Why did people like this shit so much? It wasn't without good moments but the way the movie was told was shit

Why did people like this shit so much? It wasn't without good moments but the way the movie was told was shit.

>no interaction or buildup between the main girl and guy before they fall in love
>half of the movie was spent saving the town
>secondary characters have no personality or purpose
>MC and Fem-MC are completely 1-dimensional with no desires or drive outside of the surface I want to save him/her
>almost no romance to hold the story up
>not weird enough to hold the story up

It was just bland and had incredibly awkward pacing and direction. They focused on parts of the story that they didn't need to and ignored others. We had more scenes with the girl in the dudes body interacting with the senpai from work than anything else.

It was ok, nothing special since it opted for the everyone lives happily ever after route.

Because it's just good, it accomplished everything it wanted to, it was well done, well animated, and quite accesible. It's just a great movie.

This. It was pretty fun but nothing exceptional.

I don't think it was well done at all. Like I said, the characters were completely one-dimensional and had no passion or character growth. They just suddenly decided that they were in love and then spent next part of the movie just trying to meet.

It's a single film, the characters grew well and formed connections with the masses, you're just in the minority with your shit opinions.

Most people felt compelled by the characters and their struggles, just because you didn't doesn't mean they did a bad job, they did great to reach the audience, greater then any japanese animation of all time.

You're objectively wrong.

>just suddenly decided that they were in love

They developed their love from caring for each other after at least a month of switching bodies repeatingly. Why are you overlooking so many obvious factors just to whine about this movie, of all things?

Please name one scene where they interacted before they decided they were in love with each other. The most we got was a couple times they showed us them reading the notes they left. Almost all of the actual 'interaction' was done through that stupid montage

>the characters grew well
How did they grow? There weren't any character arcs. They went from probably pretty normal to listless but that's not an arc.

>HURF DURF PEOPLE ARE POSITIVE ABOUT THIS THING BUT IM SPECIAL CAUSE IM NOT DURF

The fact that someone as fucking retarded as you exists makes me depressed.

They didn't fall in love by traditional means, there relationship was a super specific unique case, the film didn't follow conventional rules.

They don't need to do "xy and z" to fall in love with one another just because such things are mirrored in other romances.

That's part of what makes the film special, and the fact that it resonated with people more then any other japanese animation in history is testiment to the fact that it worked.

The goal of such entertainment is to reach the audience and get what ever reaction it is you're hoping for out of them, they did an excellent job.

Basically this >it was...well animated, and quite accesible (to normalfags).

wow you're such a little tool, thinking in such rigid terms, you don't need some bullet point character arc to grow your characters.
I guess these are the type of ideologies that separates the successful from drones like you, whom feel everything must be done a certain way, like you're marking off a syllabus check list.

Just having them come to understand certain feelings overtime is plenty development, especially for an hour and a half film.

kys normalfag

I assume OP was on his phone the whole movie. Half his complaints sound like he didn't attention at all.

Who knows? I liked it. The characters were relatable enough and their introductions hold interest pretty well (though Taki is very boring, his friends are funny enough to make him interesting). I think the experience of truly walking in another person's shoes would build a great deal of appreciation for them and is enough to motivate the mutual attachment. Besides, if they had ever met before the twilight scene it wouldn't have had half the impact that it did.
I don't really see the "awkward pacing" problem besides skipping how Mitsuha convinced her father.

Most overrated Anime movie i ever seen

7/10 at best because of the animation

The story was forced as hell especially on romance part

So you're saying that they fell in love with each other because they were able to inhabit their bodies? Because there weren't any other interactions that we saw between them.

>hurf durf i can't make any valid points

>you don't need some bullet point character arc to grow your characters.

No one said that it had to be bullet points but these characters had no desires or passions and ended without any desires or passions. What is one thing that the mc liked other than the girl?

>no interaction or buildup between the main girl and guy before they fall in love
By the time the twist happens they only start to realize their affection. Not as if they fall head over heels, neither of them even realizes their feelings at first.

But I will agree I think the movie needed more development with the body swap than just ZENZENZENSE, and when Shinkai says the movie was incomplete this is likely what he means. Compared to the novel, which goes more in depth, the montage by itself is pretty lacking, despite being good.

>half of the movie was spent saving the town
This is a disaster movie with a heavy romance subplot, not a romance movie with a heavy disaster subplot.

