Movie · 2019 · Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Romance · 1h 52m · PG-13 · Japanese
Curator score: 6.5/10 (340.9K ratings)
A story about the secret of this world that only I and she know.
Overview
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if taking its cue from his life. After many days of solitude, he finally finds work as a freelance writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then, one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.5/10
IMDb: 7.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.69/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 72
TMDB: 8.0/10
Director
Makoto Shinkai
Production
CoMix Wave Films, Story, TOHO, KADOKAWA, jeki, Lawson Entertainment
A visually lush, emotionally earnest rain-soaked fantasy-romance with standout animation and a strong sense of atmosphere. It’s less universally loved than Shinkai’s biggest hit, but the mood, imagery, and youthful urgency make it a compelling watch if you’re open to a melodramatic, slightly messy love story with environmental undertones.
Best for
fans of romantic fantasy and coming-of-age stories
viewers who prioritize animation and visual spectacle
people who like bittersweet teen melodrama
audiences interested in Tokyo-as-character urban storytelling
Skip if
you want tightly plotted realism
you’re sensitive to perceived climate-change skepticism or moral ambiguity
you dislike earnest teen romance
you prefer understated, low-key animation
Overview
Weathering with You is a gorgeous piece of animated mood-making: rain-slick Tokyo streets, glowing skies, and weather as emotional language. The film is at its strongest when it lets images do the talking, turning everyday city life into something mythic and intimate at once.
Worth noting
Its romance is sweet, impulsive, and deliberately larger than life, though the story can feel familiar if you’ve seen other Shinkai films. Some viewers will find the central relationship deeply affecting; others may bounce off its stubbornly romantic worldview and the way it handles its ecological ideas.
Bottom line
Even so, the craftsmanship is hard to ignore. If you come for the animation, the atmosphere, and the ache of young people making impossible choices, it delivers. If you need thematic neatness or a more grounded emotional register, it may leave you frustrated.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Darren Carver-Balsiger (2★) · 3095 likes
SPOILERS ahead, but I would recommend reading this review regardless.
This was my own personal hell. I was actually very excited to see Weathering with You. Makoto Shinkai is a mixed director at best but his work was certainly improving over the years. Two of the friends I most trust for anime recommendations told me this was great. I even almost went to the English premiere. Boy am I glad I didn't. I hated this film. I was fine for… more
•lily• (5★) · 1485 likes
ily: i love you
ilysm: i love you so much
wciwcsasiwymtabs: who cares if we can’t see any sunshine, i want you more than any blue sky
👽 Zara 👽 (4.5★) · 1444 likes
i didn’t cry it’s just the rain in my eyes
Patrick Willems (4★) · 1377 likes
You had me at "anime kids sit by windows watching the rain"