Last year saw the biggest explosion in anime movies for more than a decade and Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name was a big part of that. This re-release doesn’t simply bring it back to UK cinemas, it also transports the film onto king-sized IMAX screens. If you already caught it the first time around, we suspect you can picture which bits will look the most titanic (pro tip: keep watching the skies!).

Your Name starts with poetic introspection. The first words are spoken by male and female voices duetting like lovers, yet speaking of solitude and loneliness. Then Your Name becomes a Vice Versa-style story of a city boy and country girl magically swapping bodies and lives in Japan.

There’s some, ahem, bodily teen comedy (really, Shinkai!) but also oodles of charm and disconcerting tinges of sadness, even under lighter scenes. The mood’s greatly enhanced by some minor-key incidentals by the pop-star musicians Radwimps, even if you hate their big songs in the film.

And then… we’re keen not to give you any spoilers, even though this is a re-release, so we’ll just say that the film’s story goes so much further than bodyswap comedy. The last scenes comprise the most exciting, and heartrending, climax in a cartoon film since the end of Iron Giant (which Your Name slightly recalls).

Is the blockbuster always best? There’s a case to be made that Shinkai’s Garden of Words is better than Your Name, as Miyazaki’s Totoro was arguably better than his blockbusting Spirited Away. But Your Name is still an enthralling journey, an emotional epic and a fine film. Reviewed by Tom Arden

Your name is the first anime in the UK to screen in IMAX cinemas, and is also showing on non-IMAX 2D screens. A full list of venues and dates can be found here.

INFO
Release: 23 August 2017
From: Anime Limited
Format: IMAX & 2D Theatrical
Age Rating: 12A

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