Anime / Your Name

I wanted to tell you that… Wherever you may end up in this world, I will be searching for you.

Connecting people is Musubi. The flow of time is Musubi. These are all the god's power. So the braided cords that we make are the god's art and represent the flow of time itself.

— Hitoha Miyamizu

Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) is the sixth film by Makoto Shinkai. The film was animated by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho. The film premiered at Anime Expo on July 3, 2016, and opened in Japan on August 26, 2016. Shinkai published a novelization a month prior to the film's theatrical premiere.

Your Name follows the lives of two high school students, Mitsuha Miyamizu and Taki Tachibana. Rural-bred Mitsuha has long been dissatisfied with her life in the countryside and resents her role as a Miko, as well as the way her father focused on his political career instead of caring for his children.

Her wish of being reborn as a handsome Tokyo boy is seemingly granted when she wakes up in Tokyo and is treated to a day in the life of a busy Tokyo high school student, adjusting to the hustle and bustle of the city that stands in stark contrast to the sleepy town of Itomori. While she dismisses her experiences as a dream, the phenomenon, seemingly related to the appearance of Comet Tiamat, begins to occur with increasing frequency, bringing Taki and Mitsuha together in a way they previously thought unimaginable.

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Your Name provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Despite being presented as a source of conflict in the film, the relationship between Mitsuha and her father remains rocky right up until Mitsuha attempts to persuade him one final time to evacuate the town. However, the novel Another Side: Earthbound suggests that things between the two have become more cordial.
• Adaptation Expansion: The manga adds unique content not present in the film, such as giving Taki more interaction with his hitherto one-scene father, expanding on what Taki did between the stopping of the body-swapping and his trip out to Itomori, and more of the entries Mitsuha left in Taki's phone.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the manga, Miki finds a now-adult Taki in person on the anniversary of the Tiamat strike rather than contacting him on the phone while he's with his friends.
• Adults Are Useless: Mitsuha only has Tessie and Sayaka's assistance in attempting to evacuate Itomori ahead of the impact event, as all of the adults have dismissed their claims and pay them no heed. However, this becomes subverted when Mitsuha attempts to convince her father to order an evacuation and succeeds.
• Airplane of Love: After Taki's date with Miki, we see a airplane flying in the night sky.
• All for Nothing: The side novel Another Side: Earthbound reveals that, after his wife Futaba's death, Toshiki had set out to become mayor of Itomori in order to modernise the town, spending two years preparing and then getting elected into a 4-year term. As he's preparing for re-election at the start of the film proper, comet Tiamat destroys the town into it one month later and with it, his goals of revitalising Itomori.
• Alliterative Name: The main protagonists' names, Mitsuha Miyamizu and Taki Tachibana, have the same characters in their given and family names.
• All Just a Dream: Taki and Mitsuha initially dismiss the body swapping as a dream until the occurrences become more persistent. Later in the film, Taki is left to wonder if his experiences were a figment of his imagination, when he learns that Mitsuha perished in the impact event annihilating Itomori.
• All Men Are Perverts: Taki never fails to grope Mitsuha's breasts when waking up in her body, which becomes a Running Gag.
• All There in the Manual: Supplementary materials, such as the movie novelisation and side novel, Another Side: Earthbound, provide additional details into Tessie, Yotsuha and Mitsuha's father's perspectives, including how Mitsuha's father first met Mitsuha's mother.
• Alternate Universe: It is implied that Your Name splits off from The Garden of Words in that Yukari moves to Itomori rather than to Shikoku.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Mitsuha's father interrupts his political rally to lecture Mitsuha for her posture while she's passing by on her way to school, embarrassing her in front of the town's citizens.
• Angry Collar Grab: When Taki-as-Mitsuha tries to convince Mitsuha's father to evacuate Itomori, he brushes it off as either a bid for attention or mental illness, and picks up the phone to call the hospital. Taki loses his temper and yanks the older man forward by his necktie, shocking him.
• Apocalypse How: Local area societal disruption due to the Tiamat fragment's destruction of Itomori. In the original timeline, 500 of Itomori's 1,500 inhabitants die and the rest abandon the town. In the changed timeline, there are no fatalities, but 104 are still injured, and though its exact fate is never made explicit, at least some inhabitants leave it afterwards.
• Apocalypse Wow: Tiamat's fragmenting means Itomori is running out of time, but also results in a beautiful sky.
• Arc Symbol: The Red String of Fate figures very prominently in the movie to signify the connection between Taki and Mitsuha.
  • Doors and thresholds form a recurring motif as well, fitting the theme of connection between worlds.
• Arc Words:
  • "Your name is..." appears frequently throughout the movie.
  • "Who Are You?"
• The Art of Bra Removal: The opposite holds true here. Taki lacks the familiarity to put on a bra while he's inhabiting Mitsuha's body, and goes braless instead. Mitsuha eventually has to deal with it herself by wearing one to bed, as we see the morning of the trip to the mountain shrine. Unfortunately, one of the switch days before she does so is a day the girls play basketball in gym class, leading to some very obvious bouncing.
• Attack of the Town Festival: A fragment of Tiamat falls on Itomori the night it is holding an autumn festival.
• Bait-and-Switch: At the film's closing, Taki and Mitsuha walk past each other, seemingly passing by without a second glance and leading to an ending consistent with Shinkai's earlier works, but ultimately, Taki stops and calls out to Mitsuha, noting she seems familiar, allowing the two to introduce themselves to one another.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Near the beginning Mitsuha wishes "make me a handsome boy in my next life". According to some cultures, waking up each day is a kind of rebirth...
  • In Tessie's part of Another Side: Earthbound, he fantasises about destroying Itomori, because with his family company's strong ties to the town, it's the only way he'll ever be allowed to leave the town and get out from under his father's thumb. However, Tessie does not anticipate the impact event that ultimately destroys the town.
• Big Damn Reunion: Mitsuha and Taki meet by chance at the very end and ask each other if they'd met before, tearing up in happiness at finally seeing the person they'd subconsciously longed to meet.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The name of the Italian restaurant Taki works at translates as The Garden of Words. Curiously, this decision was made by the environment artist, rather than Shinkai himself.