>secondary characters have no personality or purpose
The way Sayaka ate that strawberry while shaking was both a clever visual gag and said volumes about her character. A lot of nuances and details are told via expressive animation and body language rather than dialogue. You have to really pay attention to the details

>MC and Fem-MC are completely 1-dimensional with no desires or drive outside of the surface I want to save him/her
There's a lot of things I can point out to disprove this, but consider how much we learn about Taki before he even appears in the movie. We learn he's playful and quick-tempered and brave, to the extent of getting in fights, but that he's not proactively aggressive. To contrast with this, we also see how organized and meticulous he is, and that he has an artistic side to him, and he's reserved with his crush.
This is pretty much a character synopsis, but it's told only with background information. This movie does a great job of compressing a lot of information into small details.

I'd say the two are the most realized characters in any Shinkai movie. They're distinct but multifaceted, not as generic as many Ghibli protagonists. I have a strong grasp on Taki's personality, and on Mitsuha. Can't say the same for that boy from Ponyo. Or Chihiro.

>Please name one scene where they interacted before they decided they were in love with each other. The most we got was a couple times they showed us them reading the notes they left. Almost all of the actual 'interaction' was done through that stupid montage
What do you call interaction? This was a body swap story, so of course you can't interact in person. But between the notes and diaries there's a great deal of interaction, and even development. The things that they ask of one another tells us about both characters. Like how Mitsuha's "banned" list mentions "don't touch boys" and then immediately says "don't touch girls, either." It's funny, but it also tells you what kind of person Taki is, and where he and Mitsuha conflict.

The part where they write Baka and Aho on the faces goes to show how similar they are when it comes to communication. I'd call that interaction, too.

The montage could've been better, but by itself it wasn't bad. There was more characterization in that 4 minutes than most anime.

gr8 b8 m8

Or go learn to look for subtext, brainlet.

The whole point of the film was about soulmates, with a unique romance between two people who never met beyond living in each other's shoes and identities. The movie doesn't follow your subjective beliefs on how love should be developed logically, because this is a red-string-of-fate movie to begin with. If you don't like it for that, that's fine, but you can't just complain about the movie being something that it never intended to be.

Nice blogpost, YourNameMightyDefenderSamefag.

It's just a good heterosexual romance anime which anime never does well.

It's basically love at first site.

They essentially fell for each other due to living on another life, while simultaneously communicating online, they end up knowing just about everything about the other.
They each become an integral part of the others lives.

After all the mess and forgetting everything, they are left with a longing for that interaction again, they don't know what it is until they see it.

and so when they technically "meet for the first time" on the stairs, it's love at first site.

>blogpost
>describing scenes in a movie is a blogpost
I wish I lived in that world.

I thought of it as more like they still had memories of the emotions and of each other, but they were just buried until they only knew vaguely that they were lacking something.

Because they are normalfag who just watch Anime for the first time.

Your name is good, but not oscar worthy good.

His senpai was hotter.

I bet you fap to Makoto Shinkai pics everyday, YourNameMightyDefenderSamefag.

>Because they are normalfag who just watch Anime for the first time.
I've seen 1500 anime, and I will defend Kimi no na wa to the death. It's not flawless, but it's a fantastic movie and probably Shinkai's best.

>Your name is good, but not oscar worthy good.
Don't get me wrong, when I first watched it I was a contrarian too, saying that it was meh and not that great, but it really warmed up to me and left an emotional impact.

I know it's not fun thinking that a popular movie could be this good, but it is. It goes against ever fiber of my hipster Sup Forums genes to say this, but it is. The craftsmanship is wonderful and I haven't seen animation this emotive since Cagliostro in 79, or maybe Tokikake.

Only from back when he did porn. I honestly think every movie he's done besides Kimi no na wa is kinda shitty. His dappled lighting and overly complex visual detail really creates a sense of eye vomit and visual overload. Brining on Ando as AD was a smart idea, it let Shinkai focus on Cinematography and shot pacing while someone else handled the nuances of animation, which honestly, Shinkai sucks cock at.

Holy shit, what a pathetic faggot, Im pretty sure you like cringy anime like Sword art Online.

Your Name is shit compared to 90% of Miyazaki movies & some of Mamoru Hosoda Movies.

Its still mediocre no matter how much you are defending this movie, Period.

>I've seen 1500 anime

Yup, a normalfag who just watch his first anime Detected.

