Disclaimer: I do go into spoilers beyond my favorite character section as a warning. Makoto Shinkai is far and away my favorite director/storyteller/writer in anime. Theres something so relatable so raw and human in Shinkais work that simply speaks to me on a level that nothing else ever has before leading me to state that Your Name is my favorite piece of entertainment of all time. Not anime not movie but of all forms of entertainment. With that being said I was obviously beyond hyped to see Weathering With You. I was so excited to see how Shinkai would follow up his magum opus whether he would try and emulate the success or continue to try to innovate and refine his style. Thankfully Weathering With You is more of the latter despite possessing many of Shinkais trademark themes and stylistic choices. All the familiarity is there with Weathering With You despite it being a slightly different kind of story told. Before I dive more into the themes and such Ive got to touch on the technical aspects of Weathering With You starting with the outstanding visuals. What new praise could I possibly heap upon Weathering With You and CoMix Wave for their stunning aesthetic impeccable animation quality and the most beautiful burger ever put on screen? I mean what more is there for me to say about this beauty? https://features.japantimes.co.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2019/07/stillsub6.jpg Musically Weathering With You is equally as phenomenal. RADWIMPS return after their masterful work in Your Name and put together yet another spectacular soundtrack. While the OST is on par with Your Name the insert songs dont quite reach the same standout level of Your Names Sparkle and Nandemonaiya. That isnt to say that Weathering With Yous insert songs arent good they certainly are with Celebration and Grand Escape highlighting the soundtrack they just dont quite have the same emotional punch that Your Names inserts do. As far as audio goes Weathering With You is obviously incredible but its the voice acting that I really want to touch on. I saw the dub first mostly by accident but I rewatched it subbed the other night thinking that Id like it more that way but I really didnt. I actually preferred the dub not really for the voice acting per se but more for the dialogue choices. Outside of translating itadakimasu as bon apetite it did a fantastic job at keeping meanings consistent whereas the subbed was just weird with some of their translations. Favorite Character: Nagi Amano https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/makotoshinkai/images/b/b3/NagiAmano.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190609060550 This would have been the perfect chance to throw in Hina as best girl but that really would be disrespecting Nagi the womanizing little brother. His humor and personality really won me over in my rewatch despite Hina being the character that stood out to me the most. Though you have to understand that being a movie there really arent many characters involved and even fewer that get any meaningful development. A point which brings me to my first big thumbs up for Weathering With You: its much better at developing all of its characters not only the main two. Nagi Natsumi and Keisuke all receive tangible development as the movie progresses despite them not being super important to the grand scheme of the movies plot. Contrast this with Your Name and youll see very much the opposite which isnt really a strike against either movie just different focuses which work for both movies in their own way. https://features.japantimes.co.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2019/07/stillsub61.jpg Weathering With You is a movie about choices and how those choices affect those around us. Keisuke makes a choice to help Hodoka get to the shrine to save Hina despite it not really being in his best interest to do so. Hodoka makes a choice to save Hina over all of Tokyo when typically this where the trope that the hero has to sacrifice something precious to him to save the world. Its really interesting especially because of the light in which utilitarianism versus moral idealism is displayed in Weathering With You. Usually you see utilitarianism take precedence but in this movie we see the moral idealistic choice win out. Hodaka chooses to save Hina and not respect her sacrifice to save Tokyo because to him shes the precious one not the city. He chooses her because he wants her more than any blue sky a line that hit me harder than a ton of bricks and one that is going to stick with me for a very long time. I think Weathering With You doesnt quite reach up to the masterpiece that is Your Name but it doesnt need to. While Your Name is such a tightly woven narrative with such a laser focus and little room for sidetracking Weathering With You is more broad and sweeping focusing on more of an experience as a whole instead of telling a tight story. Its really such a different movie that you cant really compare the two on that level despite everyone including myself doing so. It wont supplant Your Name anytime soon but its such a cute and heartwarming movie with such different strengths that it would be a shame for anyone to miss out on experiencing it out of prejudice or simple belief that it could never match up to the titan that is Your Name.