Anime: Tenki no Ko

The piece has a pretty good potential but that's somewhat wasted by several unnecessary and/or unexplained stuff. I wouldn't expect such drawbacks in a movie by Shinkai Makoto. It is (somewhat) worth watching, the animation is good, it's sometimes funny (although sadly, sometimes that comes thru "WTF"), the characters are consistent and good. Just don't expect too much story-wise. There are better films by Shinkai, if you haven't seen those, go watch them first. Kimi no na Wa was the movie that made me look for other movies by Shinkai (only then I realized I saw a few more good ones from him). Sadly, Tenki no Ko didn't live up to my expectations.

[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 to Kimi 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.

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?