The entire movie is just a giant gaping plot hole

>tfw everything could have been resolved nearly instantly had one character taken a look at the current year .

Why did neither of them ever look at the date? They were both constantly using their phones, there's no way they wouldn't see what the date is.

Even if they didn't, surely one of them would have noticed the incorrect date on newspapers, TV, school assignments, pay stubs, or something?

>"B-BUT THEY WERE IN A DREAMLIKE STATE!!"

They were also fully awake when they were in the other person's body.

Because they don't give a shit since it sold well in Nipland

>niceme.me

unless I open calender, I have no idea what the year is if I just looked at my phone

They just didn't gave a fuck and wanted to have fun.

how would that have 'resolved' anything

you can't see dates in dreams, OP, when the last time you saw the date in a dream, yeah, checkmate.

I see the exact date and year every time I open my email app, any news site, or simply the main screen of my fucking phone.

The time wizard did it.

Because they found a way.

Hmm, I've just woken up, and I have boobs and a vagina, and long hair and a imouto and i'm god knows where, let me just check what year it is.

I guess you are baiting otherwise you're almost as retarded as the shitty author of that crap.

This isn't a real complaint. "What year is it" is not something you seriously ask yourself or talk about and is very easy to ignore.

>Switch bodies this many times
>Neither bother to look at the date

>"b-but they were dreaming!!!"

And conscious enough to live as the other person.

They weren't in a dream-like state, it just felt like a dream when they woke up, they probably forget a lot important details of being in the other person's body. That's why they kept detailed logs on each other's phones instead of immediately giving away their phone numbers. Otherwise they could text eachother about what to do as they go along through their day. At least that's my theory for those two major plot holes.

Yeah it's a dumb shit movie that people like cause it made them feel. I couldn't get behind how ridiculous it was.

>never physically interact
>somehow they "fall in love"
Suspension of disbelief lost

Except if you have a job where you have to enter dates into forms or systems, which is a lot of jobs.

In fact forget that what I just said because regardless of that the year is on posters, adverts, letters, almost everywhere.

>2017
>not looking at the date

I think that both arguments were bullshit. Calendars aside, there's plenty of other indications they could've noticed. From the days of the week being off, to different phone models. There are even some scenes WITH calendars in them.

The point is that if you saw a calendar that said "2014," what's your immediate response? Do you think that you went back in time? Or do you think that someone must've put up an old calendar, and just ignore it. Even when Mitsuha is telling Taki about seeing the comet, he just has no idea what the hell she's talking about because the possibility of time travel isn't something he's even entertaining.

There are ACTUAL plot holes in the story, don't bitch about this one gripe that makes decent sense.

>implying
They interact plenty with one another's bodies. And there's a good deal of communication going on.

There's also the fact that there would have been many clues to hint that there was a time difference such as popular media, news, or new technology.

The soundtrack carried the movie, like in all Shinkai films.

This. A lot changes in world news over three years. You couldn't not notice.

>implying they keep up with news
I don't think either of them even owns a laptop.

Hey, don't forget the backgrounds.

They go to school. You would hear about big things that happen. The guy would also hear about stuff from his colleagues in his job.

You don't have to watch the news to notice things like this.

Because the didn't go back in time except for the last switch.
They were the same year but in different locations.
Mitsuha and Taki met the same day the comet crashed down which is why he had her ribbon, and even looked at the same sky the comet while it was viable.

>never having an Internet girlfriend

999 was really stupid.

Mitsuha was in bumfuck inaka and Taki was in Tokyo. The kind of news and current events they would be hearing about would be completely different.

>They go to school. You would hear about big things that happen. The guy would also hear about stuff from his colleagues in his job.
Mitsuha as Taki would just think it's fancy city news. She's from a tiny country town.

Taki as Mitsuha probably wouldn't hear jack shit.

And even if they did, see
No one's gonna just jump to the time travel assumption without a ridiculous amount of proof.

