Weathering With You

 Weathering With You (天気の子) is a theatrical supernatural drama by Shinkai Mokoto.  The film originally played in theaters in Japan in 2019 and North America in 2020.

    The films begins with runaway high school student Morishima Hodaka attempting to start a new lie for himself in Tokyo.  During the boat ride to Tokyo he is saved by a suspicious man named Suga Keisuke during a freak storm.  After struggling to survive on his own, with no ID or place to work he shows up at Suga's business.  Suga runs a small time magazine specializing in super natural phenomenon.  At this time Tokyo is experiencing continuous rain and the magazine decides to investigate any supernatural reasons behind the wet weather.  The investigation leads them to a legend of a 'sunshine girl' who has the ability to stop the rain.

    Hodaka ends up rescuing a girl from two men wanting to recruit her to work at their hostess bar  The girl, Amano Hina, worked at a McDonalds that Hodaka frequented before working for Suga.  In their escape from the men, they end up at a secret shrine on the roof of an abandoned building.  Hina confesses to Hodaka that she can pray to make the rain stop.  Seizing on the research he was a pat of he convinces her that she is the Sunshine Girl.  They start up an online business selling her powers to momentarily stop the rain to anyone willing to pay.  But what will it take to actually break the cursed weather system plaguing Tokyo?

    The story is a slight departure from his previous works and actually felt more like a Hosoda Mamoru movie than a Shinkai one in some aspects.  The central idea revolves around the main characters who are running away from themselves and treat of reality snapping them back into place.  Yet they don't fear the eventual repercussions for their actions and act outside of the rules of society.  They are all outcasts in their own right and are joined together through fate alone, a fate that is driving them to change things for better or worse around them.  Yet they are solely focused on the now and nor the future ahead of them.  The characters are all fleshed out enough to make them compelling and the story interesting enough outside of its relentless forward movement.

    I have been a fanboy for Shinkai since Voices of a Distant Star, so it's really no surprise that I really enjoyed this film.  Though this one felt a bit different than most of his previous works, which tend to have a heavy air of melancholy.  Weathering With You was actually upbeat and humorous at times though still laced with his typical sense of impending doom.  The artwork is his typical immaculate and realistic style.  But by this point in his catalog is actually not as impressive...it's strange.  Overall, the movie was enjoyable and recommended for fans of Shinkai or anime in general.  Unlike Your Name, I don't feel compelled to expose non-anime viewers to this one as much.

    The film was released in America by GKids and is available streaming and on disc.