Weathering With You

       

Sometimes anime is made for the heart and not the mind, 'Weathering With You' is one such movie. Makoto Shinkai does it again! (that bloody genius) Even though 'Weathering With You' didn't do as commercially well as his previous movie 'Your Name', he still knocked it out of the park with 193 million dollars worldwide in box office collections. This movie will take you places and make you feel like you've had an actual experience. Forget the critics, forget trailers, forget reading reviews (except this one), just chance upon this movie and let the magic happen. 

I have an instinct when it comes to detecting good anime, if even one scene manages to make me feel enough to have the hair on my hand stand up, the anime has 'it'. While watching 'Weathering With You' (even after the first three times) I get full fledged goosebumps every 15 minutes just because of it's sheer beauty. The movie takes place in the same universe as 'Your Name' and explores an unnatural phenomenon. High schooler Hodaka runs away from home to try and make it on his own in Tokyo, and through a series of fateful events meets Hina, a girl who can change the weather when she wants to. The Tokyo depicted in this movie is one that seldom see's any sunshine because of its constant rain. Seeing this as an opportunity, they try to clear the weather for people who want to see the sun and charge them a small fee. It's all fun and games with cheery friendships across well developed characters, amazingly portrayed, until they realize that there's more to this ability and that the world holds many mysterious secrets linked to this phenomenon. Expect love, laughs, friendship, anticipation, fear and mystery all leading to excitement and one unforgettable experience- Weathering With You is an absolute must watch! Also expect brilliant music because The Radwimps whipped up a new album for this movie and it really lives up. 

I think I've made it clear that I'm in love with Makoto Shinkai's works and hence am not the right person to point out its flaws, but the main criticism 'Weathering With You' receives is that it draws too many similarities to the style of 'Your Name'. Now while I personally don't have any issues with that, many people ho came in expecting something completely new were a little let down, and I can understand why. Either ways you should watch it and decide where you stand for yourself. 
        My personal ratings are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 3/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 5/5 
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall recommendation: One Sunny Day

This movie holds a special place for me because it was the first anime movie to release in actual theaters in my home city (Mumbai). Its distribution rights were given to PVR pictures and it won't be found on OTT platforms for a while, you may have to rent it online or stream otherwise but still try to pay for your view if possible because I'd like to see more anime movies releasing here.