ZTD was stupid but fun
999 and VLR were were fine but to each their own

>VLR
>entire game is just a segway into the 3rd installment.

The story seemed like it would have worked much better in Meiji era Japan before mass transit, telephones or the internet. Going beyond resolving the date discrepancy, how many times did they try to call each other while switched? It would have been the first thing I think any normal Millennial would have tried to do once they realized what was going on, but it seems like these characters waited a very long time until trying to do this.

It also seems very unlikely to me that the guy wouldn't have realized the address or the town name of where the girl lived. When I lived in Japan, the town name was written on every single sewer cover (pic related). Plus, you'd see it lots of other places, like the train station, certain inter-city bus stops, city hall, probably in the names of certain foods you could buy at local restaurants or at grocery stores, a local newspaper/newsletter, and it would be mentioned so many other places. Even if he missed the name of the town, he would still know the name of the high school he attended in the town, which he could then search on Google.

If only Makoto Shinkai plagiarized the Keit-ai copypasta faithfully instead of halfway so that he'd have plausible deniability over the theft, then we wouldn't have this plot hole.

nigger, they couldn't even remember each other's names, whatever magic was behind the time travel/body switching also seriously fucked with their memories.

I was under the impression he knew the name of the city while the body swapping shenanigans were going on but forgot because of shinto dream magic.

>Going beyond resolving the date discrepancy, how many times did they try to call each other while switched? It would have been the first thing I think any normal Millennial would have tried to do once they realized what was going on, but it seems like these characters waited a very long time until trying to do this.
This point is actually addressed in the novel. They said they tried to call one another, but that it never went through, so they figured they'd just use the diaries.

Again, if your phone doesn't work, that doesn't mean you've gone back in time. But yeah, that's something they should've addressed better in the movie.

>It also seems very unlikely to me that the guy wouldn't have realized the address or the town name of where the girl lived. When I lived in Japan, the town name was written on every single sewer cover (pic related). Plus, you'd see it lots of other places, like the train station, certain inter-city bus stops, city hall, probably in the names of certain foods you could buy at local restaurants or at grocery stores, a local newspaper/newsletter, and it would be mentioned so many other places. Even if he missed the name of the town, he would still know the name of the high school he attended in the town, which he could then search on Google.
Personally, that's a much more pressing issue, but the idea I guess is that Taki didn't really care.

Taki did remember that it was in the Hida region, and since that area is filled with a shitload of tiny towns I guess he thought the general area was enough.

You have to remember that until they didn't even really care to meet each other until when the swapping stopped. Wasn't until the Taki date that they realized their feelings.

>because of Shinto dream magic
That's called bad writing.

>They said they tried to call one another, but that it never went through, so they figured they'd just use the diaries.
Neither of them have some sort of IM or email?

>You have to remember that until they didn't even really care to meet each other until when the swapping stopped. Wasn't until the Taki date that they realized their feelings.
This is a cop-out. No human being with normal levels of curiosity would be this disinterested in meeting their body-swapped self EXCEPT for when they fell in love with the other person. I don't care if I were swapped with another guy, I'd still want to meet that person and figure out what was going on with the body-swapping and figure out what he was doing while in my body. It has nothing to do with romance. I think any human being with even the tiniest trace of curiosity or concern for their own life would want to do the same.

>Neither of them have some sort of IM or email?

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy
but here's my number
call me maybe

>I just met you
You're just trying to be dense to get a rise out of me, right?

>That's called bad writing.
Perhaps, but complaining about that plot point is the wrong direction. You should criticize the use of magic in general, not the fact that Taki couldn't remember the name of the town because that part makes sense within the wider narrative.

>bad writing

why?

>IM or Email

They had a perfectly solid means of communication going with their logs/entries they leave behind for each other to read.

>cop-out/no normal human being, ect.

Literally evoking the no true Scotsman logical fallacy here. Your argument is logically incoherent.

