 Anime movie weathering with you. We saw it. We got I saw it a while ago So to review Makoto Shinkai this dude we found out about when we were in college when we saw Hoshino Calle story that we learned was that this was some dude who made an anime a very short anime in the I guess basement with his wife voices of a distant star Hoshino Koei right and it was this you know very moving very short tiered jerky and short animation about Young lovers separated by space and time yep to 2002 this came out. We watched it like right after it came out and Makoto Shinkai 20 ish minutes long Makoto Shinkai went on to make a whole bunch of other things Well like five centimeters per second that was Shinkai right? Yeah, right? Place promised in our early days promise children who chase lost voices, which is terrible Which we saw at the New York comma card words. I saw the garden of words I'd haven't seen a garden of words. I don't think either anime drama film what he has a movie he made in 2013 I didn't fucking know about me either the point is Makoto Shinkai while there's a lot of great things about Makoto Shinkai is Not on the level of like, you know the Satoshi Kans the Miyazaki's where there's batting out hits. Well, right? Well, I would say voices of a distant star because it was that's still hit It was a hit because I bet the CG is really dated. I don't care I've cried a lot at anime before that one that one works every time but voices of a cult 45 anime Like I edged into ugly crying and I get a little choked up if I think about that movie too much It's only like five minutes long 25 minutes long Oh, it's longer than I thought but it was also like it perfectly distilled the genre that I would describe as Lovers separated by space and time with clouds in the background. Well, they didn't have clouds Yeah, they did. Yeah, they did. You don't remember when he was on earth that were clouds No, also her the background when she's in the ship is clouds coming down. Yeah Anyway, the point is we should watch it again in crime Makoto Shinkai's specialty, right lover separated the space and time in cloud is the lover separate space and time storyline and the Cloud environmental, you know, yeah, not necessarily the animation. It's not about the movement It's just about how it looks like even still right there Like you can see like TV commercials animated by Shinkai and it's just like the Unbelievable sky that he draws or gets his team to draw you see two seconds of and you're like that's Makoto Shinkai It's like you can see a single cloud and be like that's a Makoto Shinkai cloud the same way that it would be like, you know You know, that's a itano circus look at the way those missiles move I can tell I can tell right away that that mech was made by itano I feel like someday we're gonna talk about the Shinkai cloud or like the way that like Shinkai sky the way in a Miyazaki movie The monster will be kind of like what kind of moving that sort of blobby way like the you know The bore at the start of but also in a Miyazaki the way when there's a machine like a car or a plane like that way It sort of vibrates and throngs like it's about to fall apart or the way a building collapses in a you know Or the way a car will come up over a hill and come down while there's someone walking on the road Anyway, right, but those are all things that happen animatedly right Shinkai is just about Captures the cloud in the sky mostly the environment the weather and is still image So here in a lot of his previous movies he went hard on the weather right your name was and you know Eventually right he got to your name. Yeah, which is the biggest fucking deal in like anime history I also think it is his greatest work probably your name is a phenomenal movie, right? It's not perfect, but it's it's not perfect, but it is phenomenal his greatest work. Yeah, but I would call it a phenomenal movie I would put it up there. It's good So then it's like follow-up to your name here. I go weathering with you literally about skies and weather I got to give you credit. You know what your thing is. It's lovers of very space and time and weather Just going all-in and weathering with you W E A T H. I'm not back and I know who I am I'm a Koto Shinkai. This is what I do watch me do it more I'm not gonna I'm not gonna try to do something different or try to show people that I'm that I have skills that I can vary my game I'm just gonna master my one thing the way it's a very guy richy master to certain kind of move I think it's a very Japanese thing also like I'm the sushi chef. I master the sushi, right? It's like a thing where they you know, they hone they're all of course Honing craft. There is one deviation because children who chase lost voices Felt like an air sauce me a sake movie. Yes, but it didn't feel like the rest of them. It just felt Empty and broken. I hardly remember anything. I just remember that it was really boring and understand what's going on I'm pretty sure we review. I'm pretty sure we reviewed almost Premier at the New York Comic Con. Yeah, and then we saw an interview. He was there in person, but yeah, I don't remember the movie was No good air sauce me a zaki. I'm telling you the point is Weathering with you came to the US and not only is it think still in theaters in places Yeah, it's popular. It's doing really well mostly because of the success of your name weathering with you got you know