Director Makoto Shinkai covers some well-known ground in Weathering With You. His films, a master at fusing romance with fantasy and sci-fi themes, have won a huge following due to their atmosphere (aided by their breathtaking cinematography) and their intensely emotional cores.
The movie centres on a runaway named Hodaka and a young woman named Hina who possesses the extraordinary power to control the weather. Together, the two make the most of this talent and develop a closer relationship. Hodaka is forced to pursue the girl he loves when Hina chooses to stop Tokyo’s perpetual rain, but at a price.
The most well-known anime film by Makoto Shinkai, who is best known for his 2016 film Your Name, is Weathering With You or Tenki No Ko. Weathering With You, like all of Makoto Shinkai’s films, features a more realistic world since his crew always makes more of an effort to animate landscapes from different parts of Japan. The real beauty of Weathering With You lies in the fact that, in addition to Hina and Hodaka, it also focuses on the planet in which they reside, where they are suffering as a result of humankind’s sins.
This turned into the cause of the relentless rain that covered the entire country of Japan. Here is a list of anime that one shouldn’t miss, even though Weathering With You is thought to be unique in its own right. It is obvious that fans totally love this mash-up of genres because it placed among the top 15 films of all time in Japan at the box office. Here are 5 anime films and series that are recommended for those eager to expand their watchlist beyond Weathering With You.
1. A Whisker Away
Miyo Sasaki struggles with her own issues because she comes from a chaotic background. She did, however, restore her composure following her interaction with Kento Hinode. She enjoys flirting with Kento, but she is consistently turned down. She is given a strange mask seller’s magical mask that allows her to transform into a cat on a predetermined day.
In an effort to engage Kento, Miyo communicates with him as Taro, a cat. Despite enjoying herself with Kento, Miyo struggles with the decision of telling him who she really is or staying a cat. As Hina can manipulate the weather and Miyo can transform herself into a cat, the primary protagonists of Weathering With You and A Whisker Away both have magical talents.
2. Your Name
The narrative of Your Name centres on Mitsuha Miyamizu and Taki Tachibana, two people who are acquainted yet have never met. Following a weird occurrence in which both of their bodies are switched, they set out on a quest to understand this oddity. Before being switched back into their own bodies, their sole means of communication are the notes they leave behind. One of Makoto Shinkai’s best anime to date, Your Name was a box office success in 2016 and continues to thrive now. In Weathering With You, Mistsuha and Taki both make a brief appearance.
Fans who have viewed Weathering With You are likely to have also seen Your Name. In the unlikely event that isnot the case, this movie is the one that elevated Shinkai’s output. He certainly produced important works like 5 Centimeters a Second, The Garden of Words, and a few more, but Your Name elevated this to a new level. The decision to combine the idea of body-swapping with romance may seem strange on paper, but it was the brilliant realisation of this principle that moved people’s hearts both inside and outside the anime community. You must view Your Name immediately.
3. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
Let Me Eat Your Pancreas by Yoru Sumino has been adapted numerous times, including I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. Although a live-action remake received excellent reviews when it was released in Japan in 2017, the anime retains all of the drama and impact of the original. Instead, it enhances them with extremely superb Studio VOLN animation. If anything, the animation enhances the story’s bittersweet human tragedy and emphasises the lesson that life is beautiful even though death is a fact of life.
Those who are unfamiliar with the title would assume it to be some strange horror film. The opposite is true and could not be more so. It invites viewers to have some Kleenex nearby because I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking. The protagonist of IWTEYP is a boy who discovers a classmate’s diary and learns she is battling pancreatic illness. A Japanese legend claims that eating a lover’s body part may heal the eater’s own body part, which is where the title’s strange origins originate from. Look no farther, fans looking for a good weep.
4. Bubble
After bubbles that defied the rules of gravity descended upon the world, the story is set in Tokyo. Tokyo has transformed into a playground for a group of young people who have lost their families because they are cut off from the outside world. As they jump from building to building, they engage in parkour team combat.
Hibiki, a teenage ace known for his risky playstyle, one day makes a careless move and falls into the sea of defying gravity. The mysteriously powerful girl Uta saves his life. The two then hear a special sound that is only audible to them. Uta’s appearance before Hibiki: Why? Their interaction results in a discovery that will alter the course of history.
5. Children Who Chase Lost Voices
Watase Asuna, who recently lost her father, is the main character in Children Who Chase Lost Voices. Asuna spends her alone time caring for the house and listening to the crystal radio that her father gave her while her mother works long hours. She unintentionally tunes into a unique and uncanny tune that she had never heard before one day at her hidden location in the mountain. Later, she is attacked by a scary beast, but a kid named Shun intervenes to save her.
After this point, Asuna’s life picks up in interest as she continues to live in a mysterious secret world. Children Who Chase Lost Voices, directed by Makoto Shinkai, contains exactly the same utopian aspects as Weathering With You and is a must-watch.