I think the date shit can all be explained by amnesia.

It's explicitly shown they forget everything that happened when they switched, so some level of amnesia is already there. They also clearly don't realize they're waking up on Friday morning after going to bed on Wednesday night. Not realizing the date is wrong, or that you're in a town that got blown the fuck up a few years ago while you're switched can easily be explained by a small extension where the phenomenon also conveniently deletes these relevant memories during the switches.

Say what you will about it being lazy writing, but I don't think any of the above is an actual plot hole. The not trying to get in contact sooner thing is a more legitimate plot hole I'd say, but a small one.

>Neither of them have some sort of IM or email?
Usually in Japan those things are all bundled up into things like LINE or whatever. But either way, even if they tried those things, and they didn't work like the phone calls didn't work, the natural logical jump isn't that "We're in different years" but rather "something is fucked up with my 4G coverage".

>This is a cop-out. No human being with normal levels of curiosity would be this disinterested in meeting their body-swapped self EXCEPT for when they fell in love with the other person. I don't care if I were swapped with another guy, I'd still want to meet that person and figure out what was going on with the body-swapping and figure out what he was doing while in my body. It has nothing to do with romance. I think any human being with even the tiniest trace of curiosity or concern for their own life would want to do the same.
For the most part it was just a nuisance for them, at least at the start. And I mean, they do eventually want to meet, just not at the very beginning. And they had decent communication going on, and their lives were pretty busy. It takes the date to kind of kick them into wanting to meet.

I mean, yeah, sure, you could say that it'd be normal to want to meet, but I don't fault the characters for not immediately jumping on a train to see each other, either. Hell, eventually Mitsuha does that anyways, so that doesn't really count as a plothole.

If anything, it's not that they're not curious, but that they're wary. Which is pretty usual.

>You should criticize the use of magic in general
Is there a way to have a story about body-swapping that doesn't involve magic?

It's bad writing because the writer deliberately dumbed down the characters so they wouldn't question the limitations of his setting, despite the fact that he didn't otherwise specify why they lack the curiosity of even a standard, blank character.

A diary works fine, but it's not how young people communicate in the era of smartphones, even in small country towns in Japan. It's several generations out of date.

>Literally evoking the no true Scotsman logical fallacy here. Your argument is logically incoherent.
No, I'm not. This isn't about "true" anythings. It's about the base state of any character, given a limited amount of spcification. If an author doesn't further specify something, then the reader/viewer is going to project their own experiences to create a character with the most common expected attributes and personality.

For example, if I start some story and describe a character as "a grumpy old ex lumberjack," you're probably going to expect him to be relatively strong, and you'd probably be VERY surprised when he deviated from your expectations. It's used for humor a lot, but in a serious story, there NEEDS to be some explanation for an old ex lumberjack who lives in a studio apartment who makes a living doing web design.

Likewise, it's so ubiquitous for young people to have some degree of curiosity, tech savvy and need for instant gratification, that it comes off as extremely surprising when the characters don't put in the minimum amount of effort to try to contact each other.

I'm not talking about the story literally using magic at all, I'm talking about the in-universe mechanics of the magic and justifications for events to occur the way they did. If you don't like Taki forgetting about the name of the city, then you probably don't like him forgetting Mitsuha's name either, and hell the general applications of shinto dream magic in every part of the film. Getting hung up on Taki forgetting the name of the town makes no sense.

Japanese entertainment in general is literally all just a big plot hole in effort to tell a moving story. Nips don't care about plot holes as much as westerners do.

I just checked my phone, i can't really see the year anywhere unless i go into a calendar or whatever, just the day and the month.

>It's bad writing because the writer deliberately dumbed down the characters so they wouldn't question the limitations of his setting, despite the fact that he didn't otherwise specify why they lack the curiosity of even a standard, blank character.
That's a stretch. These characters are pretty well realized, and they certainly are curious - enough to take notes and such. But just not to the extent of meeting right away.

