“Tenki no ko” or in English “Weathering with you” is Makoto Shinkai’s latest movie that holds great expectations all because of the commercial success brought by its predecessor “Kimi no Nawa” that ranked as the #1 most popular Anime movie of all time, gravely exceeding “Spirited Away” and as much as I would like to say this puts tremendous amount of pressure on Shinkai’s shoulders to make the next Kimi no Nawa, well it’s no question as to why it’s expected to be as great as Your Name as it’s considered to be the work that created a new era in the anime industry and it’s also worth noting that it grossed $290 million worldwide and I must say that’s pretty big.
As much as the saying goes you can’t call one of Shinkai’s work as a “Masterpiece” as for every single thing that he has done so far is a “Masterpiece” but as far as Tenki no Ko goes one question comes in mind. What makes it different? What makes it so special? Well in my own opinion it’s the fact that Shinkai tried to use different concepts that we haven’t seen in his past movies or better yet for the first time in his career.
For example, in Shinkai’s recent work we saw him use the concept of “Destiny” and acting according to that purpose so much that it became some sort of Deus ex Machina. We saw Mitsuha and Taki desperately searching for each other simply because they were “Destined” to be for each other and we also saw a lot of symbolism such as “Musubi” and the “Red thread of faith” which once again symbolizes destiny however in Tenki no Ko we saw Hina and Hodaka avoiding theirs. On the later parts of the movie, we saw Hina fade away because her purpose as a weather maiden is to sacrifice her mortal self for the reward of good weather but Hodaka as persistent as he is saved her from the skies.
“I want you more than any blue sky!”
Indicating that he’s ready to give everything that he’s got just so that he can save Hina, just so that they can be together once more. It’s amazing to see Shinkai try out new ideas as well as concepts in his new movie and it shows how much change he had in his 8 years (and counting) as a director, however as far as the movie itself I must say that i have a couple of problems with it first being the question as to what type of movie it wants to be. Tenki no Ko has simply too many things going on and a bit more confusing compared to Shinkai’s past works. Is it a Love-conquers-all type of movie? An apocalyptic climate change concept or perhaps it’s about the importance of family and human relationship? It’s trying to become too many things at once but it simply didn’t work, it simply so convoluted and it destroyed the ambiance as well as the entire foundation, the base structure. It’s not making doubt but rather confusion on our heads as we try to understand the story chronologically, something that it hasn’t resolved on its about 2 hr run.
Second, we have the characters and this is the point that I think most people can agree with me on. I think they’re not fleshed out well enough that can’t relate to the characters. It didn’t bring out that much of an impact as I thought they would, the main reason for this being that they’re built too shallow, let’s take Hodaka for example, we all know that he’s a runaway right? And later on in the movie he tells us why he left his home town and that reason being he is “Suffocated” but other than that we know nothing about him and the story he’s telling, maybe he fought with his parents? Maybe he had a bad history in that town? Maybe some life turning event made him decide to leave? It’s all just a big question as to who exactly they are and I think this is the part where Tenki no Ko felt empty. The characters don’t have history, they don’t have any sort of background that can make us feel attached to them in one way or another. With that being said I have no problems other than the two mentioned whatsoever.
Now that we’re done with the flaws of Tenki no Ko let’s tackle the topic of “What made it good?” well for that I must say everything else. The animation is astounding as usual and in my opinion exceeded Kimi no Nawa, especially at that part when Hina is at the sky, damn it still gives me the feels my man!
It was powerful as it gave a much more emotional impact to the moments that needs be. as for the soundtrack, there’s only one word that can describe it…”Beautiful” RADWIMPS did it once god damned again. They made me feel like a kid once again with all that innocent feeling soothing your ears as the movie goes on but in moments where the climax starts hitting you that’s where the OST shines. When I watched it at the theatre the OST itself can make this movie a box office hit with its a perfect symphony of instruments, vocals, and meaning.
Also, there’s one small detail that I found quite interesting during my preview. In the early minutes of the film when I saw Hodaka carrying a copy of “The catcher in the rye” by J.D. Sallinger a question came to my mind. why would Hodaka carry a copy of it whereas he has nothing else with him when he had gone to Tokyo? It’s an astounding detail that Shinkai decided to put in because for those who don’t know The catcher in the rye is a book specifically made for adults but is widely read by mostly teenager for its themes of angst and alienation in a society which we saw Hodaka go through. It explains the entire concept as well as the main point of the film and that is hope. Hope is the only thing that keeps us striving through our everyday lives and that even at the darkest of times we must always try to find that sweet glimmer of sunshine even once in our lives.
8/10 Even though it’s not perfect it’s good enough to be remembered.
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