It is a general consensus in the anime community that Your Name is the better Shinkai film when compared to Weathering With You (which I somewhat agree with) So I wanted to challenge myself by writing about things in which Weathering With You excels. There are spoilers in this, you've been warned!
Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Your Name, but I often feel that Weathering With You often gets shadowed in the success of its predecessor. So here are 5 Ways In Which Weather With You Is Better Than Your Name!
1. Visuals
While both of the movies have really similar styles, I believe Weathering With You had a bit more polished visuals to it when compared to Your Name. Sure it didn't get the chance to flex with the difference in sceneries as Your Name does, but it has its moments, especially with the classic Shinkai rain drops and the parts where Hidoka saves Hina. It can be seen that attention was given to the visuals of this movie as to present a strong successor to the humongous hit that Your Name was.
2. Characters
This is one area I believe Weathering With You triumphs truly in. While Your Name had a bunch of supporting characters, all of them seemed to be present only to move the story forward for the main characters. They just.....existed. I don't even remember the names for the majority of the cast. However Weathering With You is very contrasting in this aspect. Each and every character, including the protagonists are brimming with life and their own traits. All of the cast has a story to tell and we do get a glimpse of that, it is just that our plot revolves around Hina and Hodaka. All of these characters bring something to the table. Even Hina's little brother Nagisa, who to me seemed like a cocky little brat (which he is not lol) when first introduced makes the scenes more warm and light and helps you enjoy the main cast all the more. I could write similar things about the rest of the supporting characters, cause there is stuff to write about them. They exist not only to just serve the story, but because they are their own people.
3. Intensity
If Your Name has that supernatural mystery going for it, Weathering With You has its thrill and intensity. From the very beginning of the movie, we get some heated moments. From hodaka firing gun shots at shady people to him being chased by a large group of police officers, all of these moments force to the edge of your seat and biting your nails. There are a lot of not so feel good points in this movie which forces the viewers to take the movie earnestly.
4. Group Dynamic
5. Male lead's development
This is one of the biggest difference I feel there is between these two movies, it's male leads. Taki as a main character for Your Name works well enough for the story to work, however his personality is very monotonous and we never get to see his quirks, traits or any ambitions. While we do get to see some of that in the end scenes of the movie, it is very vague. Hadoka however establishes himself from the very first scene of the movie. He's over ambitious, a little naive and impulsive enough to run away from home. Through the course of the movie, we see how Hadoka develops as a character and how he faces the problems that he puts for himself. Taki however is the same unchanging protagonist throughout the story.
Final Thoughts
Obviously, both if the movies are much more than I've written above and more importantly both of them are very good movies. Both have their flaws as every piece of art does. Your Name compensates for its average characters by an exceptionally well plot and a very dramatic and fulfilling story. Weathering With You may not have the amazing story its predecessor had, the ending for it is quite a tear jerker in itself. I enjoyed both of these movies very much!
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