Your Name.: An Unusual Body Switching Anime Looks Like This

Your Name. is a classic body switching movie (think Freaky Friday, The Princess Switch or Face Off). But THIS time it is a girl in the countryside of Japan with a boy in Tokyo. It is the country versus the city. Although the storyline of the movie is nothing new. There are some elements that make this movie unique.

Premise of Your Name.

At first each of the people are surprised by waking up as the opposite sex in a different location. But then they get use to it and there is a lesson to be learned. The end. But what made this different is not the plot but the details, the little nuances, and the flavor that only anime can bring. My favorite little detail being the sliding doors when they enter a room or jump on the subway.

Some Of The Unique Elements

I love when each of the teens discover they have switched bodies. For the boy realizing he is in a girls body. He is first shocked by his boobs and then starts playing with them as if it was a game. And the tell to the audience that he is now in her body, is this playing with the boobs. When the girl realizes she is in a boy’s body, she exclaimed “There is something down there.” Then all the viewer sees is a big hand followed by a scream. A few seconds later, she exlames she needs to pee with quite a bit of dread.

But that is just the start. As I mentioned the beginning of Your Name. implies a typical body switching story and a cliche love story where opposites attract. But as the story starts to unravel it goes much deeper than a romance story with themes of time, memory, and a natural disaster thrown in.

When the movie started coming near an end, it left me wondering where it all was going and how will it end? Although the beginning starts light and a bit silly, it gets real dark with a horrible twist. All the while the movie is serving up some uniquely stylistic imagery.

Final Thoughts

Although the premise of Your Name. is nothing new, it brought elements to my television that makes this movie worth the watch. It is a fun body switching movie with an anime appeal. This is what makes this body switching anime movie worth the watch.

Watch on Amazon