  • The name of the comet "Tiamat" sounds strikingly similar to the Italian phrase "ti amo", which means "I love you." Now consider the genre of the film... If you want to head straight into Latin, "Tiamat" also sounds quite similar to "te amat", which directly translates to "he/she loves you".
• Bland-Name Product: Although there is Product Placement in the film, KFC appears as KEO, Prudential Financial becomes Pararudenta Financial and Tsukasa uses a Somy phone◊. This last one is odd because Sony in its unedited form is visible in shots of Yunika Vision. Miki and Taki also pass by a building with "Top Camera" in Akasaka-Mitsuke at the end of the film. The actual building has a Bic Camera outlet instead.
• Bookends: The film opens and closes with Taki and Mitsuha spotting one another in opposing train cars, although the ending presents the subsequent events, as well.
• Boy Meets Girl: And it involves body switching and Time Travel.
• Broad Strokes: This cannot be fully in continuity with The Garden of Words because at the end of that film, Yukari moved back to her hometown in Shikoku rather than going to Itomori (which is in Gifu, Honshu).
• Broken Masquerade: When Taki-as-Mitsuha almost physically assaults Mitsuha's father, the man is at first shocked, and then seemingly realizes that Mitsuha quite literally isn't herself at the moment.
• The Cameo:
  • Yukari Yukino from The Garden of Words makes an appearance as Mitsuha's literature teacher.
  • Makoto Shinkai revealed that Takao Akizuki from the same movie is in as well and challenged the viewers to find him. See the entry for Freeze-Frame Bonus for the cameo scene.
• Cassandra Truth: Mitsuha's grandmother tells her that no one will believe her about the impact event, correctly surmising Mitsuha's father's response to the threat; he decides that Mitsuha must either be lying or else, mentally ill.
• Catapult Nightmare: Taki is jolted awake when awakening as Mitsuha for the first time.
• Censor Shadow: The first time Taki and Mitsuha switch bodies, bright sunshine covers Taki-as-Mitsuha's breasts when he looks in the mirror.
• Chekhov's Classroom:
  • Yukari mentions the phrase "tasokare-doki/kataware-doki", an ancient term for "twilight" sounding phonetically similar to "who is that?", characterising twilight as "when the world blurs and one might encounter something extraordinary". Mitsuha and Taki subsequently meet one another under twilight for the first time.
  • While inhabiting Mitsuha's body, Taki learns about the concept of "musubi", which he later recalls, leading him to drink the kuchikamisake that Mitsuha had made and send himself back to Itomori with the goal of saving the town.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Taki's bracelet bears resemblance to and is Mitsuha's hair ribbon and becomes an artefact that helps Taki to recall that he and Mitsuha had met in the past.
  • The kuchikamisake Mitsuha created during the kagura dance allows Taki to switch back into Mitsuha's body.
• Chekhov's Hobby:
  • Tessie works part-time as a construction worker, and his father tells him to learn how to handle explosives. His skill with explosives are called upon when Mitsuha asks him to destroy a local transformer to prompt an evacuation.
  • Tessie's room shows him to be a collector and tinkerer of audio and electronic equipment, which is how he comes up with the idea to make the fake evacuation broadcast.
  • A member of the broadcasting club, Sayaka hijacks the town's broadcasting system to announce the need for evacuation.
  • Mitsuha's experience in weaving allows Mitsuha-as-Taki to mend Miki's skirt when it is slashed by ruffians.
  • Taki is a capable artist, and is first seen drawing Itomori while inhabiting Mitsuha's body. His renditions are accurate enough to remind a local of the town's name, bringing Taki a step closer on his journey to learn more about Mitsuha.
• Comet of Doom: Comet Tiamat turns out to have a major influence upon the plot.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The owner of the ramen shop Taki and his friends stop at is a former Itomori resident who later helps Taki reach the remains of Itomori. According to the manga, he too escaped the Tiamat strike only because traffic just happened to be bad that night.
  • As Mitsuha waits to board a train to go back to Itomori after a day of fruitless searching for Taki in Tokyo, a train Taki was taking just happens to show up at the station she was at. This gives her the chance to pass him her ribbon, which becomes important chronologically later.
  • In the final scene of Taki & Mitsuha's reunion, both are on their usual way to work. The fact that both are able to spot each other through the train window at the same precise location & time where their two trains run parallel to each other, after years of this never happening before, is almost an act of god.
• Cosmic Plaything: An entire town. As of present day, Itomori has been hit by a meteor at least three times (One time forming the crater where the shrine is, one time forming the lake and one time destroying the city).
  • This could also apply to the entire Miyamizu bloodline, since it's heavily implied that members of the family in the past often shared Mitsuha's 'swapping bodies' experience with someone else, which may be related to some supernatural attempt to protect the town from the constant meteor strikes during each Tiamat passing as well.
• Creator Cameo: In Taki's bedroom, a mug bearing the same cat Shinkai uses as his Twitter avatar can be seen.
• Creator Provincialism: Your Name draws a lot of inspiration and reference from Shinkai's hometown. For example, Lake Itomori is inspired by Lake Matsuraba, and kumihimo braid-making along with the concept of musubi it's tied to are presented in the film.
• Crotch-Grab Sex Check: Mitsuha pensively inspects Taki's lower regions when waking up in his body for the first time. She later seems a bit unnerved after having to pee.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Another Side: Earthbound mentions that Mitsuha's smaller stature made it more difficult for Taki to adjust to movement while inhabiting her body.
• Darkest Hour: Mitsuha, Sayaka and Tessie's plans to save Itomori's citizens appears doomed to fail when Sayaka is caught mid-broadcast and is forced to stop. Meanwhile, Mitsuha trips and falls en route to trying to convince her father to order an evacuation.
• Dark Reprise: The upbeat vocal opening theme, "Dream Lantern", is remixed into the slow, melancholic instrumental "Kataware Doki" that is played when Taki and Mitsuha meet in person at the caldera's edge by twilight.