>A diary works fine, but it's not how young people communicate in the era of smartphones, even in small country towns in Japan. It's several generations out of date.

It's not as if they never tried to contact one another. It's just that it doesn't work, so they resort to using diaries. Again, this could've been explained better in the movie, but it's not as if not being able to call one another will somehow lead you to figure out there's a rift in spacetime.

>Likewise, it's so ubiquitous for young people to have some degree of curiosity, tech savvy and need for instant gratification, that it comes off as extremely surprising when the characters don't put in the minimum amount of effort to try to contact each other.
They've had ample resources to do so with the body swap and diaries. Eventually though that doesn't prove to be enough, and they try to meet each other.

The characters do exactly what you say, just not right away. I think the body swapping takes the place of that need for instant gratification.

>Getting hung up on Taki forgetting the name of the town makes no sense.

No, it doesn't "make no sense." If the amnesia happened as you think it did, then the mechanisms of the world were not consistent. However, you didn't understand it correctly. The amnesia would occur all at once, going in and out several times. There was one long period of lucidity, however, during the regular body swapping, when each character was (seemingly) perfectly aware of what was going on, what each other's names were and of details from the other's life, while retaining their own identities even while swapped. Hell, Mitsuha even went to visit Taki's house at one point, so she DID remember the details of where he lived after the swap! Taki could have remembered the name of the town if he were curious enough to know it. The problem is the

You're just trying to defend an indefensible plot hole because your not noticing it didn't interrupt your enjoyment of the movie. That's fine, but you need to understand that other people do notice these things, and it does bother some of us.

Try going into any school classroom or hallway in Japan or any country and not noticing the year.

You're not thinking critically. All you're doing is repeating your understanding of the plot back to me.

Idk about Japan but here in Finland i can't really even remember the last time i saw the year in school, posted somewhere or something, of course when talking to other people the year is often mentioned though.

Kids typically have planners that they write their homework in. The year is going to be in big letters on the front of it.

I still really like the movie

I have no idea what you're even talking about. The body swapping stopped, Taki's memories starting deteriorating, and he forgot the name of the town. That's internally consistent. The only time they were mostly lucid was during the frequent body swaps, as you pointed out.

>You're just trying to defend an indefensible plot hole because your not noticing it didn't interrupt your enjoyment of the movie. That's fine, but you need to understand that other people do notice these things, and it does bother some of us.
Again, I'd rather argue that he never knew the name to begin with. Just figured it was some tiny place in Gifu and didn't really bother to learn anything besides that, or maybe just didn't pay attention when the town's name was brought up in conversation. It's also mentioned that their memories are hazy after waking back up, which is why diaries are so important.

That's not really wholly unbelievable, like you're claiming, nor does it terribly alter the integrity of the plot.

Then counter the points.
>All you're doing is repeating your understanding of the plot back to me.
Geez, it's almost like that's what any discussion ultimately boils down to.

Your idea is that they didn't try to meet in person right away, and therefore it's unbelievable? Or that because they tried and failed to contact one another electronically, it means they'll obviously realize the time gap.

It's not as if the movie is perfect, it has its share of issues. But you're making as much of a stretch here as retards going on about dreams and shit.

I mean, just assume the scenario for a second. You try to call the other person, it doesn't work. You switch and leave a message about it. Next time, they leave a message back about how they can't seem to call you either, and you just chalk it up to bad networks or something in the countryside and use the diary for now.

That's how it was depicted in the novel, and it's not a tremendous suspension of disbelief.

>I have no idea what you're even talking about.
Then you're not reading what I wrote.

The only time they were mostly lucid was during the frequent body swaps, as you pointed out.
Yeah, and THAT'S when I expected them to get in contact with each other.

>Then counter the points.
Read literally all of my posts in this thread. I made a clear argument and it's there to read for anybody who is interested. You've made it clear that you're not one of those people, and I don't need to waste my time on your nitpicking any longer.

