"Your Name," also known as "Kimi no Na wa" has now become the highest-grossing non-Miyazaki animated feature in the history of Japan with total earnings of $111 million. The movie has made 43-years-old director, Makoto Shinkai, a nationwide hit, and said to be the successor of Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is the creator of worldwide hits like "My Neighbor Totoro," "Spirited Away," and "Howl's Moving Castle." In 2013, Miyazaki has announced he will no longer make movies at his Studio Ghibli.
In addition, the film is also the number one movie in Japan for five continuous weeks now. It is not only the highest-selling Japanese film this year but also the top-grossing film in Japan since "Frozen" in 2014. In the history of Japan, it currently ranks 7th as the highest grossing film and ranks 19th in all the top-selling films released in Japan.
Makoto Shinkai, who previously work on other films like "The Garden of Words" and "5 Centimeters Per Second," wrote the screenplay of "Your Name". The film focuses on the story of two teenagers, who despite never meeting in person, seemed to be dreaming of each other. The story is inspired by a Japanese fairy tale "Torikaebaya Monogatari".
The film's key animation supervisor is Masashi Ando who also worked in Miyazaki's "Spirited Away". The movie is produced by Comix Wave and distributed in Japan by Toho. Funimation has all the rights to distribute the film in North America and has already announced plans to release the movie in the big screen and on home video.
In a recent interview with Shinkai, the director was asked his take on him being compared to Miyazaki and he said "I want to make two more films with Toho before I turn 50. I can never stand unrivaled like Miyazaki, but if I have been given the privilege of making films for the slot, I am confident of delivering something others can't make."