• Dead All Along: Taki is shocked to learn that Mitsuha and Itomori's residents perished prior to his interventions altering the course of history.
• The Dead Have Names: Taki, Tsukasa and Miki find a book in the local library that contain the list of deceased from the impact event, including Tessie, Sayaka and Mitsuha's names.
• Death from Above: A fragment breaks off Comet Tiamat's main body and decimates Itomori, producing five hundred casualties and leaving a crater beside the original lake.
• Delayed Explosion: Of the Realistic variety; when the comet fragment strikes Itomori, there is a brief delay before the sound of the impact is heard.
• Delayed Ripple Effect: When Taki learns of Itomori's destruction and Mitsuha's death, his memories of her begin fading, and diary entries in his phone spontaneously erase themselves before his very eyes.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Taki tries finding Mitsuha and Itomori with nothing but a drawing of the town and without even knowing Itomori's name. Predictably, it doesn't work out.
  • Similarly, Mitsuha trying to find Taki in Tokyo on a whim without proper planning goes equally poorly.
  • Taki forgets having met Mitsuha in Tokyo in 2013 because the likelihood of remembering someone who seemingly randomly bumps into you 3 years ago isn't high.
  • Mitsuha, Sayaka and Tessie's aim of evacuating Itomori prior to the projected impact event is stymied by their limited resources and the adults dismissing their predictions as ludicrous. Even then, all they can do is evacuate the town; outright stopping the comet fragment, like might happen in a more fantastic story, is never even considered.
• Distracted from Death: Mitsuha's father Toshiki Never Got to Say Goodbye to Futaba because he was out trying to find other doctors to try curing her.
• Dramatic Drop: Emphasising her shock at Taki's outrageous actions, Mitsuha drops the rolled omelette she was about to eat when she hears that Taki had kicked over a table in class the previous day while inhabiting her body.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • One of the news commentators remarks that the probability of Comet Tiamat's fragment striking a populated area was unlikely.
  • Toshiki's section of Another Side: Earthbound discusses how many shrines pass on all their secrets to only one designated heir, including the disadvantages of this system should that heir die before passing those secrets on in turn. Anyone who's watched the film before reading the book will wince, knowing exactly what's going to happen to Futaba in future.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The owner of the ramen shop owner that Taki and his friends stopped at can be briefly seen◊ listening to Toshiki's rally.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After eight years of searching and feeling a persistent sense of longing during this period, Taki and Mitsuha finally meet one another. Their earlier efforts, while unable to stop the town from being destroyed, allow Itomori's residents to be saved, whereas in the original timeline, a third of the citizens had died in the impact event.
• Equivalent Exchange: The price for crossing into the "underworld" (the place where the Miyamizu god Musubi is enshrined) is "the thing that you value most". In other words, Taki and Mitsuha have to give up their memories of each other as the price for Taki's chance to save Mitsuha.
• "Eureka!" Moment: In Another Side: Earthbound, Toshiki comes to understand the significance of what he had been previously told about the Miyamizus' beliefs upon seeing the fragment of Comet Tiamat.
• Everyone Can See It: Taki and Mitsuha's friends and family observe a noticeable change in their respective personalities during their body swaps, and later, Miki feels that Taki has fallen in love with Mitsuha, despite not knowing her.
• Everyone Lives: It turns out that through Taki, Mitsuha, and her friends' combined effort, they were able to prevent major casualties from the impact event that destroys Itomori.
• Faked Food Contaminant: Near the end of Mitsuha's first day in Taki's body, a customer at the restaurant Taki works at reports finding a toothpick in his pizza. Mitsuha points out the restaurant doesn't have toothpicks, so the man tries to make a scene and Miki decides it's better to follow the manual and make his pizza free of charge. After the restaurant closes for the day, the staff lament that it was clear he was scamming them, and it further turns out that he slashed Miki's skirt with a box cutter on his way out.
• Family Theme Naming: Mitsuha's name means three leaves, her sister Yotsuha's name means four leaves. Their grandmother's and mother's names, Hitoha and Futaba, mean one and two leaves respectively.
• Fate Drives Us Together: Taki and Mitsuha are brought together by the body switching phenomenon.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison:
  • Taki and Mitsuha voice their frustrations at the others' actions when they realise that they are "switching places".
  • Tessie and Taki-as-Mitsuha do this as they conclude their plans to evacuate Itomori.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Taki asks the ramen shop owner to help him reach Itomori, the man and his wife exchange looks that indicate foreboding. Tsukasa and Miki's remarks similarly hint at the sights awaiting Taki.
• Flipping the Table: When Tessie and Sayaka talk to Taki-as-Mitsuha about how the small "clique" had bullied Mitsuha previously, Taki's reaction is to forcefully kick a desk near them over, then Death Glare the trio into submission. After this, thinking that Mitsuha has Grown A Spine, they take it down a notch.
• Foregone Conclusion: Mitsuha's first appearance in the movie is as an adult, leading to the question of how she gets to this point if she's dead.
• The Foreign Subtitle: The movie was released in Germany as Your Name: Gestern, Heute, und für Immer^note Yesterday, Today, and Forever.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Mitsuha's grandmother mentions that a great fire destroyed Itomori's records, taking with it the meaning behind their rituals. This hints at the idea that even if people can be saved, their traditions will be lost to time. It's also possible that there was a record of Tiamat's previous orbit, when a fragment impacted and created the town lake.
  • When Mitsuha-in-Taki first visits a cafe and gapes at the prices, she is asked jokingly what era she's from. She actually is from the past after all.
  • In the novelisation, Mitsuha comments that Taki's crush on Miki is one-sided because she's older than he is, but as it turns out, so is Mitsuha.
  • At one point, Mitsuha & Taki insulted each other for having no girlfriend/boyfriend. This ended up true as in the epilogue, both still remained single & not in any romantic relationship until their fateful reunion, which reinforces the Red String of Fate at play.
