Movie · 2016 · Animation, Romance, Drama · 1h 46m · PG · Japanese
Curator score: 9.2/10 (1.9M ratings)
Separated by distance, connected by fate.
Overview
High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.2/10
IMDb: 8.4/10
Letterboxd: 4.23/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 81
TMDB: 8.5/10
Director
Makoto Shinkai
Production
CoMix Wave Films, TOHO, KADOKAWA, jeki, AMUSE, voque ting
A visually stunning, emotionally precise body-swap romance that evolves into a time-bending disaster drama. It’s accessible, moving, and unusually good at balancing humor, longing, and spectacle.
Best for
fans of romantic anime with big emotional payoffs
viewers who like high-concept stories that stay grounded in feeling
people drawn to gorgeous animation and atmospheric music
audiences who enjoy bittersweet coming-of-age stories
Skip if
you want a strictly realistic or low-concept romance
you dislike melodrama or heightened emotional storytelling
you prefer films that explain every plot mechanic in detail
Overview
Your Name. is one of those rare mainstream animated films that feels both crowd-pleasing and deeply personal. It starts as a playful body-swap comedy, then gradually reveals itself as a story about memory, distance, fate, and the ache of trying to hold onto someone who keeps slipping away.
Worth noting
Makoto Shinkai’s direction is the real hook: the film is packed with luminous skies, crisp city detail, and a sense of weather as emotion. The pacing can feel like it’s building toward a crescendo at every turn, but that momentum is part of the appeal. It wants you swept up, and for most viewers, it succeeds.
Bottom line
What makes it endure is the emotional clarity underneath the twisty structure. Even when the plot gets elaborate, the film never loses sight of the simple human core: two teenagers trying to recognize each other across impossible circumstances. It’s romantic, funny, anxious, and cathartic in equal measure.
Top Letterboxd reviews
KYK · 11728 likes
I, too, always wake up crying while grabbing my boobs.
YI JIAN (5★) · 11147 likes
It's the feeling of never wanting a dream to end, desperately trying to go back to sleep hoping that your dream would somehow pick up where it had left off.
But you know very well that it won't. First you'll forget the details. What shirt you were wearing, the exact words you said or wanted to say. Her hand on your palm that felt so tangible just a few seconds ago, reduced to a cold sensation that served as nothing… more
#1 gizmo fan (5★) · 5446 likes
This is one of the most original, frustrating, and fucking brilliant films I've ever seen. If this doesn't get a best animated film nomination I truly will give up on the academy. Please find and watch Your Name.
deah (4.5★) · 4363 likes
mitsuha was GAY and taki wasted so much time writing 'i like you' on her hand instead of his name
Kate (5★) · 3191 likes
The last half an hour of this was the most stressed I've been since the SATs and I'm a sophomore in college.