Weathering With You, the latest work by Makoto Shinkai, tells of Morishima Hodaka, a high school student who is fed up with life on an island and decides to flee from his home to Tokyo by ferry. Previously, Hodaka had an obsession to chase a light that he saw on the island, but could not reach it because it was blocked by a cliff.

Returning to the ferry, Hodaka found the light he was looking for, but it turned out that the light almost killed him, fortunately he was saved by Keisuke Suga, a magazine CEO who discussed the mystical events in Tokyo. The first week of Hodaka in Tokyo was quite heavy, besides the rain in the summer which continued to fall, he also had to stay and bathe in an internet cafe.

His desire to have a job in Tokyo is difficult to happen, given the child Hodaka who ran away from home and underage. One night, Hodaka met a girl who worked at a fast food restaurant and gave him a burger, Hodaka felt that night was his lucky night.

There was no other choice, Hodaka chose to meet Keisuke Suga and ask for a job, Suga made him an assistant and provided food and shelter, but Hodaka's pay was far below average. Pay below the average makes Hodaka look for a new job, he met again with a fast food restaurant employee girl, her name is Amano Hina.

They talked, and it turned out that Hina no longer worked at the restaurant. Hina also told me that she could change Tokyo's heavy rain weather into sunlit Tokyo. At first Hodaka did not believe it, but Hina needed it by praying over an old building that had a temple above it. Tokyo's weather immediately turned sunny.

After that they both work as rain handlers for those who need beautiful weather. Unfortunately, all that is not always beautiful, there will be things to be exchanged for happiness.

Conclusion

The nuances shown in this film are somewhat different from most Makoto Shinkai films. Shinkai indeed in recent years began to incorporate magical elements openly in his work. With a more mature storyline, Weathering With You presents a more fresh and optimistic story. With brighter colors, and combined with CGI shades.

Previously, Shinkai preferred to make the audience guess the ending of his films himself. This time Shinkai made the ending of this story unnecessary for the audience to guess. In addition, the camera angle taken in this film is arguably spoil the eye. Weathering With You becomes a film that makes the audience's emotions go up and down.

In author opinion, Makoto Shinkai never sells stories in his films, as for some films with good storyline and visuals like "Garden of Words" but for some other films, Shinkai sells more animated visuals that are eye-catching. So it is rather unfair to only judge in terms of storyline.

Unfortunately, in this film, many frames are repeated, which according to the author himself, is not necessary. Whereas in the main story that according to the writer is important, the frame is not repeated. It is unfortunate that something like this was passed by Makoto Shinkai. The soundtrack from Weathering With You also does not give a deep impression compared to the soundtrack of the previous film, Your Name. It seems like Makoto Shinkai is starting to choose a more general target audience, - especially viewers who are not connoisseurs of anime.

For the score itself, the author gives a score of 7/10 where this film can still be enjoyed with your friends and family who are not even too happy to watch anime. The film will be screened in Indonesian theaters on August 21, 2019.

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