  • When both Taki and Mitsuha flip back to their previous day's journal entry, both are dated September 12. However, Taki's falls on a Monday, whereas Mitsuha's falls on a Thursday, suggesting that their timelines differ.
  • During Taki's date with Miki, they visit a photo exhibition on nostalgia where some of the photos showcase Itomori and life in a bygone era, as well as remembering a town already destroyed.
  • Right after Taki's failed date with Miki, he finds a message from Mitsuha in his phone that mentions Comet Tiamat, which had passed three years earlier. When he tries to contact her directly, he cannot connect as her number no longer exists.
  • Mitsuha cuts her hair short and doesn't wear her red hair tie, because she had already given it to Taki when she went to Tokyo to see him, but since Taki doesn't start swapping bodies with her until three years later from his perspective, he didn't know who she is.
  • Taki and his friends first see Itomori from the derelict high school, which was spared from destruction. Later, Taki-as-Mitsuha gets the citizens to evacuate here knowing the site will be safe.
• Four Is Death: October 4th is when Tiamat crashes into Itomori and destroys it, killing 500 of its inhabitants.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Taki and Mitsuha inexplicably switching bodies when they wake up is what drives the narrative.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In the scene where Tessie's father and Toshiki are having dinner, there is a very small calendar that shows the year is 2013.
  • The first time Mitsuha attends school in Taki's body, a poster can be seen in his classroom showing the year is 2016.
  • When Taki and Mitsuha are looking through their phones at one point, one of the dates shown is September 12, although the day of week is different.
  • When Mitsuha is walking around Tokyo trying to find Taki, one of the places she is seen passing through is the set of stairs where she would eventually reunite with him.
  • When Mitsuha meets Taki in Tokyo before Taki even knew Mitsuha, Taki is seen with notes to study English. The two phrases shown on his notes are: "Have you seen Tiamat's comet?" and "I'm looking for my counterpart", both of which are significant within the film's context.
  • The unused clubroom that Mitsuha, Tessie and Sayaka met in is filled with old game consoles like the Nintendo GameCube, and the one shot of the room door shows that the room was formerly used by many other clubs. The presence of games like Metal Gear Solid suggest that the students had transformed the club room into a game room after the other clubs were shut down.
  • When the adult Taki briefly sees Mitsuha in the train station, Takao Akizuki from The Garden of Words can be seen among the crowd.
  • During the final act, the kanji for Miyamizu can be seen on the nameplate of the now-adult Mitsuha's apartment front door, confirming that it's really her and not an Identical Stranger.
• Gender Vocabulary Slip: When Mitsuha is inhabiting Taki's body for the first time, she accidentally uses the first-person pronoun "watashi" while with Taki's classmate. While not strictly a female-only pronoun, in this context (male high school students who are friends) it would come off as effeminate. She then tries to correct herself by switching to "watakushi", "boku", and finally "ore", much to his friends' confusion.
• Genre Shift: The movie started as a body-switching romance-comedy drama but later becomes tragic romance with elements of Sci-Fi (namely time traveling).
• Gilligan Cut: On the day of the visit to the mountain crater shrine, Taki says that, for Mitsuha's sake, he shouldn't play with her breasts. When the scene cuts to Yotsuha opening Mitsuha's bedroom's door, he is seen doing exactly this.
• Girl of My Dreams: Taki and Mitsuha occupy one another's bodies and do not meet, but their experiences eventually lead them to develop a strong sense of longing to meet with one another in person.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Taki and most of the characters sport hairstyles that remain consistent throughout the film, but Mitsuha's hairstyle undergoes several changes: she wears folded twin braids in the beginning, shortens her hair following an Important Haircut halfway through the film and finally, wears her hair down with a French braid as an adult following the Time Skip. Sayaka spends most of the film with twin braids but has short hair as an adult.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Taki has one, according to Tsukasa and Takagi; or at least he doesn't back down from a fight.
• Hated Hometown: Mitsuha loudly expresses contempt towards her hometown.
• Have We Met?: Upon meeting one another for the first time at the film's conclusion, Taki asks this question to Mitsuha, confirming that the other person has indeed been the person they've been longing to meet after eight years.
• Heroic BSoD: Both Taki and Mitsuha are devastated when they learn of Itomori's fate.
• Hero Stole My Bike: In the climax, Taki-as-Mitsuha borrows Tessie's bike so he can get to the Miyamizu goshintai; his body (and Mitsuha's consciousness) are there in 2016, which allows the two to meet face-to-face for the first time. On the way there Taki slips on a hill, barely saving himself but breaking the bike; later Mitsuha (back in her own body) tells Tessie "He said 'sorry about your bike'", much to the latter's confusion.
• History Repeats: Tessie remarks that Itomori Lake is a meteor crater that formed 1200 years previously in response to Sayaka after she says that an impact event is purely hypothetical. This holds true when a fragment of Tiamat breaks off and forms a second crater close to the original.
• Homage:
  • There are not one but two moments where the now-adult protagonists pass each other seemingly without recognizing, heartwrenchingly similar to what happens at the end of 5 Centimeters per Second, which makes Taki calling out to Mitsuha and her responding positively so much more touching and awesome for not letting it play out the same way.
  • The way Mitsuha's trip to Tokyo to find Taki works out - a country girl travelling to the big city in search of someone important to her and spending a day in fruitless search only to find him at the last minute - also mirrors Kanae's experience in the manga adaptation of the above.
• Hope Spot: When Mitsuha sees what Taki's written on her hand after she'd tripped, she realizes it reads "I love you" in lieu of his name. While encouraging her to continue to city hall, she also feels that this rather defeats the purpose of helping her to remember who he is.
• How We Got Here:
  • The film starts when Taki and Mitsuha are adults, reflecting on the dream they cannot quite remember. After briefly glimpsing one another while on separate trains, the narrative returns to when they were high school students.
  • Toshiki's section in Another Side: Earthbound starts with Taki-as-Mitsuha attempting to convince him to order Itomori's evacuation before flashing back to Toshiki's first meeting with Futaba and Hitoha twenty years prior to the events of the film.
