After taking the world by storm with the magical Your Name, Makoto Shinkai is back with Weathering For You, another enchanting anime fantasy that looks absolutely gorgeous. Where Your Name dealt with bodyswapping, Weathering With You follows a young boy escaping to Tokyo, where he meets a girl with the ability to stop rain. Given that the city is experiencing non-stop storms, it seems only right that they use this power to help people who need good weather for various different events. From there, we see their day-to-day as they go from one job to the next, but the film always leaves crucial questions about the girl and her powers hanging over the story that suggest that maybe not everything is as it seems. To answer them here would of course rob the film of most its power, as well as ruin a viewing experience that's best had cold
Given that this is a Shinkai production, it should go without saying that Weathering With You looks absolutely stunning. The animation is gorgeous, revelling in reflective puddles and mouth-wateringly drawn food. No detail is left out here, with even the smallest crystal decoration hanging in a window absolutely shimmering off the screen. Pair that with a Radwimps score that is by turns haunting and awe-inspiring and you have a true treat for the senses, but what's crucial here is that Shinkai doesn't skimp on a satisfying story in his pursuit of screensaver-worthy imagery. It looks the part, but every frame is made all the more beautiful because the film is utterly overflowing with heart and charm. There's so much love in this story, both in the quietly moving moments of dialogue and the absolutely huge sequences of weather manipulation. By putting equal amounts of passion into the big and small, Shinkai is doing something really wonderful: bouncing deeply affecting moments of humanity off of the massive forces of the universe, and it's in this balance where the film transcends, even just for fleeting moments, and delivers some of the most stirring animation of the last ten years
If all the talk of the huge forces of the universe and the deep emotion of the heart sounds heavy, then it really should be emphasised how casual and breezy Weathering With You is for most of its run. The slice of life stuff is incredibly endearing, and each character is impossibly likeable, and following them in their day-to-day lives becomes an absolute treat. It's incredibly sweet and surprisingly hilarious, and even when there's not much happening, just spending two hours in this world feels like a privelege. This is helped by how short the scenes are, a potentially minor detail that means that Shinkai can fit that much more into the runtime. This structure of brief episodes makes it feel like so much is happening so quickly, which makes every moment feel all the more precious. The only drawback to such a perfect portrait of the everyday is that the film continually lets itself down when it leans into its thriller elements. True, the detective plot is needed as a catalyst for the dramatic climax, but with such an adept grasp on both the ordinary and the fantastical, the film doesn't really need any more. These scenes jar because they're forcing things to happen, taking something that excels when it just exists and pushing it to be something it isn't. And while this isn't enough to ruin the film, it does mean that it hits a snag as it goes into the third act, which is thankfully made up for with a gorgeous ending
The ending particularly reminded me of why I fell for this film in the first two acts: the optimism of it all. There's no denying- at least not in a logical way- that climate change is one of the most troubling issues right now, but Weathering With You faces climatic concerns with a reassuring smile. Shinkai literally ties weather to the drama of the story, but just as he promises that the lives of these characters will work out okay, so too can we face a meteorologically uncertain future. This is the exact kind of story we need about this right now, and the gorgeous animation, loveable cast of characters and heartfelt coming of age story are just the sweetest bonus. True, it doesn't offer any especially cutting insights on climate change, but that's not what it's trying to do. Instead, it provides a powerful tribute to the endlessly supportive act of just being there for the people we love that dispenses similar positivity when the future looks bleak. Shinkai has rendered every detail in Weathering With You with so much love, and the result is a true animated tonic that chimes with his uniquely soulful tune
★ ★ ★ ★
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