It was meme'd hard before the movie even came out by a couple autistic posters, and once it reached it's current popularity and hit #1 on MAL it got meme'd even harder.
It's your fault for falling for it.

>Your Name is shit compared to 90% of Miyazaki movies & some of Mamoru Hosoda Movies.
>preferring furshit

MAL is anus, but a broken clock is right twice a day.

My only criticism is it really builds up a lot of tension for no reason. Also, I think it was too long.

Some user on here was trying to convince me it was a profound commentary on the 2011 earthquake, and I just have to say if that were true, it didn't do it well. Even more so when you compare it to Shin Godzilla for instance, which was a legitimate criticism of the 2011 earthquake/bureaucracy etc.

Anyway, solid 7/10 feel good film. Not even the best film of the year though.

Im not even a furfag & i fucking hate kemonofags to death.

Your taste in anime is just shit, so i recommend you to watch more anime before choosing Your Name is the AOAT.

Your Name is simply memed & overrated, period.

You can't be this retarded.
Love comes from understanding people.
The more you understand each other, the deeper your bond is.
Physical interaction isn't even needed.
They've interacted for weeks through diary entries and being able to experience eachothers' lives. The love they have for eachother is borderline platonic.
If you have enough time to shitpost like this and not bother paying attention to the film, I'd know why you'd hate the film.

P-please stop hating eachother so much about a movie :(

bc of muh destined for eachothers + shinto bs

wow. you really got the point of the film, not that 0815 anwser like "good animations" "nice story" etc. . But it is like you said, the bound the established by getting to know eachother is a thing everyone can dream about...

Anyone got a link for a decent quality version of the movie? I only have a ultra-shit quality download of it and a dvd release date isn´t in sight yet

I lost almost all my interest in the movie when the real plot of time traveling/save the town is revealed. It was shaping up to be a fine romcom body swap and then it becomes an avoid doomsday movie and plays up all the standard tropes and I just found myself not caring. Also the last 10 minutes are pointless and almost ripped exactly from 5cm. There was absolutely no point for a 5 year time skip and amnesia about the incident when the films emotional climax had already taken place and it would've wrapped in a neater fashion had they just reunited at the top of the crater.

I can understand the films popularity, but its almost robotic in the way that the second half plays out and tries to hit all the emotional cords.

>it accomplished everything it wanted to
Yeah, no. The love story was terrible.

I get your point but I think the whole "avoid doomsday" is just a "sidekick" or better a "tool", it´s not in the main focus, the whole story buildup is for the 2 MC and their relationship. Like a fire that starts small, then grow and grow and when it´s nearly extinguished, a little spark is enough to relume it again

It was pretty gud

8/10 characters needed something more to them but it did what it was trying to do

Only other main critisms are time travel bullshit/they forget everything right away and the phone deleting his messaging

>reading some notes the other person left and doing the same things the other person does somehow means they know and understand each other
Do you even realize how fucking retarded this sounds or are you that braindead? But yes, keep telling yourself that anyone who doesn't think this is stellar writing is shitposting. This movie has some of the most autistic, fanatic and retarded fanbase I've seen in a long time.

I'm not going to say that ShinGoji was a bad movie, but this whole thing wasn't just a commentary on the Earthquake, but on Japanese culture. That's why it sold so well, like ShinGoji it really strikes a resonant chord with people.

The point of the movie, and the difference from other Shinkai movies, is how proactive the protagonists are. The message of the movie is more or less "chase your dreams, because you never know when shit might go down." Taki even sums it up in an interview at the end. It's a savior fantasy for sure, about saving people from the quake, but more than that it's saying "take initiative in your life," which for a generation of disaffected Japanese youths is a very new message. This movie isn't a criticism, but an very heartfelt message of encouragement.

I dunno what you mean by build up a lot of tension for no reason, though.
Shinkai's other work has all been about passivity. About realizing that life sucks, but trying to make the most of it.

This movie is about going out of your way to make sure it doesn't suck. Even if you have to wait 8 years to be reunited with your waifu, keep moving forward, and don't give up.

It's not a terribly cerebral experience, but it's a very emotional one. The idea that with enough work, even the grimmest of predestined fates can be averted. So no matter how hopeless you think your life is, you can always change it around.

For a culture that's been stuck in a rut for a long time, you can see why it's so damned poignant.

