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Quick LinksMakoto Shinkai's Your Name is a Modern Masterpiece of AnimeJJ Abrams' Planned Your Name Remake Has Already Gone Through 3 Different DirectorsMovies Like Your Name Are Probably Better Off Not Getting Remade

Although Hayao Miyazaki may be the world's leading figure in Japanese anime films, thanks to his widely recognized and beloved work from Studio Ghibli, other anime directors such as Makoto Shinkai have gained more and more recognition from Western audiences within the last decade. Despite being unfairly overlooked by the Academy, Shinkai’s 2016 film Your Name has been considered to be one of the best animated films of the century, ranking at number 83 on IMDb’s Top 250. It's a visual and thematic masterpiece of animation, which is why it’s so shocking that J.J. Abrams is currently feeling the need to remake it in live-action for American audiences. Abrams has accomplished quite a bit throughout his career as a producer and director,...

"Everyone, friends! Everyone, friends!" GKids has released the Us trailer for the extremely cute, Japanese anime musical Lu Over the Wall, which won Grand Prize at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival, and played at the London Film Festival last year. From Japanese anime filmmaker Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, "Devilman: Crybaby"), this "joyously hallucinogenic" film is about a lonely, awkward musician boy in a small Japanese town on the water. One day he meets and befriends a mermaid who loves to dance to the music he creates with his band. This sets off all kinds of problems in the village, where they're afraid that mermaids bring disaster. The voice cast includes Kanon Tani, Shôta Shimoda, Shin'ichi Shinohara, and Akira Emoto. However, the Us release is an English dubbed version, for those thinking of seeing this. I caught this film in London and did not like it at all, very messy and incoherent and way too long.

Your Name Review Your Name (2016) Film Review, a movie directed by Makoto Shinkai, and starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryo Narita, Aoi Yuki, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Kaito Ishikawa, Kanon Tani, Masaki Terasoma, Sayaka Ohara, Kazuhiko Inoue, Chafurin, Kana Hanazawa, Yuka Terasaki, and Takashi Onozuka. Coming from Japanese director Makoto Shinkai, Your Name tells the story [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Your Name (2016): A Beautifully-Told Tale About Comet-Crossed Lovers...

I had no idea what to expect upon sitting down to Your Name and the first few minutes definitely had my head spinning. We’re ushered in via the voiceover narration of two high schoolers we’ve yet to properly meet in Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) and Taki (Ryûnosuke Kamiki). They speak about dreams as a rare comet shoots across the blue sky. It’s cryptic, beautiful, and utterly fascinating—a subdued tone easing us in before a kinetic collage of vignettes without context replaces it, a Radwimps rock anthem blaring about love. This shift to music video interlude proves jarringly abrupt; its culmination marked by Mitsuha awakening from slumber a wonderful splash into the deep-end of this anime’s high concept romantic fantasy.

My disorientation continued because this girl didn’t seem herself. Without warning, logic, or exposition beyond those opening lines of esoteric prose, we suddenly realize the person...