"Your Name" (Japanese: 君の名は。, Hepburn: Kimi no Na wa; meaning "Your Name is…") is a 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It was produced by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho. This film is the first in a series of movies by Shinkai called the "disaster trilogy," followed by Weathering with You (2019) and Suzume (2022). Each film in the trilogy explores themes related to natural disasters in Japan. The story follows two high school students, Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu, who begin to swap bodies without ever meeting, causing problems in each other's lives.

The film features the voices of Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi as Taki and Mitsuha, respectively. Masashi Ando directed the animation, and Masayoshi Tanaka designed the characters. The music was composed by the rock band Radwimps. A book with the same title, also written by Shinkai, was released one month before the movie.

"Your Name" had its first showing at the 2016 Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016, and was released in Japan on August 26, 2016. It was shown in theaters internationally in 2017. The film received praise for its story, animation, music, visuals, and emotional impact. Until 2020, when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed it, Your Name was the highest-grossing Japanese film ever, earning $400 million worldwide. It set many box office records and surpassed the success of Spirited Away. The film won awards, including Best Animated Feature at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the 49th Sitges Film Festival, and the 71st Mainichi Film Awards. It was also nominated for the Japan Academy Film Prize for Animation of the Year.

A live-action version of the film is being developed by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot.

Plot

Mitsuha Miyamizu is a high school student living in a small town in Gifu. She feels bored with her quiet life and wishes to be reborn as a boy in Tokyo. Soon, she begins to switch bodies with Taki Tachibana, a high school student and part-time waiter from Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. On certain days, they wake up in each other's bodies and must live the entire day as the other, returning to their own bodies during sleep. They create rules for sharing their bodies, using paper, phones, and writing on their skin to communicate. In each other's bodies, Mitsuha arranges a date between Taki and his coworker, Miki Okudera, while Taki helps increase Mitsuha's popularity at school and accompanies her grandmother, Hitoha, and younger sister, Yotsuha, to a shrine inside a crater. He gives them kuchikamizake, a drink made with Mitsuha's saliva. Hitoha explains that God controls time and the connections between people. Mitsuha tells Taki that Comet 279P/Tiamat will pass closest to Earth on the day of the autumn festival. The next day, Taki goes on a date with Okudera in his own body; she enjoys it but notices his strange behavior, which makes her think he is thinking about someone else. Taki realizes his feelings for Mitsuha but fails to call her. The body-switching stops suddenly.

Taki, Okudera, and his classmate, Tsukasa Fujii, travel to Hida to find Mitsuha. Taki draws a map of her town from memory because he does not know its name. A ramen-shop owner in Takayama recognizes Itomori and agrees to take them there. They find the town's ruins, nearly destroyed by pieces of Tiamat (at the same time, Mitsuha's messages disappear from Taki's phone). Though it is 2016, Taki learns the comet passed in 2013 and realizes he was traveling back in time during the body switches. At Hida City Library, Taki and his friends discover that the Miyamizu family and their friends were among 500 people who died in the disaster. Taki begins to forget Mitsuha. Later, Taki goes to Goshintai to drink Mitsuha's kuchikamizake. After drinking it, he faints and has a vision showing parts of Mitsuha's life, including how she once traveled to Tokyo to find him. He learns she gave him her kumihimo braid, which he has worn as a bracelet. He wakes up in Mitsuha's body on the morning of the festival. Hitoha realizes "Mitsuha" is acting unusually and tells Taki that body-switching has been part of their family for centuries. Taki asks Mitsuha's friends, Sayaka and Tessie, to help evacuate Itomori before Tiamat hits by destroying the town's power station and taking control of its emergency broadcast system. He returns to the shrine, where Mitsuha has awakened in her own body. At twilight, their timelines overlap, allowing them to meet in person. Taki returns Mitsuha's braid, and they try to write their names on each other's palms, but twilight ends before Mitsuha can finish.

Back in Itomori, Mitsuha finds the mayor, her estranged father, Toshiki, has told people to stay in the town. She convinces him to order an evacuation instead. As she begins to forget Taki, she notices he wrote "I love you" on her hand instead of his name. Taki wakes up in his own time with no memory of Mitsuha.

Five years later, Taki has finished university but struggles to find a job, often thinking about the Itomori meteor strike, where residents were saved by a last-minute evacuation. On April 8, 2022, he sees Mitsuha, now living in Tokyo, on a train. They race to find each other and meet at the steps of Suga Shrine. Taki calls out to Mitsuha, and they both ask for each other's names at the same time.

Production

Makoto Shinkai created the film's story after visiting the fishing village of Yuriage in Natori in July 2011. This visit happened after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Thinking about the damage he saw, Shinkai said, "This could have been my town." He then imagined a film where the people of Yuriage would be placed in the positions of the viewers. During his visit, Shinkai made many sketches, some of which have been shown in exhibitions.