I've got to have a bigger run. They're also showing it in 4dx, right? So I don't know if people know this 4dx is basically amusement park theater Yeah, you sit in like a seat that moves and like they spray water on you It's like fucking honey. I shrunk the kids or you know Terminator with the 3d glasses where you know seats are moving and they're they're blowing air on you So it's a movie about weather So I presume that if you go see this in 4dx, which I did not that they would like spray you during You know water see or shoot you with that gun shake you during chase scenes or jolt you during You know gun firing scenes Fucking gun. So if you want to go see it that way be my guest I've heard mixed opinions on how that is Yeah, I just saw it in the normal theater the normal way now It's also like it won four any awards It is the it's not like there's a lot of competition this year including best independent animated feature It's the third anime film Tying spirited away in millennium actress to have four nominations highest anime film in the annies Yeah, bunch of stuff here you can read the Wikipedia and like news articles about all those details So I think you know he followed up your name I don't think it's as good as your name, but let's talk about what it is So we won't spoil anything yet because just what we will talk when we will shift into spoilers so we can talk about I don't think you need to spoil that much. Yeah, but I want to I don't Like some of the readings of like how you can interpret this movie. Oh, yeah I feel like it's I don't know if if some of the readings are intentional I'm worried about his opinions on things maybe they're unintentional then they were poorly Yeah proper care was not taken but I'm not send an incorrect message But the things I will say are one it is utterly beautiful like the animation is superb Oh, yeah, looks great It looks like you know as good as and or better than your name to you know And he brings up the hallmark cloud. It's like you still got it It is it is very funny at many moments like it is a funny movie, but also serious Yeah, there was definitely I think more comedy than your name because there were the side characters had more screen time and This I do like the fact that you know a lot of times there'll be animes We have a side character, right and the side characters way cool. Yeah, but you hardly see them at all They don't get a lot of time, right? So for example pro mayor had lots of cool side characters like a whole bunch of them But individually any one of them barely got enough play. Yep So even though it robo has that problem. They had their cool scene, right? And then that was sort of it like think about say pro mayor adjacent Story tank police, right? There's the chief who's badass and awesome and hilarious and the chief has like a couple scenes Yep, right now watching that I did you can tell it you it's a show like that or a movie like that If you would legitimately be excited if someone named any character from that show and said they're getting a spin-off movie Just about them, right? So here it's more of a cowboy bebop situation where the side characters You know Ed Ein whatever there's not too many of them, right? And they get plenty of screen time each and therefore the more humorous side characters Continually bring their humor more throughout the movie and they're present throughout the movie. They're not like you know your name I felt like they were more present. I don't remember. I only saw it once and don't remember 100% of it But I felt like those side characters were present earlier in the movie and then towards the end in climax We're left in the town. Well, yeah Because the main characters left the scene well because they sort of bookended the because the main journey of the show of the Movie was just the two main characters exactly whereas here and weathering with you Those side characters are there throughout like they don't disappear even like up to the last second Yeah, right you're not like escaping the funny part and going just with the main characters aren't humorous Yep, and also the main characters had some humor in themselves. Yeah, they weren't purely just you know the romance Even though they were so the vague plot is this young boy runs away from home for reasons that are not explained and Tries to make it in the city He lives on an island so he had to take a boat to go to Tokyo, right? So I guess he lived on what's the southern island in Japan the big one Well, you're talking about the main Japanese islands No, no, what does the main one and then there's the big fat one that's underneath. I'm pretty sure he came from the big What? Chikoku, oh the one that's like sounds like hell Chikoku Right there that one. Yeah. He's from not the same island that Tokyo is on And so we had to take a boat to go to Tokyo and that's sort of how the movie opens Yep And he's like clearly like running away from home like it's not clear if he's abused like what's going on But he's no X real explanation for why yep If kid is running away from home to make a life in Tokyo and is not a legal adult in any way Yep, definitely a high school student who is not going to high school And this is a movie that is set in modern times with cell phones and cameras and things So like he can't just get a job like he ends up having to work Illegally for someone and like kind of just live in his office