“Treasure the experience. Dreams fade away after you wake up.”

Mitsuha and Taki are total strangers living completely different lives. But when Mitsuha makes a wish to leave her mountain town for the bustling city of Tokyo, they become connected in a bizarre way. She dreams she is a boy living in Tokyo while Taki dreams he is a girl from a rural town he’s never visited.

What does their newfound connection mean? And how will it bring them together? Find out in this highly acclaimed film by auteur director Makoto Shinkai. 

In the rural mountain village of Itomori, a young girl named Mitsuha keeps having a strange dream where she wakes up as a teenage boy in Tokyo. Her friends and family have been noticing that she’s acting strangely, but she puts it all down to stress caused by her upcoming Miko ritual at the family shrine.

In Tokyo, a teenage boy named Taki keeps having a strange dream where he wakes up as a young girl in a mountain village. His friends and co-workers have been noticing that he’s acting strangely. Before long, Taki and Mitsuha realise that they have been swapping bodies.

Using a system of notes to fill each other in on what happened each day, Taki and Mitsuha gradually acclimatise to their new dual-lives, and start to learn more about each other. Mitsuha teaches Taki the etiquette of life as a girl in a traditional family, while Taki gives Mitsuha tips on how to wait tables at his work. But one mystery evades them – how and why is this happening to them?

And all the while, there are reports of a comet set to light up the sky…

Your Name is a story about love and connection, and the destinies that can tie people together despite their differences. It’s a sci-fi concept with a mind-bending second act twist, but it’s also a transcendent romance that is guaranteed to bring the tears when it reaches its perfect, heart-racing finale. And it’s one of the best anime films ever to be released outside of Studio Ghibli.

Director Makoto Shinkai had made several films before this, including Geeky Brummie favourite 5 Centimeters Per Second. But Your Name was the film that really brought his name to mainstream international audiences.

The lush, lavish animation and attention to detail, coupled with the clear admiration and respect for traditional Japanese culture, quickly saw Shinkai being dubbed ‘the new Miyazaki’. But, while that is the highest of praise and very well-earned, there are some areas where Shinkai arguably surpasses the master.

Japan has long been famous both for its tradition and for its modernity. It’s one of the few places in the world where, if you ask two people what springs to mind when they think of its culture, one might picture Totoro and the other might picture Gundam, and both would be equally valid. While Miyazaki’s films often rail against the encroachment of the modern world – see Princess Mononoke for instance – Shinkai gives them equal billing.

Your Name is a perfect example of this. In Mitsuha’s scenes, the careful recreation of her Miko ritual and the reverence with which her grandmother talks about traditional braiding techniques are clear indicators that Shinkai loves the bucolic world of Japan’s rural past. But Taki’s Tokyo-set scenes are imbued with just as much magic and wonder, as sunlight glints off the windows of towering buildings while thousands of people play out their own rituals of daily life below. The difference between the two worlds is embraced and celebrated, both by the artistic direction and by the plot itself. It’s hard to imagine a hero in a Ghibli film checking their smartphone, but in Your Name it’s an integral part of the story.

There has been talk of a live-action Hollywood remake of Your Name for years now, with JJ Abrams set to produce. Legendary Japanese distributors Toho are on board with it, as is Shinkai himself, and at their request the action is set to move to America featuring a swap between a Native American girl and a boy in Chicago.

While it’s always interesting to see a different take on a great story, the chances are it’s not going to be the same without the sumptuous animation and distinctly Japanese flavours of the original. So catch it on the big screen while you can and lose yourself in this masterpiece. It’s almost like seeing something out of a dream – nothing more or less than a breathtaking view.