• Human Notepad: Taki and Mitsuha scribble notes on the other's body to communicate and express their frustration at one another when the body-switching starts. Taki later suggests that they write their names on one another's hands so that they do not forget one another after meeting in person for the first time. It doesn't work, both because Taki writes "I love you" instead of his name, and because they get shunted back into their own times before Mitsuha can draw more than the first stroke of her name.
• Imagine Spot: Mitsuha imagines herself in two different situations near the film's beginning, and both lead her to recoil in disgust:
  • After being informed of her unusual actions the previous day, a vision of her with bedhead and creepy laughter◊ enters her mind's eye.
  • Yotsuha suggests that she market and sell kuchikamisake as a product, prompting Mitsuha to imagine a rather gaudy advertisement◊.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: Mitsuha begins tearing up seemingly for no reason when thinking about the date she set up for Taki. When she and Taki are older, they are also prone to waking up in tears, although beyond a persistent sense of yearning, neither can pin down why they feel this way.
• Important Haircut: Mitsuha cuts her hair the night before Comet Tiamat's perigee. Tessie suggests that Mitsuha might've had her heart broken, and this turns out to be true that she did it because of her feelings for a guy. While seemingly far-fetched, it turns out that Mitsuha went to Tokyo to bid Taki the best on his date with Miki, but because of the disparity in their timelines, the Taki she finds does not recognise her. Considering that learning about her death was a surprise, it cannot be said that she was anticipating to reduce the physical toll from having to do a lot of running during the Itomori evacuation the next day.
• Indirect Kiss: Taki drinks Mitsuha's kuchikamisake, which was made by mixing rice and saliva in her own mouth. This allows him to inhabit her body and work to prevent the town's destruction.
• In the Blood: Mitsuha's grandmother mentions both her and Mitsuha's mother experienced dreams of living other lives, implying their body-swapping ability is due to their ancestry.
• It Amused Me: This seems to be the only reason why the Jerkass in the restaurant slashes Miki's skirt after she has already given him his meal for free.
• It's a Small World, After All: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shows that Takagi and one of Mitsuha's former classmates ended up working at the same Lawson convenience store.
  • also applies to Mitsuha, where she now resides in Tokyo, something she has always wanted since her days in Itomori. Unknown to both Mitsuha & Taki, the very thing they both seek since the comet incident is now in the same city.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mitsuha attempts to advance Taki's relationship with Miki, unaware that he has fallen in love with her by this point.
• I Will Find You: Taki resolves to meet Mitsuha again after their first meeting; he keeps his promise, as the two meet in the film's final moments.
• Karma Houdini: The ruffian at the Italian restaurant is never mentioned again and presumably never gets any comeuppance for his wrongdoing.
• Kimono Fanservice: Sayaka accuses Tessie of wanting to go to the autumn festival just because he wants to see Mitsuha in a yukata.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Both Taki and Mitsuha lose only their memories about one another after altering the past.
• Liminal Time: Twilight, the time between day and night. Taki and Mitsuha are able to meet despite being three years apart during this brief window.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Inverted with the Miyamizu, a matrilineal bloodline who apparently produce only daughters, all of whom are implied to have had body swap experiences.
• Lonely Piano Piece: "Date", which plays during Taki's date with Miki, becomes this after it becomes apparent that the date's a failure. There is also the similar-sounding "Mitsuha's Theme" playing during the flashback to Mitsuha's trip to Tokyo where she initially fails to find Taki and, when she actually does so, it's a younger him who doesn't recognize her.
• Lost in Translation: A scene where Mitsuha-in-Taki confuses his friends by repeatedly using the wrong pronouns was replaced with her saying "when a girl... when a gal... when a guy" in the English dub. There wasn't much else they could do, since English doesn't have gender-specific pronouns for "me," but accidentally saying "atashi" instead of "ore" is a lot more plausible than seemingly forgetting one's own gender (men sometimes use "watashi," just not to their friends), so this makes it seem strange that Taki's friends move on afterward as if nothing happened.
• Love Before First Sight: Even though they have not met the other in person, Taki and Mitsuha eventually fall in love with each other.
• Love Confession: Taki-in-Mitsuha is shown receiving them from her schoolmates. Later on, Taki writes one on Mitsuha's hand instead of his name.
• Love Epiphany: Mitsuha realises she has feelings for Taki after recalling Taki's upcoming date with Miki, and Taki realises thus when Mitsuha suddenly disappears from his life.
• Love Transcends Spacetime: Despite being separated by time and space throughout the film's run, Taki and Mitsuha persistently feel a connection with one another that allow them to meet again under twilight, and even after their memories for one another dissipate, lingering feelings led them to recognise one another immediately upon meeting again.
• Make a Wish: Mitsuha complains frequently about having to live in a backwater town, and at one point declares that she wishes to be reborn as "a handsome Tokyo boy" in her next life.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: The first thing Taki does in Mitsuha's body is look down and grope Mitsuha's breasts out of confusion, since he thinks it's just a particularly realistic dream.
• Maybe Ever After: The film leaves the outcome of Taki and Mitsuha's reunion open, while the novel suggests the two end up together. The light novel to Weathering With You implies they are married by 2024, as there is a one-line mention of "her grandson's wedding" when Hodaka visits Taki's grandmother after the Time Skip, but considering the timeline incompatibilities, one is free to decide for yourself the canonicity of that.
  • Shinkai has since confirmed in a Q&A for Weathering With You that they did, in fact, end up marrying. Mitsuha even made a braided cord for Taki's grandmother!
• Meaningful Name: The name Itomori (糸守) translates to "thread-guard", in keeping with the ideas of how threads can bind together even the intangible.
• Mental Time Travel: Taki and Mitsuha exchange bodies during different time periods. Taki discovers this when he learns of Itomori's destruction, while Mitsuha never realises that this is the case.
• Mind Screw: The last section of Yotsuha's part of Another Side: Earthbound contains a strange sequence where Yotsuha might or might not be experiencing a waking body swap with or dream of one of the Miyamizu ancestors. Little explanation is offered of the surreal events she encounters therein.