Yep And it seems like the dude is shady like you think it's gonna be a yakuza situation But no the dude is actually okay Yep, even though the business therein is not like it's not an illegitimate business is just not like a great business Yep, it's basically a tabloid. Yeah, like a but but but it seems like well news level tabloid It seems to actually make some money it actually doesn't seem like they make their own tabloid It seems more like they're contracted to make content for other tabloids Anyway, well, it doesn't matter and you know things happen. It's just moderately long It was 112 minutes and he ends up meeting this girl who is kind of like a weather witch Right. So the thing is as you're watching the movie. It's basically always raining It's set always it is heavily implied It's set during an era of extreme climate change right that is slowly flooding Japan right in the same way That when you watch Evangelion, it's eternal summer Yeah, and you sort of like it, you know, it's not pointed out to you so strongly here It's pointed out more strongly than an Evangelion, but it's like yeah, it's always raining like There's it's almost never not raining Sunshine is rare to the point that if the sun comes out like people freak out. Yeah, it's like oh, the Sun is out Yes, finally. There's a brief moment of Sun. Yes, right? Yep It's not like unusual that people haven't forgotten the Sun. It's just sort of like yeah It started raining a while ago and it really hasn't stopped in a long It's still gray and drizzly and man This is so pervasive and such an integral part of like the theme and everything about it Also, it gives them a chance to flex his cloud because the strong visual contrast between the constant Gloominess and all right, I'm gonna put a meaningful scene I could just open up the clouds and get boom instant contrast visually instant meaning and right It's so easy and to do and he's making like that plot and that you know visual Motif also the thing that he is the best at right all in one go. It's like aha I have craft and it's like I'm really good at this thing Let me write a plot that makes being good at that thing really use right? Yep, so this girl it's like making a sheath to fit your sword So basically this girl he meets who's a little it seems to be a little bit older than him and kind of has her like her act together She can summon sunlight right at sea at first it seems like some sort of you know like can she really is a Coincidence, but it's like gradually it's like no it seems like the rain is actually some sort of angry rain god and she has some sort of Spiritual meaning power some kind of connection to the whatever the gods are some ancient thing like ancient writings and like Knowledge that is kind of lost like there's one old priest who kind of knows the deal right? She can make it you know by by praying and concentrating or whatever She can make it be sunny around her in an area for a period of time and The movie is about all these things and we're gonna we're good I'm not gonna like explain the plot but from this point on I'm gonna react to The conclusion to this movie so if you haven't seen it and you don't want anything to be spoiled You should probably stop listening now and come back. Yeah, but the conclusion you should draw is that you go see it It's okay Don't expect it to be like the best thing you've ever seen But ain't bad and it's worth going to the theater But I am bothered by some of the apparent morals and themes of this movie Yeah, alright, so what are the morals and themes of this movie that bother us so on one hand? I mean the plot and again spoilers once you find out that that girl who seems so together is actually like really young and like kind of in the same boat as the kid and Well, she didn't run away her parents died. Yep, but she tried to make it on her own Yeah, without the authorities because they they would separate her from her brother, but he like Doesn't have his act together and has all this baggage that's out in front and he sees her as very competent and stable relative to him Right. Well, cuz she's taking care of a brother like sort of does have some shit together But it did the big reveal is that she has her own like equivalent level of baggage Yeah, and the two of them together, you know the title weathering with you or weathering you want to get argue There is a reading that this is about the way relationships form and how people bring baggage together And you almost have to weather each other and then together weather the world and like that feels like a very Magodoshinkai kind of reading Yep, and I feel like that is one of the primary readings of this But it's set in an era of climate change and if this came out Even ten years ago. You would never do the climate change reading of the right ever But but because it comes out in 2020 you have to and it seems to make this point that young people like her who have this power can work hard and sort of sacrifice themselves to Make the rain go away, but the moral of the movie almost seems to be Children should not try to do that. Don't throw your life away trying to save the world Just whether the world that will come your children. It's not your fault, right? So Basically give up right so what they're trying to do is they make this illusion that yeah way back in the ancient times They would like sacrifice the local witch You know to the gods to