We didn't see any of that though. It was a tell not show. The movie didn't earn them falling in love with each other - we got a 2 minute montage of them leaving notes and then we jumped into them being in love.

I have no problem with them falling in love but we, the audience, didn't see it happen. You guys seem OK with that but I like my movie to actually show me the story it wants to tell. It's the equivalent of them cutting out the whole 50 minute sequence of them saving the town and summing it up in 5 minutes through montage. Another user said that it's a disaster movie with a romantic subplot, and maybe he's right, but if that's the case the disaster movie aspect sucks too.

Because they gimped us on their interactions (not just physical you idiot, but emotional as well) all we have to go by is the movie just saying "we're in love with each other" which is hollow as fuck.

>Your taste in anime is just shit, so i recommend you to watch more anime before choosing Your Name is the AOAT.
How bout instead of buzzwords, describe why?
Again, you know, I always fancied myself a contrarian hipster. I take great pride in my anime tastes, my favorites consist of shows like Treasure Island and Giant Robo and Honnemaise. But I'm not going to deny that Kimi no na wa was a good movie just out of contrarianism, a movie this good deserves more than that.

>We didn't see any of that though. It was a tell not show. The movie didn't earn them falling in love with each other - we got a 2 minute montage of them leaving notes and then we jumped into them being in love.
>I have no problem with them falling in love but we, the audience, didn't see it happen. You guys seem OK with that but I like my movie to actually show me the story it wants to tell. It's the equivalent of them cutting out the whole 50 minute sequence of them saving the town and summing it up in 5 minutes through montage. Another user said that it's a disaster movie with a romantic subplot, and maybe he's right, but if that's the case the disaster movie aspect sucks too.
I think you're expecting too much melodrama. Even by the time the romance takes off, the characters were still confused and conflicted about their own feelings. It's not like they realized they were soulmates right away, they just wanted to meet the people they were closest to in person. There's no cheesy, cringe-inducing romantic development, just two people getting to know one another. Like how Taki tries to abstain from groping for Mitsuha, or Mitsuha sets up a date for Taki.

There's plenty of subtle details, but what makes this a good romance is that it sets up an interesting platonic relationship, without needing to jam generic romance tropes down your throat.

>all we have to go by is the movie just saying "we're in love with each other" which is hollow as fuck.
I mean, you can clearly see through their actions that they care for one another deeply, and have a vested interest in one another's lives. You don't need a bunch of dumb blushes and romance tropes.

That said, there was quite a bit left out of the movie detailing their bodyswap lives. That's my main complaint with the movie, but Shinkai himself said he wishes he had more time for that part.

The comet was a plot device, not the main focus of the film. But I get what you mean. But saying the entire conclusion was pointless seems disingenuous. The whole point of it was because they were longing for something, and they finally found what they were looking for.

I guess you've missed the point that they were experiencing eachothers' lives. Not only that, Taki understands Mitsuha's struggles after drinking the Kuchikamisake. On the other hand, Mitsuha doesn't really know much about Taki, but for her it was a sort of escapism. After she finally met Taki, she had undergone some change, and was heartbroken when Taki had not recognized her.

Its hard to describe the the doomsday plot as a "tool" when it drowns out the characters and becomes the primary focus of the entire second half of the movie.

>It's not a terribly cerebral experience, but it's a very emotional one. The idea that with enough work, even the grimmest of predestined fates can be averted. So no matter how hopeless you think your life is, you can always change it around.

I'm not going to dispute that it isn't a fine message for a movie to have and especially so given the the current state of Japan's culture and its youth. All I'm trying to say is that the emotional buildup and payoff of the film (from the reveal of the towns destruction and onward) is pretty standard once its all said and done. I'm sure almost everyone watching the film could've predicted how it would play out when it was revealed. What happens and aside from the last timeskip, where a more simple ending would be to just have them reunite directly after the town is saved, its all pretty standard movie fare. Of course the movie is dressed up with its distinct visual style and that is also important to note. If I were forced to review the movie I would give it either a positive/negative review by the slimmest of margins.

>We didn't see any of that though. It was a tell not show. The movie didn't earn them falling in love with each other - we got a 2 minute montage of them leaving notes and then we jumped into them being in love.
>I have no problem with them falling in love but we, the audience, didn't see it happen. You guys seem OK with that but I like my movie to actually show me the story it wants to tell. It's the equivalent of them cutting out the whole 50 minute sequence of them saving the town and summing it up in 5 minutes through montage. Another user said that it's a disaster movie with a romantic subplot, and maybe he's right, but if that's the case the disaster movie aspect sucks too.

