Movie – Tenki no Ko

Movies Mar 30, 2021

Overview:

Hodaka is running away from his home at the beginning of the film on his way to Tokyo aboard a ship. For reasons unknown for majority of the movie he is running away and seeking to not go back home. Leading the viewer to have a rough idea of why he might be doing it. In Tokyo he has only a bit of money, as he is only 16 and given circumstances, it makes perfect sense. Along the first few minutes we are shown the main cast of characters that are followed along with.

Rain has been constant for months at the time of Hodaka’s arrival. Hina meets him during her part time job at the one and only MgRonal-… Mc D’s, the real Big D this time. She offers him a hambaga without the need of vocalizing the dark lords arrival. Their first interaction was quite wholesome to say the least.

Shortly after they meet again linking back to the beginning of the movies events that happened to them both. Proceeding after where they finally both are able to come up and find a solution to their financial problems of not being able to be able to obtain a job from being underage and not having a ID that would say otherwise.

Film progresses pretty fast afterwards up until the ending sequence where the feeling one has in the back of mind from when the opening scene was showed with Hina is cleared and starts making a lot more sense. It is a finding love in unintentional places kind of movie but does not take the usual American Hallmark approach. These are the Japs we are talking about after all, they know how to carefully craft a solid story… usually lol.

Visuals/Music:

Same studio that showcased Kimi No Nawa to the world so anything but the best would have done their rep a dishonor. Just like Kimi No Nawa, its up there with some of the best animation around and will probably stand up very well far into the future similar to Ghibli films. Only thing that was noteworthy to mention would be the tears when he is on the bed near the three quarter mark. They have that traditional Anime over exaggeration that I think would have been better done in a updated format to better meld with the rest of the animation styling they had going on. Small complaint and if a person really wanted, they could probably find some significance in it /shrug.

Music throughout is not the usual OST only and just like Kimi No Nawa, RADWIMPS is back and at it again with their songs that match and suit these kinds of films perfect. The flow and emotion they are able to craft into their songs is something that these types of films only benefit from. RADWIMPS colab’d with Toko Miura for some vocals on certain tracks and her voice ads a contrast that melds just the same with the film as having RADWIMPS involved. Regular background OSTs that are not standalone traditional songs, they are nothing too special. They are more there to fill in the gaps and help keep immersion of course so not much to say about them, the standout point is RADWIMPS.

Final Thoughts:

Highly recommend this film to those who enjoyed Kimi No Nawa and for those who have not seen that one yet. Starting at this one to see if you’d enjoy the past one is suitable as they are not linked in a continuation story type of way.

Understandably people are heavily comparing Tenki No Ko With Kimi No Nawa which is something that I firmly believe shouldn’t happen. They do share the same verse with a confirmed statement from a Makoto Shinkai interview stating that Kimi No Nawa ending is after Tenki No Ko’s cameos. It is a bit strange to have it but comparing the events and rewatching both together can see a rough estimate of how it does. Depending how they do a third film in the verse will either further solidify an answer or confirm multiple timeline verses. Your Name is heavily about time so its not out of the question. With these two films there is a pretty good base of expanding on the verse and intricately linking them together. Seeing how it goes from here will be fun… if and hopefully when they do.