appease them and that would make the rain go away, right? Yeah, but they haven't done that in a long time because we don't do that shit anymore Yeah, right and she just happens to be the weather witch So they could sacrifice her to the God and make it the sun come back in the same way that the youth of the world could Sacrifice their childhood to like actively fight for climate reform, right? And then in the end the dude the main character dude chooses to not have his love separated by space and time Yep, and bring her back and make it rain forever And then what they illustrate is a world where the rain continues non-stop pretty much And Japan like starts getting destroyed like Tokyo is like sinking like a lot of it like you know Akira situation Fast forward time skips to the future. He they come back together a few years like the world is Approaching ruin right the world is approaching like you look and they show you a picture of like most of Tokyo under water And then they show you people like adapting to it and just getting along just fine The dude who was in a tabloid office underneath the building is now in a much better office He also grew up. I'll get to that third reading about like growing up Family back together it's like okay. He finished high school. He got it done and then he went back to Tokyo and met the girl again And now they're happy they're together moral of like you can weather the storm the world will change just try to adapt to it Fuck that noise, right? It's like are you trying to say that the climate check if New York flooded the way Tokyo flooded in that image that you could We would be able to just deal with it and there wouldn't be a global catastrophe that results in like, you know riots global emergency disease war Famine etc. It definitely portrays the world where people are that's not something you can like he shows Modern Western society continuing and thriving and adapting to a great catastrophe. It's like brah That's not how it's gonna go. Nope. It's not how it's gonna be and I Tokyo sinks that much Japan is bone and my real work is like no food Like if you watch this movie, this is not a like a stretch as a real Disaster and center like you could make a video essay about lucky is the moral of like the Japanese people would like I can you know continue even having you know anything and they even like the movie gets like makes this point over and over again that if it's not your fault, it's not your responsibility and The reality is for young people in the world today. Yes, it's not your fault But it kind of is gonna be your responsibility because old people failed well It also portrays the right by using, you know, the the story of you know, the ancient story of like Oh, God's making the weather sacrifice to the you know, you know, you're your weather which to them to appease them portrays the climate change as not your fault and as a natural thing As a god thing As opposed to a thing that was caused by the people right they caused the bad weather It's not the people aren't sacrificing to get rid of the bad weather They made the bad weather in the first place and the sacrifice. It's not a natural thing The sacrifice as portrayed is not really like sacrifice people to our God It's more like sacrifice for childhood to do something right So a third a third reading that is probably good before I get into the last thing that annoys me about the movie, which is the gun The gun bothers the gun would have been fine If they didn't use it multiple times and it didn't drive the plot forward twice right by being fired Right It seems like the lower level the lower level things in the movie like the character lines and those stories like about the The the niece of the the business guy. Yep, right and like the business guy himself getting his You know his divorce and his child custody situation all those things that those things I think are all good Because they get back to that first thing about weathering with you or weathering you like weather the world together Together you can weather catastrophe better than separated all the y'all. There's a lot going on there But it also has this reading of like the kid doesn't want to give up on whatever his dreams were and why he ran away The moral was sort of suck it up go back and live the life you hate to become an adult and be responsible and it Lays that template out for literally every character we're introduced to of suck it up be an adult and join normal society And this coming from someone who made who was I guess doing who know I forget what his job was at the time But he made an anime in his basement and got lucky. Yeah, I also made a good anime Yep, but it like we don't know what he was running from like why he was running away from home It's easy to see that he might have been at be like there's something up with never say why he ran away from home There was no indication of abuse they never show you his parents You don't know if he has siblings or anything But they definitely imply when he goes back home like and then there's the time skip at the end of the movie that He was miserable there and counted the seconds until he could leave Yeah, and he just sucked it up and then you get the cool guy around the tabloid and now He's like a normal stuffy businessman because that was the right thing to do Hmm and everyone like became a normal it helped him get his you know time with this