Title: Your Name Vol. 1
Author: Makoto Shinkai (Story), Ranmaru Kotone (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
The Story
I’ve had the absolute, distinct pleasure to see Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) and I felt that it was one of the best anime movies I had ever seen. Since then, the film has been turned into a light novel and now a manga! There are going to be three volumes of the manga and the manga follows the movie nearly scene for scene without leaving any details out!
The story revolves around a country girl named Mitsuha and a city boy named Taki. Mitsuha wishes that she could be a boy and live in the city so she can escape her boring, rural life that she hates so much. All of a sudden, she begins to start having a weird dream that she’s in the body of a boy in the city. Taki begins to experience the same kind of dream where he’s in the body of a girl out in the country. At first, the two of them think that it’s nothing more than a dream, but after leaving clues for each other, they soon discover that it’s not a dream at all, but they are, in fact, switching bodies!
After they realize this, Taki and Mitsuha set rules for themselves to follow. They agree that, while switched, they will not try to interfere with each other’s lives all too much. Mitsuha breaks this rule almost immediately as she tries to set up Taki with her senpai at work, Okudera. She even succeeds in getting him a date with her. The funny thing about it is that Okudera likes Taki when Mitsuha is in control because she thinks that Taki is getting in touch with his feminine side! On the flip side, Taki doesn’t really do too much to Mitsuha, but he does end up groping his own boobs which prompts Mitsuha to leave a massive list of “don’t do….” For him to follow, including things like don’t change with the other girls in gym, don’t keep your legs open, don’t touch boys, don’t touch girls, either, etc.
Taki and Mitsuha are switching places about three times a week, but all of a sudden, they stop switching. This is where the first volume ends.
Having seen the movie, I know the reason why and it’s bringing back a lot of feelings I don’t want to feel! The manga has captured the movie perfectly. Everything from the characters, their personalities, down to the important details of the story, everything is as I remember it from the film!
Characters
Makoto Shinkai’s movies usually only have enough characters to count on one hand and the manga version of Your Name is no different.
Mitsuha Miyamizu dreams of, one day, leaving her back woods town and going to Tokyo. She’s sick of rural life and doesn’t want any part of it anymore. What makes matters worse is that her father is the mayor of the town so she’s always under a constant eye. Mitsuha’s personality is quite mischievous and a bit tomboy-ish. She is definitely outgoing when she needs to be, but other times, she’s often reserved.
I really enjoyed the Mitsuha character. I thought she was easy to relate to and connect with. She had that girl next door vibe to her even though she is the daughter of someone in high standings. Mitsuha and her sister live with their grandmother and carry out the traditions of weaving threads and making a special rice sake.
Taki Tachibana is a bit of a softer person than Mitsuha. He’s often quiet, but he keeps good company in his friends. He has a part-time job working at an upscale restaurant where he has a crush on his senpai. When he switches bodies with Mitsuha, he seems more confused and reserved than daring. While he isn’t always proactive in every situation, but does play the timid character rather well.
Yotsuha Miyamizu is Mitsuha’s little sister and she is a firecracker. You can see where Mitsuha gets some of her outgoing personality from as Yotsuha is rather fearless when it comes to running her mouth. She’s always scolding her sister for rather humorous reasons and is to first to realize that Mitsuha is losing her mind. Yotsuha doesn’t know that Taki is in her body, but she does notice the huge personality swing because of it. She was a fun character and while characters like this are usually cringe-worthy, Yostuha was played perfectly to the point where I found the character rather cute.
Final Thoughts
I cannot praise Your Name enough. Maybe it’s because I’ve already seen the movie so I know just how good this manga is (and is going to be). If I were to look at this from a first-time reader’s perspective, I would seem to be a little bit on the slow side; however, the act of body switching grabs you almost immediately and draws you in. It makes you interested in trying to figure out why the two of them are switching places, but just when you try to figure it out, the manga ends with telling you that the two of them never switched again.
Many would suspect that it had something to do with the comet. It was referenced throughout the volume (and it was even depicted in the cover art as well as the absolutely GORGEOUS opening color pages). Even without revealing the reason, it does make the reader contemplate what is going on.
I cannot recommend this series enough. Your Name has won MANY, MANY awards around the world and it is the highest grossing anime film of all-time. The movie didn’t get that way through hype… it got that way by being that good. The Your Name manga is capturing the magic of the movie perfectly and anyone should owe it to themselves to pick this up regardless if you have seen the movie or not!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