Sure we did. The date was when they realize they care for one another, but before that they don't really know. It wasn't until the prospect of Taki dating someone else hit, that Mitsuha realized it.

I mean, even if it's unconventional, they do interact a ton. They leave changes in one another's lives, and as a result get a grasp of their personalities and such. The idea that love has to be bred through thousands of hours of direct conversations seems irrelevant when the whole plot device centers around forcing the two to understand one another.

>All I'm trying to say is that the emotional buildup and payoff of the film (from the reveal of the towns destruction and onward) is pretty standard once its all said and done.
So is Julius Caesar. The audience literally goes in knowing the ending. Doesn't make it any less emotionally potent. The movie even knows this. Sparkle is not a tense song, and that entire sequence is less about averting disaster as it is about following Mitsuha's emotions and appreciating the beauty of the comet. That's why the film cuts away before Mitsuha confronts her father. By the way she walks confidently we already know what's going to happen. That's why, instead, it goes to the comet. Because the beauty and destructive force of nature is a major theme here, and it forms a strong emotive climax.

>What happens and aside from the last timeskip, where a more simple ending would be to just have them reunite directly after the town is saved, its all pretty standard movie fare.
Well, if you're familiar with a Shinkai movie, this feels like a bait. There's actual tension in thinking they might never meet again, or have some sort of 5cm/s ending. That was very much the expectation, and what most audiences are used to. Because that would send a message of dealing with loss and moving on.

But the idea here is that if you chase your dream, and live life to the fullest, you'll get your reward. Eventually.

>Of course the movie is dressed up with its distinct visual style and that is also important to note. If I were forced to review the movie I would give it either a positive/negative review by the slimmest of margins.

At worst, and while I don't agree, your complaints would just make the movie mediocre. Between the strong characterization and expressive animation, I don't see how anyone could genuinely give this a bad review.

That fag should've fucked his senpai. Nips are shit at romance.

Keep defending & see for yourself how pathetic you are for defending a meme overrated movie.

>complaining about anime discussion

Keep being a contrarian faggot then.
Let us appreciate something that isn't seasonal anime garbage.

Why ? This already explain it all

I said it again, Your Name. Is. Overrated.

Now write a 10000+ words of your shitblogpost again.

>Why some people like what I don't like?
The never ending struggle.

>there was quite a bit left out of the movie detailing their bodyswap lives
This is my largest complaint. I don't need melodrama, but when you just throw two characters together and say "now kiss" i'm going to roll my eyes. There doesn't have to be a conflict of interest; it could have been 20 minutes of them doing lovey dovey shit and that would have been better than the 2 minute montage that is the entire backbone of their relationship and the larger story.

Seeing a line or two of "no touching people" and "you're and idiot" isn't a romantic development. It's hardly even a platonic development.

There are other problems I have with the story but the fact that they just swept the main driving force of the movie to the side is what drops this movie into being so bad for me.

Nips loved it because of muh shintoism and a metaphor to the earthquake like 2 years ago.

normies loved it because it's as commercial as an anime can get. practically any chad or stacy can go in and watch it and enjoy how "wacky anime cartoony xD"-ish it is.

to attest to this fact i was literally arguing with one of these faggots on a thread a few weeks ago and they thought that this garbage was better than End of Evangelion.

Why do people like anything? Think about it

>Keep being a contrarian faggot then.
Will do.
>Let us appreciate something that isn't seasonal anime garbage.
you can go ahead and do that at reddit

I'm glad that it only showed the montage.
If it actually went on through the events of their bodyswap, it would have been incredibly boring.

>Seeing a line or two of "no touching people" and "you're and idiot" isn't a romantic development. It's hardly even a platonic development.
Well, obviously the Montage is a weak point, but there's certainly plenty more than that. From the first day of Mitsuha in Taki's body, to some of the things we see before the montage starts. Even aside from that, we see that Taki helps Mitsuha deal with her bullies, and Mitsuha puts Taki in a good position with Senpai. Obviously every different human being has a different standard for suspension of disbelief or whatnot, and I'll admit the montage is the weakest point of the movie, but considering what happens before and after, and how well we, as the audience, get to understand the characters, it's not hard to get the sense that the two leads do too.