kid again Yep, right because you know if you're a dude who lives in a basement It's harder to convince the you know them to let you see your child Yep, then if you have a successful business person, but at the same time that could almost be more an indictment of Society's expectations But the movie portrays it more as suck it up and join society as it is Which leads back into another bad interpretation that it almost has this undercurrent of You've got to not like stand out or buck the system so that you can have Harmony together to weather the world around you. Hmm, and I don't which I think is you know It's and that's the thing is that lesson is fine in some contexts But not in the context of a global catastrophe. Yeah, right? So the the show that the putting them both together like that is the real problem Yeah, if it was something else besides Climate change that you showed right it could have worked right but not Climate change and they almost could have gotten away with this like the movie could have gotten away with it Except that it portrays a sunken and ruined Tokyo and yet everyone's just totally fine, right? It's like people have adapted. They're using boats and they're wearing long boots. They got their umbrellas out all the time They're just they're dealing with it. Yeah, life is going on the economy's not ruined Somehow everyone still has food somehow the electricity still works Yeah, all these giant buildings and entire neighborhoods of downtown are completely under New York isn't just gonna be a bunch of canals among skyscrapers. It's gonna be on fire and abandoned Yeah, it's gonna be fucking like escape from New York, but no for real so not a joke the gun On one hand so a gun is a big deal in any Japanese Except maybe a Yakuza movie, but even then even in Yakuza because Old movie or door or die so sauce in which we love like Nobody has guns and at one point the cops have to go get their guns from the special place Like there's a big plot point where a crazy dude has a gun and no cops have a gun And they got to go get permission to get their guns out But they don't they just talk the guy down and take his gun away Yeah, and like knives are a big deal. Yeah, but like in Japan any Japanese thing guns are a big deal And this movie early on the kid finds a gun in a trash can Outside of a strip club or a whorehouse, right? And it's basically what has some Yakuza guy dumped it there, right? And the kid by random chance finds it and has it keeps it but right then he basically gets attacked by a pimp and because he has this gun he pulls it out and Shoots at the pimp at the air into the air which scares the pimp away, right? And that's and then he you know the fine that drives some of the plot now There's a reason for the police to be looking for him which escalates the tension Like he abandons the gun in this building Yep Like he leaves it somewhere and the building is sort of like the central building in the movie It reminds me of the building in the matrix that they go back Got that same impression the whatever the heart of the city hotel in the matrix Yeah, they keep going back to that same place, right? This is that same thing There's a building with a little shrine to the weather god on the roof But also it's an abandoned building right and it looks like it was ruined by the flooding Right, it's the plot place and they keep going back to it, right? So the gun is at the you know an early scene He abandons the gun there and then very late in the movie He's being chased after by the cops who think he has the gun when he doesn't right And then they chase him to the place because that's where he's going And he picks up the gun while he's there and He is able to save his lover separated by space and time avoid the police and like solve everything By firing the gun in the air again Yeah, so the gun was a positive plot moving device that was required by this child twice to assert authority on the world Which is a weird message to we like I don't know what message that gun was intending to portray Yeah, I don't know Like the kid gets to wield the authority of an adult twice and it saves them both times I mean you can see positive both times right you can see this connection Right, you can see the impact of a gun in a in a japanese setting and a japanese movie to a japanese audience And it's awesome. It saves his life right you can see that the impact of the scene You can you can line both scenes up together and see how they're similar But I can't understand like what the meaning is Yeah, because if the meaning is you could have done something else in a chase scene If the meaning edges back into like You can't have something with that big an impact that has no meaning Like shodra kakame utana kind of gets into that with the idea of Like adults have a power to wield over the world that children don't but children can sometimes acquire the tools of adults And wield that power in a local context like there's a there's a way to look into this And this movie could have been saying that that child needed that power of like being an adult or being in society And the gun was a vehicle to wield that before he was ready or before society would give it to him But at the same time wielding a gun in japanese society is extremely transgressive And thus ruins that entire reading of this and it kind of also You know most of the things that happen in the movie besides