• Misplaced Accent: Takagi makes a comment about how Mitsuha-as-Taki is suddenly speaking in a rural dialect.
• Missing Mom:
  • Mitsuha lost her mother to an illness when she was young.
  • Taki's mother is absent in the film and is never mentioned.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In Toshiki's section of Another Side: Earthbound, he speculates on why a shrine like the Miyamizus' that enshrines the celestial deity Shitori no Kami would find affinity with terrestrial deities like Izumo Taisha's. He suggests that they might have once worshipped a rebel against the other celestials like Ame no Kagaseo, at least until a meteorite impact and the consequent deaths that would be viewed as the deity letting them down, prompting the Miyamizu to switch to worshipping Ame no Kagaseo's enemy Shitori no Kami instead.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The film projects a comedic atmosphere surrounding the misunderstandings that arise when Taki and Mitsuha exchange bodies, but once the phenomenon ceases, things take on a much more dramatic, emotional tone.
  • When Taki and Mitsuha meet in person on the edge of the caldera, emotions begin building up right up until Mitsuha seizes the moment to call Taki a pervert. The rest of the scene remains light-hearted until the twilight ends. Mitsuha subsequently vanishes, unable to finish writing her name on Taki's hand.
• Mushroom Samba: When Taki consumes the kuchikamisake, he falls into a dream-like vision of Mitsuha's past that is rendered quite differently than the rest of the film.
• Naked First Impression: When Taki wakes up in Mitsuha's body for the first time, he initially believes himself to be dreaming, blearily arises and undresses in front of the mirror to get dressed. After seeing Mitsuha's body in the mirror, he is jolted awake at this unexpected turn of events.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye:
  • The suddenness of twilight's end means that Taki and Mitsuha never say goodbye to one another. Instead, they resolve to remember the other's name.
  • Another Side: Earthbound reveals that Toshiki wasn't able to be by Futaba's side when she took her last breath, which probably contributed to his remorse and subsequent actions.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The iconic promotional image of Taki and Mitsuha encountering one another on the stairs as high school students never occurs in the film.
  • The Suntory commercials show a scene of Mitsuha and Taki chasing after each other through the streets of Shinjuku while wearing the winter uniforms of their respective schools.
• Next Sunday A.D.: The film's epilogue is set in 2021, although Tokyo's skyline remains largely unchanged from how it appeared during 2016.
• No Antagonist: The narrative in Your Name is driven by the characters' desires and goals, rather than any conflicts arising from any one individual or group's actions. The closest thing to an outside antagonist is a non-sentient Comet of Doom.
• No Name Given: Taki's father and Tessie's parents remain unnamed, even in the credits and official artbook.
• Noodle Incident: Mayugoro's precise involvement and actions in the fire that annihilated Itomori's historical records are never explicitly mentioned, being lost to time.
• No Periods, Period: Played totally straight: the law of averages alone would seemingly guarantee that Taki and Mitsuha must have switched places at least once while she was having her period, but apparently not. The topic never comes up in the movie, novel or Another Side: Earthbound.
• Numerical Theme Naming: All of the women of Miyamizu lineage have given names with numbers in them. Hitoha means one leaf, Futaba corresponds to two leaves, Mitsuha is three leaves and Yotsuha is four leaves.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: How exactly Mitsuha manages to convince her father to evacuate the town is never depicted in the film, novelisation or sidestories.
• Official Couple: According to Makoto Shinkai Taiki and Mitsuha got married after the events of Your Name.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: A sandalmaker now only known as Mayugoro was allegedly responsible for the Great Fire of Mayugoro that destroyed Itomori's records two hundred years ago. Yotsuha comments on how sad it is that, whatever his other contributions may have been, the fire is the sole legacy he has anymore. Toshiki makes a similar remark in his section of Another Side: Earthbound.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Tessie's full name is Katsuhiko Teshigawara, but only his father refers to him as such.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: In Another Side: Earthbound, one of Toshiki's motivations for entering office as Mayor was to eliminate the Miyamizus' Shinto influences on Itomori after Futaba's death shattered his faith in the gods. He ends realizing that there is indeed truth in the old myths.
• Painting the Medium: In the novelisation, different fonts and sizes are used to distinguish between Taki and Mitsuha's perspective.
• "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The final scene pans up to a brilliant blue sky and gentle clouds after Taki and Mitsuha find each other again.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • After Mitsuha's mother Futaba died from an illness, a grief-stricken Toshiki abandoned his duties as a priest and leaves after his mother-in-law, Hitoha, tells him to get lost, leaving Mitsuha and Yotsuha with her. From here on out, their relationship is a contentious one.
  • Taki's mother is absent in the movie; Taki and his father never mention her, and neither the novel nor Taki's section of Another Side: Earthbound provide insight as to how this came to be. According to Makoto Shinkai, she and her husband are divorced.
• Past-Life Memories: Early on, Tessie jokingly suggests that Mitsuha's odd behaviour might be the result of having lived a previous life. The lyrics of "Zen Zen Zense" also allude to this notion.
• Phone Call from the Dead: The reason why Mitsuha and Taki are unable to call one another is because Mitsuha has already been dead for three years by the time Taki starts swapping bodies and leaving phone app diary entries with her.
• Pop-Star Composer: The soundtrack is composed by famous Japanese band RADWIMPS, with multiple songs for frontman Yojiro Noda to sing on. Its international success would go on to greatly raise global awareness of the band.
• Post-Modern Magik: In the novel, Mitsuha considers cursing Sayaka and Tessie by means of LINE when they show up to watch the ritual she's performing in spite of her request for them not to come.
• Product Placement:
  • Boss Coffee machines are seen in Mitsuha's town, and are considered "cafes" in lieu of an actual eatery. Shinkai also directed a series of commercials where Taki and Mitsuha promote Suntory drinks.
  • Taki has a Herman Miller Aeron chair in his room.
  • The Line web service shows up whenever Taki or Mitsuha receive a text.
  • Billboards in Tokyo show many real world brands, including Sony and Panasonic.