Is that a thing in japan? I've never had one of those.

>Read literally all of my posts in this thread. I made a clear argument and it's there to read for anybody who is interested. You've made it clear that you're not one of those people, and I don't need to waste my time on your nitpicking any longer.
Oh, sure, I've read your argument. I just think it's inadequate, and addressed the issues, and even admitted you were right on some things while being mistaken on others. Now you can respond to the criticisms of your flimsy argument, or you can just whine and pretend not to listen.

>some faggot said this movie was good next to me
Kek, dumbass normies. Try watching a real masterpiece like End of Evangelion or even Summer Wars if you want to stay a manchild.

where can i get one of these?

>summer wars
>good
Literally feel-good Hosoda shit. Not as ambitious as TokiKake, and the beginning of Hosoda's furry fetish.

Not a bad movie though. It's generic feel good family comedy, but it's like REALLY good feel good family stuff.

>EoE
A few dramatic scenes aside it lacks most of the emotional resonance of the TV ending, is clumsy as shit, and paced very strangely. Also impossible to enjoy on its own merits.

I mean, bits like TUMBLING DOWN and the Asuka fight were amazing, but it lacks cohesion and I honestly prefer the more introspective and deeply contemplative TV ending.

>Summer Wars
Why would I watch Summer Wars when I could just go back and watch his Digimon film?

>summer wars
>breaking a 2000 digit rsa key WITH YOUR MIND

Where do I sign up for my personal embedded quantum computer?

and for some strange reason, plot holes don't bother me much in anime, but they are my number one annoyance in regular TV/Movies

>Then you're not reading what I wrote.
You literally didn't even finish the post.
>The problem is the
The problem is what?

I get it, though. Your argument is that the amnesia happens immediately, so he couldn't have forgot just the name of the town. I never got this impression from the film, but I can see where you did. I believe it's because Mitsuha and everything directly related to her are the most important things to him and when he forgets about her there's nothing else to remember. Do we really know he couldn't have forgotten about individual aspects over the period of time after the body swapping stopped? It doesn't seem unbelievable to me.

I figured the reason Mitsuha and Taki forgot about eachother almost immediately the second time was because the magic month of bodyswapping was over entirely. There was no more need for magic at all as they had saved the day.

Any store that sells stationery? If you want to go full weeb get a Hobonichi planner.

I never check the current year because i am not a dumb fuck who forgets what year it is.

What the fuck is 'fancy city news'? They're not toddlers. You would know if the prime minister was different or something like that.

>What the fuck is 'fancy city news'? They're not toddlers. You would know if the prime minister was different or something like that.
Well, for one thing, political news being so dominant is really exclusive to the west. In Japan and China and Korea, few people really care for politics, and it's not going to be blasted on giant TV screens over celebrity or cultural news.

That's interesting, I hadn't considered that.

I still think you would know if it was three years difference though. Something would give it away eventually.

>a town gets fucking wrecked out of nowhere by a meteor
>"lol I forgot about it"
It's like forgetting Fukushima.

>I still think you would know if it was three years difference though. Something would give it away eventually.
Again, the issue is that for crazy ideas like this you NEED to have the possibility of it in your mind to begin with. Even if you see a little grey alien walk up to you, you probably wouldn't be thinking that aliens are real, but that this midget is in a really convincing costume.

Mitsuha even basically told Taki that she was living three years ago. A la the comet. He just thought she was messing around and gave it no heed.

It's more like forgetting a town destroyed by an earthquake. It's big news, but not nearly as scary as a nuclear meltdown.

No one really checks on the year that often because no one really forgets what year they're in. Be honest when was the last time you had to look up what year we were in?

>What is Aleppo?
And that wasn't uttered by some school kid but a guy running for president. About a town in the actual process of being destroyed.

There's a difference between an active warzone and a random town out of the blue.

