Makoto Shinkai, director of the hit anime movie Your Name, has created a new anime movie centered around a runaway high school boy named Hodaka and a girl named Hina who can seemingly control the weather. One of the most beautifully animated and visually stunning movies ever, Weathering With You is an amazing film about love along with climate change and weather’s affect on emotions.

Weathering With You is a film about weather. It’s constantly raining in this movie’s Tokyo, and every raindrop is animated so well, making each one feel real. Clouds are given so much fluff and volume(there’s something special about clouds in this movie). The weather is portrayed as aggressive, being an obstacle and dangerous to our protagonists. When Hina starts a business of making it sunny for money, the clouds clear, the rain stops, and the sun comes out. These parts are the most gorgeous and magnificent shots in this movie, and frankly, some of the best animation out there. This is really why animation exists. The same affect of wonder and awe the animation of the sun coming out this movie evokes could not be done with CGI. What’s even more interesting is how the weather affects the characters. The first half hour of the movie is gloomy, with Hodaka exploring Tokyo, realizing it’s a scary place. It’s raining the whole time. Then he meets Hina, who clears the rain and the mood of the whole movie changes. Every time Hina changes the weather for someone, a mix of inspiring music and beautiful animation causes the audience to reflect the characters’ emotions of utter joy. Speaking of music, the Japanese rock band Radwimps made emotional and uplifting songs that really made every key point of this movie so much better.

Hodaka and Hina’s relationship gets some great development throughout the movie, but I did find myself at one point feeling like it happened kind of fast. This is a less-than-two hours-movie that took a huge chunk setting up Hodaka’s situation(which took a bit too long in my opinion), so things had to happen quickly. It still felt like a sweet, sincere and real romance, though, that the audience definitely roots for. Luckily Shinkai seems to have a natural talent for telling a wholesome teen-romance story. Besides the main character dynamic, there’s also a few memorable side characters like Mr. Sugi who are pretty lovable and can provide comic relief while also being important when they can be. While this is primarily a romance movie, there’s tons of other stuff happening. Tokyo’s weather is CRAZY in this movie, reflecting how perception of the weather has changed over the years and how weather itself has changed. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say there’s a gun in this movie that creates some very tense scenes, and creates one of the movie’s main conflicts. There’s romance, climate change, and high stakes peril!

Weathering With You is an enjoyable new anime movie with some of the best animation you’ll see in your lifetime. When you’re not watching the detailed, gorgeous, terrifying weather(which will be rare), you’ll watch a wholesome teen-relationship develop. A fun, beautiful, and sweet anime fantasy film, Weathering With You is a must-see event(and you should probably go watch it now because anime movie don’t last long in American theaters).