Shinkai shared his first film idea with Toho on September 14, 2014. The original title was Yume to Shiriseba (If I Knew It Were a Dream), taken from a line in a poem by Ono no Komachi. Later, the title changed to Kimi no Musubime (Your Connection) and Kimi wa Kono Sekai no Hanbun (You Are Half of This World) before becoming Kimi no Na wa (Your Name is…). On December 31, 2014, Shinkai announced he was writing the film's storyboard.

The film's story was inspired by many books and stories, including Inside Mari by Shūzō Oshimi, Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi, the Heian period tale Torikaebaya Monogatari, and the short story The Safe-Deposit Box by Greg Egan. Shinkai also said the movie Interstellar (2014) by Christopher Nolan influenced him. He and his team also looked back at their earlier work, such as the television ad Crossroads for Z-kai (2014) and the film 5 Centimeters per Second (2007).

Although the town of Itomori, a main setting in the film, is not real, the movie was inspired by real places that helped shape the town's appearance. These places include the city of Hida and its library.

Music

The music for the movie Your Name was created by Yojiro Noda, the lead singer of the Japanese rock band Radwimps. The film’s director, Shinkai, asked Noda to write background music that would support the characters’ dialogue and monologues. The soundtrack was praised by both critics and moviegoers and helped make the film very popular. At the 2016 Newtype Anime Awards, the soundtrack came in second place for "Best Soundtrack." The song "Zenzenzense" was also a runner-up for "Best Theme Song."

In addition to instrumental tracks, Your Name includes four songs performed by Radwimps. These songs were recorded in both Japanese and English:

• "Yume Tōrō" (夢灯籠, Yume tōrō; meaning "Dream lantern")
• "Zenzenzense" (前前前世, Zenzenzense; meaning "Past-Past-Past Life")
• "Sparkle" (スパークル, Supākuru)
• "Nandemonaiya" (なんでもないや, Nande mo nai ya; meaning "It's Nothin'")

Release

"Your Name" had its first showing at the 2016 Anime Expo convention in Los Angeles on July 3, 2016. It was later released in movie theaters in Japan on August 26, 2016. The film was shown in 92 countries. To be eligible for the Academy Awards, it was shown in Los Angeles from December 2 to December 8, 2016.

The film was also shown in Southeast Asian countries. Purple Plan shared an English- and Chinese-subtitled trailer, and the film had its first showing in Singapore on November 3 and in Malaysia on November 8, with daily screenings after that. In India, PVR Cinemas released "Your Name" as the opening film of the "Makoto Shinkai Film Festival" on May 19, 2023. M Pictures showed the film in Thailand on November 10, 2016, and it earned 22,996,714 Thai baht (about US$649,056) in four days. In Indonesia, Encore Films and CGV Blitz announced they would screen the film, with Encore hosting the first showing on December 7. Pioneer Films showed the film in the Philippines on December 14, 2016, where it became the highest-grossing animated movie of 2016 in that country. In Hong Kong, the film opened on November 11, 2016, and earned 6,149,917 Hong Kong dollars (about US$792,806) in three days. The film had its first showing in Taiwan on October 21, 2016, and earned 64 million New Taiwan dollars (about US$2 million) in its first week. By October 31, 2016, it earned 52,909,581 New Taiwan dollars (about US$1.666 million) in Taipei alone. It was released in Chinese theaters by Huaxia Film Distribution on December 2, 2016.

The film had a limited release in Australian cinemas on November 24, 2016, by Madman Entertainment in both Japanese and English. Madman also released the film in New Zealand on December 1, 2016. The film was shown in France on December 28, 2016. Anime Limited distributed the film in the United Kingdom, where it was released on November 18, 2016. Funimation released the film in North American theaters on April 7, 2017. In Germany, the film was shown in over 150 cinemas in January 2018, and all tickets sold out on the first day. It ranked among the top ten movies of that weekend. Because of high demand, more screening days were added.

"Your Name" was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD in Japan on July 26, 2017, by Toho Pictures. The release included Regular, Special, and Collector's editions. Funimation announced at Anime Expo 2017 that the film would be released on Blu-ray and DVD by the end of 2017 but did not give a specific date. At Otakon 2017, Funimation said it would release the film in Standard and Limited Edition Blu-ray and DVD Combo Packs on November 7. In the first week after release, the Blu-ray standard edition sold 202,370 units, the collector's edition sold 125,982 units, and the special edition sold 94,079 units. The DVD standard edition sold 215,963 units and placed first. "Your Name" was the first anime to have three Blu-ray releases in the top 10 of Oricon's Blu-ray sales chart for two consecutive weeks. In 2017, the film earned 6,532,421,094 Japanese yen (about US$58,238,797) in Japan from physical home video, soundtrack, and book sales.

Overseas, the film earned more than US$10.5 million from DVD and Blu-ray sales in the United States as of April 2022. In the United Kingdom, the film was the second best-selling foreign language film on home video in 2017 (after "Operation Chromite") and again the second best-selling foreign language film in 2018 (after "My Neighbor Totoro").

"Your Name" was first shown on Japanese television on November 4, 2017, by the satellite broadcaster Wowow. The channel also aired a special program about Makoto Shinkai and his previous works. The film had its first showing on Japanese terrestrial television on January 3, 2018, by TV Asahi, and received a 17.4% audience rating.