The Equator earthquake was the deadliest last year. don't cheat and google it. What was the name of the town it hit?

And to be even more accurate let's go back three years. What town was that earthquake that killed over 700 people in 2014?
People remember Fukushima because it was more than a natural disaster.

Itomori.

>Calendars aside, there's plenty of other indications they could've noticed. From the days of the week being off, to different phone models.

Different phone models isn’t one, because lots of people just have older phones. I have an iPhone 6, my mum has an iPhone 5s, neither are the latest iPhone. If I bodyswapped with someone with an iPhone 3GS, I might be a bit more surprised, but even then, people just use legacy tech.

And they clearly did get confused about the days. Remember on the day when Taki, as Mitsuha, gets dressed for school when they’re going to deliver the kuchikamizake to the shrine god? At most, he must have thought “Oh, I just got a bit mixed up. No surprise given this weird body swapping shit.”

I'm gonna tell you right now why this is not a plothole.
They just didn't get to see the year anywhere. They both are experiencing the same days but 3 years apart. This is why at one point, Mitsuha(Taki) had dressed up for school during a day off. When you look at your phone, it generally just displays time, day and month. At the very least on my phone. Now they may have seen the year at some point, but it had not occured to them that they may be 3 years apart. Generally when you see something older but in your current state you tell yourself "Ah, he's still using that old thing." You do not immediately think that you're in the past. There were no immediate indication that they were years apart other than a numerical date.

tldr I hope these bait threads fucking stop.

>Why did neither of them ever look at the date?
Why didn't you?

Yeah, that's my point. No one jumps at time travel as the obvious solution, cept for maybe Tessie.

The evidence is there, but you don't consider it in a time travel frame of mind.

Considering they talked literally by writing entries in a diary app, this is a fucking stupid position to take.

>diary app always shows the year
And again, even if they see a different year, they might just think the other person made a mistake.

Every single diary app shows the date. Unless they were just writing notes to each other (they weren't) or they are retarded it doesn't make sense for them to not have noticed it.

Honestly the calendar thing is the least of the movies problems. The fact that they never actively tried to meet up is fucking insane. "hey we're switching bodies do you want to try and, like, meet so we can figure out what the fuck is going on?" Would be the reaction anyone would have. But it would break the movie so nah.

>Every single diary app shows the date. Unless they were just writing notes to each other (they weren't) or they are retarded it doesn't make sense for them to not have noticed it.

Is your suspension of disbelief really hinging on a diary app not showing the year? Hell, we SEE the app they use, and for sure it doesn't show the year.

>The fact that they never actively tried to meet up is fucking insane. "hey we're switching bodies do you want to try and, like, meet so we can figure out what the fuck is going on?" Would be the reaction anyone would have. But it would break the movie so nah.
But they do? Mitsuha does eventually reach out. You have to remember they live on opposite sides of the country. It's not like you can just walk over.

>Would be the reaction anyone would have.
Now that's just projecting onto the movie. They're both dealing with the situation with just leaving notes after swapping. Why would they go out of the way to travel across the country to meet? At least personally, that didn't really strike me as a plot hole or anything. They do eventually want to meet, but it makes sense that their first reaction isn't to recklessly jump on a train and head for the boonies.

>You have to remember they live on opposite sides of the country. It's not like you can just walk over.
They live literally two or three hours away by train. It shows the comet impact as being in the Niigata region.

>Why would they go out of the way to travel across the country to meet
They wouldn't be but it most certainly does not make sense that they would just roll with it and not question why the fuck this is happening. There is absolutely nothing in the movie that would indicate why they would not have a desire to figure this shit out. It's not necessarily a plot hole but it's a pretty big knock for these characters.

For my money I can't think of many glaring plot holes in the story. There's the fact that apparently the "world" will magic away diary entries, names, etc. but it's fine with the MC still having his drawings. The craziness about how they literally re-wrote history which isn't even mentioned and all the plot holes associated with that.