I have no problem believing they've come to understand one another's lives by the end, the same way I don't need to see Rocky training for 10 hours to get the impression that he's prepared himself. Montages are an emotional device, after all.

Obviously I would've preferred a longer buildup. So would Shinkai, as he's mentioned. But even then, the storytelling is strong enough I have no problem accepting that they've grown close together. Obviously you don't get the sense that they're head over heels already, but that's not really an issue, as that's not the point.

>normies loved it because it's as commercial as an anime can get. practically any chad or stacy can go in and watch it and enjoy how "wacky anime cartoony xD"-ish it is.
The movie starts with a breast grope scene. Tell me the last time that happened in a mainstream cartoon movie.

>to attest to this fact i was literally arguing with one of these faggots on a thread a few weeks ago and they thought that this garbage was better than End of Evangelion.
Not him, but I'd agree with that. EoE has its share of flaws, is paced pretty shittily and mandates you watch all of Eva to get it. While the themes definitely resonated with me, and most hardcore anime fans. it also isn't terribly impressive visually, with the exception of the Asuka fight. Anno's usual, bold style seems to have taken a back seat.

I mean, I'd still say EoE is one of my favorite anime films of all time, but it lacks the cohesiveness and characterization of Kimi no na wa. You don't really learn anything new about Shinji, other than the fact that he likes to fap to comatose girls, and the character development is rushed toward the end. Asuka's inclusion feels almost like a cameo of sorts. I'd argue in terms of characterization the last two anime episodes did a much better job, although that live action sequence was pretty stellar.

>I just can't understand why other people feel a certain way.
The amount of autism in this thread.

>The movie starts with a breast grope scene. Tell me the last time that happened in a mainstream cartoon movie.
Probably family guy or some shit.

>but it lacks the cohesiveness and characterization of Kimi no na wa
Well gee I'd hope that an original movie would have more worldbuilding and characterization than a movie sequel to a preexisting series. Even then, the characterization in knnw was shallow and superficial as fuck.

>Well gee I'd hope that an original movie would have more worldbuilding and characterization than a movie sequel to a preexisting series.
That's no excuse for poor characterization and development. It should be enjoyable independent of the series, but more so if you've seen the series. Something like Tamako Love Story is certainly fun and self-contained, yet drastically amplified by watching the original show.

Obviously, this is debatable, but even as a conclusion EoE suffers. Like I said, Eva is a deeply personal, contemplative series. The neat part of the final 2 TV episodes is that through a series of conversations they express Shinji's development. In EoE, there was none of that inner struggle that made the TV ending so interesting.

>Even then, the characterization in knnw was shallow and superficial as fuck.
Pay more attention, plenty of details in the movie are told via body language, or small nuances that brainlets don't notice at first. Like the fact that Mitsuha starts wearing a bra to bed after the swaps begin, or the differences in the way the characters walk and move, such that it's obvious when who was in whose body. Anime so rarely exploits that as a form of characterization, only Kyoani really does it, and that's only because Yamada really likes watching middle school girls.

>Probably family guy or some shit.
A family guy big budget movie would flop like shit, no broad appeal. Look at sausage party. In the west animated films are still considered for kids. Stop talking out your ass.

I haven't seen the movie but did they have to shit while in each others bodies? Seems sort of awkward tbqh

Probably.

Does this even have a concrete release window for airing in German theaters?

I kind of want to watch it there with a pal but don't exactly feel like waiting months to do so.

They were in there for a whole day at a time (from waking up to sleep), so maybe.

On the other hand, I don't know about you, but I find that whenever I'm not at ease, I tend to hold my bladder subconsciously. In fact, outside of trips, I can't remember the last time I've had to take a shit outside.

Also, to add, I've had a friend over at my place once for about 4 days. She apparently didn't take a shit once in that period, precisely for the reason I've mentioned.

>They leave changes in one another's lives
But this stuff isn't actually in the movie. It's just implied that that stuff is happening behind the scenes. We see little bits and pieces and the movie puts it on us to say that "okay they're in love I guess" but really, it does nothing to prove that. It puts it on the audiences faith that we'll by into it because, as far as the movie is concerned, 2 minutes of montage is enough.

The date was just someone else telling the audience that "hey these guys are in love". It made no sense based on what we had been shown. Hell, I thought the girl was fem-mc was crying because she was into the sempai from work. Those two had the most screen time and they actually took time to develop their interactions.

