Weathering With You is an animated film directed by Makoto Shinkai, so there is a certain expectation going into the film. Set in modern day Tokyo, it follows Hodaka, a boy who had run away from home and went to Tokyo. Constrained by that (since he is a minor), he manages to find a place to stay and work, but not before being homeless for a while. He meets Hina, a young girl whom he later discovers has limited control of the weather. Dubbed the Weather Maiden, Hina is able to pray for sunshine at in the vicinity that she is in. This is particularly useful since Tokyo has been drenched with constant rain that is contrary to the season. Naturally, Hodaka and Hina spend some good days together having fun before reality catches up to them. All this takes place during the bulk of the film and it can be slow paced where it is hard to tell where the plot is heading towards. Unfortunately, being a follow up to the wildly successful Your Name means that parts of Weathering With You will not compare favorably. The story is weaker, particularly around its main gimmick of the weather. It has great animation, some crazy beautiful scenes and an excellent soundtrack but it lacks the same tender touch of Your Name. The highs of Weathering With You comes at the end when Hodaka gets a hold of his own emotions. The ending tries to serve a message but it kind of forces the current scenario to be like that in order to deliver it, which makes it harder to accept. Overall, Weathering With You is an enjoyable movie and better than many others, it's just a hard task to follow up with the director's previous works.