the supernatural weather control Are completely realistic and modern right the way they use the internet to get jobs Right the way the hotels won't rent a room to them because exactly and everything is super believable for a modern time Which is great to see Except for the fact that like bro If you had that gun and shoot it in the air when this cops right in front of you They're not like sending you back home so you can finish high school except they kind of do so right I'm pretty sure you would be in jail For a long ass time because the japanese justice system is uh, not just yep Right not not say the us one is no, but in japan it's even worse. You're just guilty until proven innocent Yeah, the prosecutor better be right. You know they make you confess and then they sentence you Uh, right, so yeah, but even worse unbelievable So there's this other undercurrent that there's this unexplored world of the sky that could solve climate change And they prove it's real because the girl disappears up there. Yep They should study that they should Send drones up into the clouds and try to figure out Yeah, they showed like they clearly show like the turtle rain god a couple times The movie almost makes this point only this don't try to solve the problem Right, this just this priest guy clearly knows everything that's up because he's a priest, dude Yeah, and these kids know this is absolutely a real thing And we could solve it by sacrificing our friend. Okay, we've decided not to do that or let's fly up there and like Investigate these skyfish that are right slowly, and it's like it's like all right Well, you're not going to try anything to make it not rain and say well I guess if society's not ruined you wouldn't care about trying. Yep, right, but That's if you is unrealistic that the society would not be ruined And I guess like in conclusion just because i'm hungry and I think i'm done with the show here All this combined left me very like Unsatisfied and unsettled after this movie like after it ended I just felt conflicted. Yeah, I mean there were definitely like you know There were great moments like the little kids and the kid who's dating every girl in his school Oh, yeah, the girl like the girls help him escape from the car like that was awesome Right this there's parts and these characters that are totally awesome There's a lot of stuff that's in here that's like really great and like It feel like parts of a great anime But then that overall picture Right and and message when you look when you zoom out is like Yeah, like it edges into Problematic to a point that i'm kind of mad about it's like you edited you edited parts of a great anime movie You know to make An overall picture that doesn't work. Yeah, right? so Uh, that's what that is like you get to see plenty of shinkai clouds though Expect more shinkai soon. I guess but like if I had a lot of money He's gonna keep making more in terms of the list of movies here that he's known for like if I had to rank them I think I mean your name is the best one from every Angle I could look at yeah, yeah I actually think the place promised in our early days is the second best work. I agree with that Uh, and then voices of it isn't star and then Children of jayslaw. I mean we reviewed it you can listen to our old review of children who chase lost voices It's god It's deeply because I don't remember anything So you have to go the one you have to go ask scott who saw the movie recently to get information But weathering with you reminds me of children who chase lost voices in one very specific way But that made the thing is whether I disagree or don't or find some parts of weathering with you Like distasteful. I can't say it's a bad boring No, no good movie like Yeah, but children chase lost voices left me feeling very empty afterward Like I didn't feel anything about the movie. I didn't feel anything during the movie I couldn't tell you the name of a I couldn't even tell you a character But during the movie it was almost like in an inverted Uh castle in the sky and that it almost portrayed like a broken down Lopeta type world. Yeah, everything's just broken down. I was I was bored and uninterested right here I wasn't well that could be form as function like skycrawlers, which you loved which is boring on purpose to make you Start that's a different that's a different kind of boring. That is Form as boring because the tone of skycrawlers or night in the galactic railroad Yeah, I knew you were gonna bring up night on the night in the galactic railroad The tone of those is quiet and slow paced Consistently, right and that's could be boring because you could fall asleep just because it's sort of like a lullaby Yep, right, but you there's a difference between a good lullaby and Uh a song that is not a lullaby That's just you fall asleep, but you're not supposed to yep, right So but they both left me feeling kind of empty like I didn't come out with a strong Feeling about any like message or moral and it also what the didn't have that like the emotional Climax was not that strong compared to almost any other movie. He's made well if you want to come out feeling All right and have a strong climax I got the movie for you. It's called parasite. You should be able to see it somewhere Hopefully digitally soon and I'm gonna go eat dinner. Yep This has been geek nights with rim and scott special thanks to dj pretzel for the open