Now, I will give you that Taki having feelings for Mitsuha can make some sense since they did actually meet prior to all this happening. The angle of "she's the girl that captured his heart 3 years ago that he forgot about" isn't bad, but that's not what the movie went with.

>I have no problem believing they've come to understand one another's lives by the end
Honestly, I don't have any problem believing they understand each other to a crazy degree either. That's really what the montage showed. But a romantic development is different. It should be given the respect that it's due - and I just don't think it did.

Almost everything you wrote is entirely bullshit.

>no interaction or buildup between the main girl and guy before they fall in love
They lived each other's lives for months and communicated every time they switched through notes and cellphone messages.
>half of the movie was spent saving the town
Half the movie was spent on the primary conflict. Who'd have thought, huh?
>secondary characters have no personality or purpose
Plainly untrue. Thgey're not fleshed out to any tremendous degree, but we can see that Tessy is pragmatic and laid back, for example, through what they do and how they act. For a sub 2 hour film, the side characters were pretty well defined. But, either way, they were side characters. Okudera and the Mayor were given more time than most because they were more important to the story. Taki's bros were less important, so they got less time. Were you expecting an ensamble cast in a romance about two people?
>MC and Fem-MC are completely 1-dimensional with no desires or drive outside of the surface I want to save him/her
This one is laughable. The first 15 minutes of the movie is about Mitsuha's life, in which we learn that she's fed up with tradition, wants to leave her village, wants to forget her past and her father, seeks a life in a city like Tokyo, and has been trianed from an early age in traditional crafts and rituals. Taki is given less back story, but we learn that he is frugel, he wants to be a draftsman/architect, he has a short temper, he's a romantic, and he's strictly organized.
>almost no romance to hold the story up
What do you mean by this? Like, no scenes of tehm dating? The point is that they spent the entire time longing for each other. If you can't see the romance in that, you're not looking for it.
>not weird enough to hold the story up
This doesn't make any sense. You're just asking for gimmicks here.

>But this stuff isn't actually in the movie. It's just implied that that stuff is happening behind the scenes.
Well, we do see a great deal of it. That's literally what the montage was all about.

>We see little bits and pieces and the movie puts it on us to say that "okay they're in love I guess" but really, it does nothing to prove that.

I mean, you can say that they didn't do enough development of the romance, which I'd somewhat agree with, though overall it was fine.

But saying they did nothing to prove it is silly. What, crashing the date isn't proving it? Taki's obvious disinterest throughout the date isn't proving it? It's not as if hearts need to pop out of their eyes.

>It puts it on the audiences faith that we'll by into it because, as far as the movie is concerned, 2 minutes of montage is enough.

Well, more like the budget, Shinkai even says that he felt the movie was incomplete. But the montage isn't really all that bad, they compress a lot of content and detail into those two minutes, and if you pay attention there's actually a lot of subtle storytelling. Like when Mitsuha said to be careful with skirts, and the next time we see Taki in her body he's wearing sweatpants.

>Hell, I thought the girl was fem-mc was crying because she was into the sempai from work. Those two had the most screen time and they actually took time to develop their interactions.
I'd rather say that scene actually told us more about Taki. The way Senpai forcefully stepped in and whatnot tells the audience, and Mitsuha, a lot about Taki's character, and what he'd do in that situation.

I'm not saying it was a perfect solution to use the montage and all, but it was certainly adequate. If you watched the montage and didn't get a sense that the characters were getting to know and care for one another, then that's just being impossibly dense. Especially considering the first scene out of that segment is Taki trying to be sensitive to Mitsuha's feelings.

Cuz it's cute

>Honestly, I don't have any problem believing they understand each other to a crazy degree either. That's really what the montage showed. But a romantic development is different. It should be given the respect that it's due - and I just don't think it did.
Well, what is romance but understanding? Love is just platonic connections, and sexual attraction. Obviously the latter is already a given, considering all the titgrabbing. And if you think they have a strong platonic connection, what's the issue here?

Like, romance doesn't always have to be fleshed out on romantic scenes out of Titanic or cute date scenes. But in this case, on the date, realizing they'd lose one another is what drives them to realize their affections. It's the kind of thing where you don't realize how much you cared for it, until it's gone.

And hell, that's pretty damn true to life, if nothing else.

Speaking of periods, how did Taki do it?

Probably was freebleeding.