  • An ad for Z-Kai, which Shinkai has also directed a commercial for, briefly appears on the train Mitsuha is taking while trying to find Taki in Tokyo. Another one is seen in the train adult Taki is on in post-Time Skip.
  • Tessie at one point is seen eating from a container of "Tocky".
  • Tessie rides a Honda scooter.
• Race for Your Love: When Mitsuha and Taki catch a glimpse of one another on board trains headed in opposite directions, they disembark and run off to find each other, despite neither having any recollection of the other.
• Real-Place Background:
  • The surroundings of Taki's home are based on Wakaba, a neighbourhood near Yotsuya Station and Shinjuku; true to its incarnation in the film, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is visible, and a straight line projected from Taki's apartment through the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building does intersect with Lake Suwa and Hida in Gifu.
  • The stairwell in promotional materials and seen in the film's ending are modeled after the stairs leading up to the Suga shrine in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
  • The town of Itomori is modeled after Hida in Gifu Prefecture, while Itomori lake is modeled after Lake Suwa.
• Recurring Riff:
  • "Itomori High School" and "Visit to Hida" share common sequences.
  • As do "Date", "Mitsuha's Theme" and "Date 2"
  • "Aki Matsuri/Autumn Festival" and "The Night Inn".
  • "Library", "The Night Inn" and "Persuading Mayor".
  • Parts of "Yume Tourou/Dream Lantern" come back as a Dark Reprise in "Kataware Doki".
• Red String of Fate: A physical red string is depicted on several occasions, including the film's opening sequence, to denote the connection that Taki and Mitsuha share.
• Ret-Gone: After Taki learns of Itomori's fate, Taki's memories of Mitsuha begin fading, along with all of the electronic journal entries indicating that they had been swapping bodies.
• Retraux Flashback: The flashbacks shown when Taki drinks Mitsuha's kuchikamizake have faux-VHS effects, including deliberate fuzziness and scan lines.
• The Reveal: It turns out that Taki and Mitsuha swapped bodies over different time periods, with Mitsuha's timeframe being three years behind Taki's. Further to this, Mitsuha originally had died in the timeline.
• Rewatch Bonus: Sharp-eyed viewers will start to notice minor details that supplement the setting and the characters on subsequent viewings.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: While their memories of one another cease to be after Taki changes the past to prevent Mitsuha's death, a trace of longing lingers with them until a chance meeting with one another allows their memories to fully return.
• Running Gag: Taki takes to groping Mitsuha's breasts every time they switch bodies, and Yotsuha never fails to barge in while he's doing so. Mitsuha does something analogous on some of the swaps, but this is only shown a couple of times.
• Sarcastic Confession: In Another Side: Earthbound, while Taki is inhabiting Mitsuha's body, Sayaka says that Mitsuha should be more concerned about her appearance. To Sayaka's confusion, Taki remarks that maybe he's not a girl.
• Scare Chord: A sudden chime is heard before instances of the comet fragment impacting the surface save the impact that occurred after Itomori had been successfully evacuated.
• Scene of Wonder: Mitsuha is fed up with small-town life and wants to go to Tokyo, so when she first swaps bodies with Taki she is awestruck at seeing Tokyo for the first time.
• Scenery Gorn: The remains of Itomori are rendered in a hauntingly high fidelity, highlighting the extent of the devastation following the impact event.
• Scenery Porn: In keeping with Makoto Shinkai's style, Your Name features incredibly vivid and detailed settings, making use of the weather and lighting to accentuate the landscapes surrounding Itomori, Tokyo's cityscape and the building interiors.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: After consuming the kuchikamisake, Taki is sent back in time to Mitsuha's body prior to the meteor's impact. He enlists Tessie and Sayaka to help evacuate the town. When Mitsuha returns to her own body, she continues with Taki's efforts, managing to convince her father to order the town's evacuation and saving the populace.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Mitsuha calls Taki out for being careless while in her body, although this arises as a result of Taki's understandable lack of familiarity with being a girl.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Your Name shifts from a comedic to more dramatic tone following the revelation that Itomori was destroyed three years earlier.
• Shout-Out:
  • The composition of the shot and narrative context when Taki and Mitsuha meet at twilight at the mountain shrine crater is very similar◊ to one from The Place Promised in Our Early Days. It's not the only similar shot either. Both films also begin with How We Got Here scenes where now-adult protagonist(s) reflect on the feeling of having lost something before flashing back to their younger days.
  • As this Reddit post points out, the concept of a god's body in the underworld, where one goes to try and save a dead love interest, and having to make a sacrifice to return to the mortal realm was also present in Children Who Chase Lost Voices. The external appearance of both places is also similar.
  • Yukino from The Garden of Words makes an appearance as Mitsuha's literature teacher. The Italian restaurant that Taki works at is called "Il Giardino Delle Parole", Italian for "The garden of words". The café Taki and friends go to is also "Leaves of Words", which is almost a literal translation of the Japanese word for "word", kotoba 言葉.
  • The club room has many retro game consoles such as the Famicom, Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, and PlayStation. A game case for Metal Gear Solid is also visible.
  • Train tracks akin to those seen in 5 Centimeters per Second separate Taki and Mitsuha when they spot one another and run to meet up at the film's conclusion. Both films also have shots where the male lead traces out a route on a map using a marker while finding the way to the female lead.
  • In the novelisation, Mitsuha is so embarrassed by the thought of doing the miko dance that she inwardly thinks that she would rather be killed by Jason Voorhees.
  • In Taki's section of Another Side: Earthbound, he dances Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" while in Mitsuha's body.
  • When Taki is in Starbucks as an adult, one of the staff that can be seen looks suspiciously like Chihiro from Spirited Away.
• Single Sex Offspring: The Miyamizu are a matrilineal bloodline who apparently produce only daughters.
• Sleep Cute: En route to Itomori, both Miki and Tsukasa fall asleep on Taki's shoulders on a bus.
• Slow Electricity: After Tessie sets off explosives destroying a local transformer, the lights in the town go out one area after the other.
