New anime film is a teenage love story set during a climate apocalypse
The Atlantic critic David Sims writes that Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You (2002) is chockfull of “whimsical world-building,” “a little comedy, plenty of giddy flirtation between the two leads, and raunchier dialogue than one would get in a Miyazaki film.” (Image Courtesy: The Atlantic).
Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You (2019) is part of the environmental allegory subset of science fiction that is making a comeback in the wake of the devastating climate change which is ravaging the planet as we speak, according to The Atlantic. Shinkai has directed six animated features since 2004, but his Your Name (2016) broke global box office records for anime, grossing more than any domestic release ever in Japan, second only to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001). Set in a modern Tokyo where it never stops raining, Weathering With You stars an impoverished young writer named Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo) and an orphan named Hina (Nana Mori), who has the power to pray away the clouds while the world ends slowly and imperceptibly around them.
I am an award-winning journalist, memoirist, and personal essayist in Denver, Colorado. I hold a Master of Arts in Professional Creative Writing with a concentration in Nonfiction from the University of Denver, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Communication from Colorado State University Fort Collins, with a concentration in Publications Writing, Editing, and Production, and an interdisciplinary minor in Film Studies. I am passionate about inspiring positive change and meaningful action through the power of the literary arts.
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Hunter Goddard 