On February 18, 2018, "Your Name" was first shown on Philippine television by ABS-CBN and its HD service. However, the version shown was shortened to 75 minutes to include commercial breaks. According to Kantar Media Philippines, the first free-to-air broadcast had a 9.2% audience rating, while AGB Nielsen NUTAM reported a 3.1% rating. On April 9, 2020, the film was aired again during Holy Week with minor cuts and a longer runtime of 102 minutes (excluding commercials). This broadcast became a trending topic on social media. Makoto Shinkai thanked viewers for watching the later broadcast through a post on his Twitter account.

Reception

"Your Name" became a very successful movie around the world. Before the release of "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train," it was the most successful Japanese film ever, earning $400 million globally.

In Japan, the film earned ¥25.17 billion, which was 10% of the country's total movie ticket sales for that year. It became the second-highest-grossing film in Japan, after "Spirited Away," and the fourth-highest overall, after "Titanic" and "Frozen." It was the first anime film not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than $100 million in Japan. The film was the top movie in Japan for 12 separate weekends, including 9 consecutive weekends. It was later replaced by "Death Note: Light Up the New World" and then by "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

Outside Japan, the film was the most successful Japanese movie in China, earning $81.3 million there. It was shown in over 7,000 theaters and made $10.9 million on its first day, with over 2.77 million people watching it. It held the record for the highest-grossing non-Hollywood foreign film in China until two Indian films, "Dangal" and "Secret Superstar," surpassed it. In 2024, the film was re-released in China, making $5.3 million on its first day.

In South Korea, the film reached number one on its opening five days, with 1.18 million people watching it and earning $8.2 million. It eventually had 3.81 million viewers and made $23.6 million, becoming the most successful anime film in the country until 2023, when "The First Slam Dunk" and "Suzume" (also directed by Makoto Shinkai) surpassed it.

In Thailand, the film earned ฿44.1 million ($1.23 million). By December 2016, it had made $771,945 in Australia and $95,278 in New Zealand. In Australia, it earned over A$1 million before its limited release ended.

In the United States and Canada, the film made $5,017,246. In the United Kingdom, it earned £500,000 ($675,000) in 2016, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing non-English and non-Hindi film that year.

Critics praised the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 119 reviews were positive, with an average score of 8.2/10. Metacritic gave it a score of 81 out of 100, meaning "universal acclaim." Japanese critic Mark Schilling said the film had "gorgeous, realistic detail" and "emotionally grounded fantasy." Other critics, including Mark Kermode, Manohla Dargis, and David Sims, also gave it high praise.

The film's director, Makoto Shinkai, said it was not perfect, explaining that financial limits prevented some changes. Characters from the film, especially the main characters, appeared in Shinkai's later movie, "Weathering with You."

The film influenced other works, including the manga "Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister!" and helped increase the popularity of non-Ghibli anime in Japan. It has been referenced in shows like "Little Witch Academia" and "Gabriel DropOut," as well as in games, advertisements, and other media.

In 2025, "Your Name" was one of the films chosen for The New York Times' "Readers' Choice" list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing in 168th place.

Adaptations

The film was based on a light novel written by Makoto Shinkai. The novel was published in Japan by Kadokawa on June 18, 2016, one month before the film’s first showing. It contains 262 pages.

By September 2016, the novel had sold about 1,029,000 copies. An official visual guide was also released. The novel has sold over 1.3 million copies, and combined with the visual guide, the two items have sold more than 2.5 million copies.

A follow-up to the light novel was released on August 1, 2016, titled Your Name: Another Side: Earthbound. This story takes place during the events of Your Name but is told from the perspective of Mitsuha’s friends and family. The novel was written by Shinkai and Arata Kanoh, with illustrations by Masayoshi Tanaka and Hiyori Asakawa.

Both light novels were also adapted into manga by Shinkai. They were published in English by Yen Press. An audiobook version was released by Yen Audio in July 2024.

On September 27, 2017, J. J. Abrams and Eric Heisserer announced plans to create a live-action remake of Your Name. The film would be produced by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot in partnership with Toho, the company that made the original movie. Toho would handle the film’s distribution in Japan. Abrams and Heisserer would serve as producer and screenwriter, respectively. Heisserer mentioned that the Japanese rights holders wanted the remake to be viewed from a Western perspective, with a setting that changes the original story: a Native American girl living in a rural area and a young man from Chicago who discover they are magically switching bodies.

Marc Webb was chosen to direct the remake in February 2019. By September 2020, Deadline Hollywood reported that Lee Isaac Chung had taken over as both writer and director, working from a draft written by Emily V. Gordon. Abrams and Genki Kawamura were co-producers. However, Chung left the project in July 2021 due to scheduling conflicts.

On October 31, 2022, Carlos López Estrada was announced as the new writer and director, replacing Webb and Chung.

According to Kawamura, the film was still in production as of October 2023. Progress had been greatly slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.