!! includes spoilers for the movie !!
During a break, we (Summer and Ghetti) binge-watched two anime movies together. One of them was A Silent Voice (which we will do a review on later). The other one was Weathering with You. Now, if you ask most people about their opinion on Weathering with You, they’ll tell you it was good. Phenomenal, even. Another movie with a wonderful plot and gorgeous animation directed by Makoto Shinkai, just like Your Name. Well, if you ask either of us, we’ll tell you that we didn’t like it. Like, really didn’t like it. Our problems aren’t with the animation. In fact, we gushed over the beauty of the background and animation many times during the course of the movie. Instead, our problems are with the plot and characters.
[Summer] First off, I’ll explain why we dislike the characters. There are many characters introduced throughout the movie that are supposed to be important, like Mr. Suga, his niece Natsumi, and Hina’s little brother Nagi. Thing is, a ton of them don’t have ANY significant role until the climax, when they help Hodaka, the main character, get away from the police. That’s literally it, that’s all they do. Sure, they’re present for most of the movie but they’re basically just… there. There are also other characters, such as the cat that Hodaka picks up off the street, that seem like they should have some symbolic significance or something buuuuuut… nope they’re literally just there to take up screen time. In addition, not even Hina and Hodaka, the main characters, go through any character development at all. Makes you wonder, what was the point of the movie then?
Also, Hodaka, quite frankly, makes awful choices. Choosing to save a girl, ignoring the fact that a ton of people are going to lose their homes and that there will be millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of damage done to the city? The attempted justification for it sucks too, really. “Returning the world to its original state?” It doesn’t make any sense at all, in my opinion. Honestly, I probably would be ok with this choice if the romantic relationship between him and Hina actually seemed well developed and not out-of-the-blue. Instead, the movie fast forwards through the main section during which their relationship could have developed, which was the part where they worked together for the Sunshine Girl job. As a result, the relationship between Hodaka and Hina seems forced, and as such Hodaka’s choice to screw over Tokyo in favor of saving Hina really makes no sense.
[Ghetti] As Summer has wonderfully described, Weathering with You has a really shitty plotline (beautiful art though). Every single event is so coincidental - even though Japan has outlawed guns, our dear main character mysteriously finds a perfectly working pistol (with no blood or faulty pieces) in the middle of a trash pile, and he does so not once but twice every time he needs to be saved. If he found it thrice I would have to start questioning the effectiveness of Japan’s gun policies. This mysterious case of a gun-saving-Hodaka’s-life isn’t the only plot hole that the movie has - we’re also supposed to automatically accept the fact that there is grass on clouds and fish that fall from the sky because of a lack of science in Tokyo AND Hina suddenly becoming a sacrifice when she never experienced any side effects for months without any explanation. The director of Weathering with You basically throws out a hodgepodge of mixed plotlines, story holes, and elements while expecting the audience to make the connections themselves.
Sorry to break it to you, Mr. Director, but most of us don’t have the time or the effort to do so. Plot armor and plot holes? Check.
Also, what I hate the most about this movie is the lack of explanation as to why Hina has powers. Excerpt from Summer’s salty thought <3: “NO EXPLANATION FOR ANYTHING… WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE FISH IN THE SKY????... WE GET NOTHING” (Summer 2022). Spoilers: Hodaka runs away from home for no reason (we’re still left wondering why even after a whole 2 hours), the gun that saves him is practically magical plot armor, the shrine on top of a Tokyo building is just thrown out there, Japanese mythology (I assume) is not explained at all, Hina’s powers work for no reason, anyone could’ve been any of the main characters, and, most importantly, why do clouds even need human sacrifices and how do fish droplets relate?
Hodaka is also a really, really, really shitty character. I don’t sympathize with his story at all because he simply has none. He’s just a boy with plot armor who suddenly fell in love. I don’t care about him at all - in fact, I didn’t cry once throughout this movie, and I cried when I watched Frozen (that should mean something, kids!) (An extra note: Summer also cried when watching Frozen) To me, Hodaka is just an annoying brat who, as Summer has so wonderfully noted, makes really messed up decisions. His whole life story is so horribly written and so unrealistic - he runs away for no reason, decides to trust random strangers, and believes his 16 year old self is in love with a 15 year old girl (which, might I say, is technically illegal - they’re both underage).
In conclusion, Weathering with You could have been so much better than it is right now. It had beautiful art, a wonderful soundtrack, and a sort-of-interesting premise? And yet, people still praise it just because of its famous director - he’s being touted for no reason at all except the fact that he previously made the film Your Name. We need to stop praising Director Shinkai (I love you bro) for all the wrong reasons.
P.S. If you read this far, you’re a legend ;) I (Ghetti) hope you never praise Weathering with You like those dumbasses on Google Review and I’m sure Summer thinks the same <3 (Summer here, I 100% agree with Ghetti)
omg so amazing ghetti is genuinely an amazing, amazing person i think they're the best person in the world
bc i'm nice i think summer is cool too