It mostly just has a whole metric fuck ton of unbelievable behavior and actions. It's an incredibly convenient story that only works if you just don't care about how someone might actually function in these kinds of circumstances. Usually this is par for the course in anime but the praise it gets earns it a more critical eye. They try to hand wave some of it away with the magic amnesia thing but that's pretty bullshit. I also get that it's "red string of fate" or whatever, but that's pretty fucking stupid and an awful place to hang your hat.

>They live literally two or three hours away by train. It shows the comet impact as being in the Niigata region.
Tokyo to Gifu is at least 4-5 hours by Shinkansen. So it's not exactly a SHORT trip. Meeting someone from your dreams in person would also probably be kind of awkward, it makes sense they're hesitant.

>They wouldn't be but it most certainly does not make sense that they would just roll with it and not question why the fuck this is happening.
They do question it several times throughout the story. But like, what are they going to do? Google body swapping? I mean, it's not like they have a whole lot of information to work with.

>There is absolutely nothing in the movie that would indicate why they would not have a desire to figure this shit out.
Having a desire to figure this weird shit out doesn't mean you drop your entire life to deal with this shit. And it's overwhelming too. I swear to you, if I swapped bodies with a cute girl, my first priority wouldn't be to figure out "why" either.

>For my money I can't think of many glaring plot holes in the story. There's the fact that apparently the "world" will magic away diary entries, names, etc. but it's fine with the MC still having his drawings.
The whole texts disappearing shit was strange too, but that's not exactly a plothole.

Nor were the pictures remaining. The only texts that disappeared were those written by Mitsuha. Pay better attention.

>The craziness about how they literally re-wrote history which isn't even mentioned and all the plot holes associated with that.
But that is mentioned. Several times at the end.

>It mostly just has a whole metric fuck ton of unbelievable behavior and actions. It's an incredibly convenient story that only works if you just don't care about how someone might actually function in these kinds of circumstances.
The only thing you've thus mentioned is "why didn't they just go see each other right away."

>I swear to you, if I swapped bodies with a cute girl, my first priority wouldn't be to figure out "why" either.
What would be your first thought? That you've gone insane? You can bet your ass that the first thing I would do is figure out what is going on, who is in my body, and where I can find them. For the purpose of the story they couldn't have this emotion so they just decided to cutely leave each other notes.

>The only texts that disappeared were those written by Mitsuha. Pay better attention
We don't know what happened with Taki's texts. It's inconsistent. Not everything Mitsuha writes disappears - her line that she draws on his hand at the end stays. The only thing we see of hers that disappears are the diary entries.

>But that is mentioned. Several times at the end.
Not in the context of how it's a paradox.

>The only thing you've thus mentioned is "why didn't they just go see each other right away."
Why would they just go to school? Why wouldn't they question what was going on? Why were they so cool with talking to people they've never met before? Why did it not concern their friends/family about how they had clear and consistent personality shifts for over a month?

Why they didn't want to figure out what was going on is the biggest one and it undercuts the entirety of the movie plot. Everything else stems from that.

I just watched this movie and came here to make this exact same thread. The characters just forget and then remember events or just generally overlook things at the convenience of the writer.

But Mitsuha clearly remembers Taki's future date with the chick tho

>What would be your first thought? That you've gone insane? You can bet your ass that the first thing I would do is figure out what is going on, who is in my body, and where I can find them. For the purpose of the story they couldn't have this emotion so they just decided to cutely leave each other notes.
>Why they didn't want to figure out what was going on is the biggest one and it undercuts the entirety of the movie plot. Everything else stems from that.

Well, the first thought is that they're dreaming. But not everyone is so damned curious as you, so desperate as to drop everything to solve the mystery right away. Some level of curiosity is realistic, sure, but what you're expecting is too much.