• Slow-Motion Fall: After drinking the kuchikamisake, Taki slips and falls backwards in slow motion.
• Small Town Boredom: Mitsuha wishes she could move to Tokyo and get away from Itomori, which lacks any major amenities and has short daylight hours. While she gets her wish, she has to adjust to being male, as well as putting up with Taki's hectic school life and part-time job.
• Snap to the Side: Taki looks in this manner at Miki and Tsukasa, who are taking pictures of a mascot at the train station.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: Futaba apologises to her loved ones some time prior to her death, but the details vary; Another Side: Earthbound says it was only to her daughters, whereas in the film, Toshiki is also present.
• Spit Take: In the manga, one of Mitsuha's schoolmates does this when Taki!Mitsuha emerges from a cubicle in the male toilet.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening sequence contains parts from later in the film. This is a modification of the original storyboard, which further depicts details such as the second lake following the impact event.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: As expected from Makoto Shinkai's work. Not only are Taki and Mitsuha separated by distance, but time and death as well. Although unlike the couples from Shinkai's previous films, it's implied in the story's conclusion that it's more likely than not that Taki and Mitsuha will end up together rather than apart.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Females in the Miyamizu line are implied to be able to experience the body switching phenomenon; Grandma Hitoha mentions that she also had such experiences before, and Hitoha's daughter, Futaba, notes that, shortly after meeting Toshiki for the first time, felt that he is the one she would marry.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: Moreso considering that Makoto Shinkai is not known for these. It takes 5 years after their last meeting for Taki and Mitsuha to find each other, but they do.
• Symbolic Distance: The poster seen on this page shows the two main characters separated, trapped within their respective urban and country environments and looking longingly at each other. They spend the movie trying to reach each other. As it turns out, this would end up having a layered meaning when we find out they are separated not just physically, but historically too.
• Take Off Your Clothes: When Mitsuha (who is in Taki's body) sees that Miki's skirt has been slashed, she takes her into the office and tells her to take her skirt off. It's only because she wants to mend it, but Miki is understandably flustered by the request.
• Tears of Joy: Taki sheds tears resulting from happiness when he wakes up in Mitsuha's body for a final time. Both Taki and Mitsuha are also moved to tears when finally meet one another after eight years.
• Tempting Fate: Taki and Mitsuha proclaim that their memories will endure even after they separate from the caldera, only for their recollections of one another to fail not long after.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Mitsuha's grandmother Hitoha is a master of kumihimo, the Japanese art of braid making, and she passes on this skill to her granddaughters. Also, Mitsuha (while in Taki's body) uses her sewing skills to mend Miki's skirt, and Miki is impressed, saying she didn't realize that Taki had a feminine side.
• This Is Reality: When Miki gives Taki an inordinately upbeat greeting in the novel, Taki inwardly wonders if Miki fancies herself the lead character of a moé anime.
• Those Two Guys:
  • Mitsuha's unnamed classmates, two female students and one male student, occasionally make snide remarks about her but otherwise have a minor presence in the plot, showing up only for a brief moment in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
  • Tsukasa and Takagi are Taki's friends, being supportive of him but otherwise have a limited role in the narrative. They share contrasting personalities; Tsukasa is more level-headed and is concerned with Taki whenever Mitsuha inhabits his body, while Takagi is more quick to jump into a situation.
• Time-Compression Montage: Almost all of the body swapping occurs in a couple minutes' worth of scenes.
• Time Skip: After the impact event, the narrative moves forward five years, to when Taki has finished his education and begins hunting for employment. From Mitsuha's perspective, eight years have passed.
• Time-Travel Romance: It turns out that whenever Taki and Mitsuha switch bodies, they travel three years from their respective timelines.
• Title Drop: The phrase is mentioned several times in the movie; Taki and Mitsuha ask one another to reinforce the other's identity, and they also ask one another again as the film's final lines when they reunite.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: In English, the pronoun "I" is gender neutral. The English dub dispenses with the confusion arising when Mitsuha, while inhabiting Taki's body, refers to herself in a feminine manner; new dialogue is used in its place, while the subtitled version provides a brief explanation of the original joke.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Subverted; Taki lives in Tokyo, and some parts of the story are set in this city, but many important things also happen in or around Itomori, which is in the relatively obscure to foreigners Gifu Prefecture.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Nandemonaiya" increases in pitch slightly from the closing title switches up during its climax.
• Two Girls and a Guy: Mitsuha, along with her two friends, Tessie and Sayaka.
• Uptown Girl: Mitsuha comes from a wealthy family and ditches her high-status upbringing for a lower class city boy.
• Vehicle Vanish: The opposite occurs when Taki is waiting for Miki to show up for their date; she appears seemingly out of nowhere behind him where some people were passing.
• Weirdness Censor: After the people of Itomori are saved from the Meteor and the body swaps stop Mitsuha and Taki forget everything that happened to them, at least on the surface level. Emotionally (and probably spiritually) a part of them still remembers that they loved somebody and miss them dearly.
• Welcome to the Big City: Mitsuha is awestruck by her first view of Tokyo, but while working Taki's shift at the restaurant later that day, she gets him into trouble with an uncouth customer.
• Wham Shot: Taki is shocked to learn that Itomori was destroyed by an impact event three years previously, and that Mitsuha was among the casualties.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Mitsuha's grandmother and father are not present after the evacuation of Itomori, with the latter only showing briefly in a news article.
• What If?: The official MV for Sparkle suggests a different ending to the film, one in which Taki and Mitsuha reunite three years into her future and thus present day for Taki, rather than the eight in the film.
• Wistful Amnesia: After their memories of one another begin fading, Mitsuha and Taki experience a continuous sense of yearning for something that they cannot quite place their finger on.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Towards the end of the film, moments involving the minor characters, including Itomori's residents and Taki's friends, are depicted.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Itomori is a fictional town in Gifu Prefecture, drawing elements from Hida as well as from Suwa Lake in the Nagano Prefecture.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Mitsuha's efforts to convince her fellow citizens to evacuate the Itomori falls upon deaf ears.

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