Dec. 19, 2016
A Japanese fantasy romance anime film, Your Name (Japanese: Kimi No Na Wa) became the highest-grossing Japanese film in China, surpassing Stand By Me Doraemon. While Doraemon, the blue robotic cat without ears, has been popular with children, Your Name is a love story of a girl and a boy who switch bodies, which appealed to wider age group including children, teens and adults. Your Name is written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, animated by CoMix Wave Films, and distributed by Toho. It has a good reputation for its beautiful paintings as well as story.
In Japan, Your Name became the second highest-grossing Japanese movie, and lots of fans full of enthusiasm have traveled to the locations of Your Name. This kind of tourism came to be called ‘pilgrimage’ (Japanese: Seichi Junrei), which was in the news in 2016.
Your Name won the 2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for the best animated film. It is scheduled to be released in 92 countries and regions, including the US and France, in 2017. As a Japanese, I hope it will be as globally successful as Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001).
By Meg Konishi (Find Your Japan)