 In 2019, Makoto Shinkai released his sixth feature-length film, Weathering With You. Like any Shinkai film, the animation was breathtaking and Shinkai crafted a touching story of love and how far one would go to retain said love. It follows a 16-year-old runaway, Hodaka, who wanders through Tokyo looking for a job to sustain a life away from his parents. Shortly after, he meets a 15-year-old girl, Hina, who is otherwise known as the Weathermaiden, a girl who has the ability to temporarily stop the continual rain that Tokyo has been undergoing for the past few months and to bring the hidden sun. Hina represents the sun itself in all of its radiance and all of its positivity. She is a selfless girl, who does everything for those around her. Even before she formally meets Hodaka, she is there to give him a burger at McDonald's when he had nothing to eat, and when she does meet him again, she is quick to forgive him, and to treat him with the kindness that not many adults have treated him with. Hina was willing to do any job if it meant taking care of Nagi, her little brother, and to do so she even faked her age for it, posing as an almost 18-year-old girl for the majority of the film. And as she was given this ability to bring happiness and sunshine to the rainy Tokyo, not only was she able to make money, but she loved being other people's joy. As she stated, she fell in love with being sunshine girl. As being the sun is more than bringing people joy on their special days. Like Hodaka says, the human heart is connected to the sky. The sun brings them warmth, happiness, and it is uniquely uplifting. The sun makes people kinder and that much sweeter. And that's the effect that Hina has on those around her. Her radiance is infectious. But weathering with you asks Hodaka what is more important. The clear blue sky that makes you feel more in love with the person by your side. The same clear blue sky that is connected to the human heart. Or his heart, who isn't connected to the sky but to this girl. Because the sunshine girl, while she fell in love with the job, was an insustainable one. The weather maiden is a human sacrifice, and with her death ends Tokyo's never-ending rain. And Hina's sacrifice shifts the tone of the film to a more tragic one, upon that realization. Hina is a 15 year old girl, who prayed for one more sunny day, so that she could take a walk with her dying mother, and in return she was given this job. The girl who surged far and wide for a job to take care of her little brother, she found the perfect one, right? She prayed for the sun to take a walk with her dying mother, and she became the sun itself. How fickle. That Hina was forced to be a human sacrifice for the benefit of others, and not even for the benefit of her brother that she would leave behind. And because she is selfless, like the sun, she helped those who requested it, without a second thought. So in its final 35 minutes, weathering with you answers that question, Hodaka says it himself, Hina to him is more important than any blue sky, as he retrieves her from that other world, and implores her to pray, and this time for herself, he asks her to be selfish, he tells her that it is enough. Everything she has done, all the sacrifices she has made, are enough. What resonated with me is Hodaka's resolve, that one line, I want you more than any blue sky, is the movie's defining one, as it embodies his desperation and resolve. He had to evade the police twice, cross a flooding city, to even get the chance to bring her back, and when he gets to the shrine, he prays, almost pleading with God. And all his desperation and worry, all go away when his hands are intertwined with hers, and to be able to tell her that was such a relief. And after he does save her, the world returns to rain for the next three years, and over that time it seems that he doubts himself, as he returns to Tokyo visiting all of his old friends, but just seeing her face brings him so much joy and reassurance, that he made the right decision, Hodaka chose love and would do it a million times over. Is it a selfish decision or is it the rational one, but who am I to shame Hodaka, a kid who ran away from home and was able to find comfort, joy, and love, that was suddenly ripped away from him in exchange for a blue sky. So he went to retrieve a girl who was so kind and who never got to be kind to herself. So I can't shame Hodaka in the slightest. Hina and Hodaka are two kids that haven't been played a particularly kind hand at life. They haven't had it easy in a world where a 15 year old girl has to fake her age in order to work and take care of her little brother, as the film alludes to illegal practices like potential human trafficking. As the government tries to separate her and Nagi, Hina is never given a break. For a girl as kind and as giving as she is, even sacrificing her own existence for the world, I can't blame Hodaka at all. The world hasn't been fair to them and to him, so why would he return the favor? Sometimes being selfish is the right choice, especially if the world's natural state is the submerged rainy Tokyo. As the elderly lady says, the world is going to be crazy with or without her interference, so her life is worth more than that. The tears of Kay as well as Nagi and Hodaka's own dreams are proof that she was connected profoundly to these people. If someone is going to break the weathermaiden's curse, it was Hodaka and Hina's love. Because their love is stronger than the sun, stronger than any blue sky. The film with you was a beautiful movie about climate change and how it takes the collective to fight it and not the individual. It won't be saved by a weathermaiden. And of course a film about love and yearning, as Shinkai never fails to deliver a thought provoking and beautiful movie about it.