Japanese fantasy romance. It's very sweet. That's my one word review. The fantasy element with the animation is very beautiful. It has a bit of comedy. It is certainly in line with a few of these Japanese animated fantasy coming-of-age romance in the real world.

After a masterpiece such as Your Name and other beautiful works of Shinkai, I had high expectations of Weathering with you. At least in my country, the movie was hyped a lot and was aired in the biggest IMAX cinemas pushing out Hollywood movies in favour of Weathering With You. I was happy to see that mainstream cinemas was starting to open up for anime, however what a disappointment Weathering with You was. Such a shame with such a huge opportunity to make anime more mainstream, possibly making way for other anime artists to get into the big screens, and make anime an adult experience and not just reserved for kids and family.

Animation and graphics, backgrounds and the whole graphical aspect of the movie is without a doubt some of the most beautiful in the industry. Nothing to critique here. However the story, oh Lord what a mess.

What I love about Shinkai's other works is how humane the characters are, how they react like real people like you and me. I like how you can identify with them and I love Shinkais common themes of distance, longing, loneliness and love which we all can identify with more or less. In Weathering with you however, there is absolutely nothing you can identify yourself with. The characters are 2D, no real depth. No thinking that it's pretty weird that a girl is connected to the weather. It's all normal? In Your Name the characters freaked out, we understood what happened was very weird and unreal... In Weathering with you, everyone sortof just accepts, which would never happen in real life.

And I guess that is the problem with Shinkais Weathering With You - he moved into the fantasy genre which is very saturated already in the Anime industry, especially with Miasaki. Shinkai's other works, while still touching fantasy, it was still somehow kept "real" to not lose touch with reality, like Miasaki can do in his movies. Weathering with you lost completely touch with reality. In some way it reminded me a lot of Children who Chase Lost Voices.

Shinkai has always been my absolute favorite anime creator. I hope he won't go deeper into the fantasy genre with his next works and come back to reality and creating stories and characters which touches us and we can relate to, something he's an absolute master at. But, sadly, not in Weathering With You. Not a tear was shed, which is unusual for a Shinkai film. We want to be moved and touched, it just didn't happen.

It can be watched for the beautiful animation, but I wouldn't waste money to see it in the cinemas. Wait for it to get on Netflix or other streaming platform and watch it a rainy afternoon.

One of the best experiences I ever had! So glad I got to see in the theater today. The soundtrack is incredible, the sounds are ambient, story is spectacularly immersive and beautiful! A truly heartwarming film about unorthodox weather, romance and a bit of suspense. I love everything about Weathering with you, I was captivated throughout although I barely watch anime now I wanna see more. I wanna own the movie when available; well worth the 17 dollars. Also my 750th review!

The relations between are very similar; art style, sounds and visuals etc, some say it is a continuation but you shouldn't see it that way. Shinkai felt as though Your Name wasn't a finished masterpiece yet it was too late to change anything, although being a hit of 2016. Given the time needed/wanted, Weathering with you is a different story of its own kind and deserves to be so, watching through comparing it to other titles from Shinkai or A Silent Voice is a mistake from the viewer. Give the film a shot and be in for a surprise!

Honestly I'm so disappointed with this anime that it didn't have an indept story like "Your Name". Yeah we know it's about a girl who changes the weather and a 16 year old lad ran away from home to live in Tokyo. That was it...

The animation was absolutely gorgeous like I don't understand why they didn't add a good story to the film seriously?!?!

Nothing special. Plot not great. Why did he leave his home town? Also, message is "ruin it for everyone to be with the girl you love"? It's fine to have a silly message, but I was just not impressed/convinced by this story. Kind of easy "easy to watch", but does not keep you at the edge of your seat of anything. Image is absolutely great though, the level of detail is absurdly high.

Rain, clouds, sky and the sun. these contrast is so beautiful. And scenery in Tokyo is great. I think these are the best points of this movie. If you've been to there, you notice where there is.

Score:

Entertainment value: 7 Visuals: 9 Soundtrack: 6 Plot: 4 World building and depth: 6 Characters and dialog: 4 Total: 6

The good: The visuals are reslly good. Sound is ok. Love how Japanese society is visually captured. Voice acting is ok.

The bad: Characters are shallow, their motivation dumb. From another angle the main character could be seen as mentally confused and hallucinating, that was my feeling. I did not buy his narration of the story at all. Too much corny j-pop.

Not comparing to Your Name (which I loved), the movie is beautifully made (as always with this director) but I didn't get the point of the story and felt bored at the end of it. Maybe I missed something..

Last movie that Makoto Shinkai filmed, "Your name" was devastatingly amazing but this time Mmm. There were some underplots in it but untill the end of this movie, those didn't mean anything so obviously they were redundant scenes.

It's an alright teenage-love / coming of age anime like any other. It hits all the usual notes and is very predictable. The overall idea, while novel, is nothing special either.

Unfortunately, the characters, especially the main protagonist, become more unlikable as the movie progresses which makes it hard to sympathize and root for them.

Animation and visuals are great and music, though not memorable, fit the scenes and was composed well.

Overall, it's worth a watch if you like anime and this genre in particular. But it's definitely not as good as "Your name".

The art , the animation , the soundtrack , everything is amazing. Although i do have some complains about some plot holes here and there but overall , a great movie , would recommend it to everyone , 9/10 !!

Almost as good as your name. Great story beautifully presented.