I mean, consider the characters' personalities. Mitsuha is always shown to be playful and childish, and overwhelmed with the bright, pretty colors of Tokyo. I have no problem believing she'd just shrug her shoulders and enjoy life as a Tokyo boy.

Taki would probably be more invested in figuring things out, and from his notes and scribbling it certainly seems he is, not to mention he's the one who takes the journey later. But even then he's caught up with having fun in one another's body.

These are perfectly realistic personality traits that justify whatever. But all in all the experience is so otherworldly, so fantastical, that it's difficult and presumptuous to say "this is what any normal person would do here." Because there's no precedent in real life.

>We don't know what happened with Taki's texts. It's inconsistent. Not everything Mitsuha writes disappears - her line that she draws on his hand at the end stays. The only thing we see of hers that disappears are the diary entries.
The line disappears too. So yeah, that part is watertight.

>Not in the context of how it's a paradox.
>having a linear, causative conception of time
Lmao brainlet

>But not everyone is so damned curious as you, so desperate as to drop everything to solve the mystery right away
This isn't "who stole the cookie out of the cookie jar" this is "my literal spirit is now inhabiting another beings body oh god what the fuck". Yes, they think it's a dream but it becomes almost immediately apparent that it's not. But they decide to just roll with it.

>Because there's no precedent in real life.
There doesn't need to be. This is the same idea that some teen would go into a murder house in a horror movie and not just try to get the fuck out. It doesn't make any sense in the context of the real world but it has to happen because "movies". They can't question why this is happening because "movies".

>The line disappears too
It doesn't. He explicitly looks at it after she leaves when he's trying to remember her name. But even if it did, it doesn't explain why the things she wrote down disappears but Taki's don't. There also is no rhyme or reason to why they start forgetting, what they forget, and how much they forget. They start forgetting "more" leading up to the disaster but then Taki just remembers it. Then he forgets it again.. then remembers a little bit and then forgets it all. There's no consistency it just happens as the author needed it to to build drama.

>the lose certain memories due to shinto dream magic precisely when it's convenient that they do so
>also they never notice any signs that there's a time descrepancy because shinto dream magic I guess?
No thanks, this is complete and utter garbage writing, I'd much rather rewatch 5cm per second or just about any other Makoto Shinkai movie where there isn't a stupid ass plot hook that does nothing but distract me from the characters and their relationships, which is why I watch a Shinkai movie for in the first place.

>This isn't "who stole the cookie out of the cookie jar" this is "my literal spirit is now inhabiting another beings body oh god what the fuck". Yes, they think it's a dream but it becomes almost immediately apparent that it's not. But they decide to just roll with it.
Because they find it fun and while they're curious, there's not a whole lot they can do about it at the time.
Is that a terribly hard concept to grasp? It's not as if they're robots without the ability to think critically.

>There doesn't need to be. This is the same idea that some teen would go into a murder house in a horror movie and not just try to get the fuck out. It doesn't make any sense in the context of the real world but it has to happen because "movies". They can't question why this is happening because "movies".
But this is an experience that is so out there and abstract that it's difficult to judge. A dark, ominous house isn't an apt comparison. More like, what if the characters met god, or found themselves in the underworld? Questions like these have no obvious answer.

>There also is no rhyme or reason to why they start forgetting, what they forget, and how much they forget. They start forgetting "more" leading up to the disaster but then Taki just remembers it. Then he forgets it again.. then remembers a little bit and then forgets it all. There's no consistency it just happens as the author needed it to to build drama.
Did you miss the whole Sake trip? And let's not pretend there's any real rhyme or reason to how memory works to begin with. Forgetting things, then remembering them again when given a trigger, is pretty common. And they make a great big deal out of foreshadowing the memory loss anyways, so this is about as well as you can portray losing memories in a movie, or hell, any form of fiction, since the actual act of forgetfulness is so vague and nebulous. The most you can say is "I know there was something I knew before, but now I forgot it"

I have no idea but I guarantee you that if you were from Ecuador you would remember.