Spoilers for Your Name if you haven't already seen it.
You know, one thing that I never fully understood in Your Name was this image right here:
So this is during the "Kuchikamizake Trip" scene, where Taki travels through almost a complete circle of Mitsuha's life (starting from the comet that hit Japan and killed her, which morphed into the fertilizing of the egg/her conception). At a little past the mid-point, we see Mitsuha's father (Toshiki) walk out on her and her sister (Yotsuha), leaving them with their grandmother (Hitoha) and the shrine.
What's interesting though is WHERE he's abandoning them. It's never really specified and there are no locations in the film that match this scene. You'd think it would be somewhere near their home, or even at the Miyamizu Shrine itself, but no. The film goes out of its way to make sure that everywhere is populated with trees, none of which look like the one in the picture:
So that leaves us with the obvious: he abandoned them at the Sacred Relic (as the English dub put it), or "the body of Miyamizu Shrine's god" (per the Japanese sub). AKA the netherworld/underworld.
This is the only place where we see open fields and a single tree in the entire film. But why would he be there with a packed bag? Abandoning his family, no less?
We could definitely take this literally - he was integrated into shrine duties through marriage before he left, so it's not as though he had no reason to be there. He could have fulfilled one last duty before leaving for good, but I don't think that's the takeaway here. Which leads us to:
The literal body of the shrine god is missing when he abandons them.
The tree itself also looks different, what with it being stripped of leaves, the bark looking somewhat brittle, and several branches are missing. Even the surrounding fields look barren. Sure, this could have taken place in a colder season, their clothes don't necessarily suggest warm weather, but it's clearly not winter.
(I'd also like to point out that while there's no other location in the film this image could be depicting, we also don't get a good view of the other side of the tree when the body of the shrine god is present, so there's nothing conclusive on whether or not it's the same tree. I do, however, think that Makoto Shinkai wanted us to mentally connect these two locations.)
Here's the first image again for a closer comparison:
Okay, so why am I yapping for so long about a tree?
Well, I think it calls into question the overall nature of the Kuchikamizake trip itself. Was Taki being ushered through Mitsuha's life? Was he traveling through her memories? Personally, I think it's a little bit of both. Despite the fact that a literal god is taking Taki back through time, I don't think this is a purely objective depiction of the past. I think what we're seeing here isn't really Mitsuha's memories, but the god's memories and interpretation of the events instead.
(Further evidence of this would be that we literally hear the god crying out after Hitoha says "Mitsuha, Yotsuha, you're going to live with grandma now," and the red cord guides Taki above and away their family home.)
Mitsuha's dad doesn't really get talked about enough, largely because he's an asshole, but he does serve as an interesting counterpoint in the narrative.
The Miyamizu Shrine is the spiritual protector of that land. In contrast, Mitsuha's father, Toshiki, is a politician - a secular protector of the land. (Well, he's supposed to be. Tessie makes a point to call Toshiki (and also his own father) corrupt when he listens in on their dinner meeting:
Toshiki is a man who inherited the shrine after his wife died (as said by Hitoha during an argument: "But you're in charge now!"), he had a responsibility to it, and then he abandoned his daughters and his god in one fell swoop.
The tree where Toshiki walked out on his daughters is lifeless and decrepit because he quite literally abandoned his obligations to his god, removing the god's body from the picture entirely, and pursued a secular/political path to rival the duties of the shrine, one that's rife with human faults and corruption.
This is why Mitsuha's stand-off with Toshiki is so important at the end of the film. It's not daughter vs father. It's spiritual vs secular. The Miyamizu Shrine vs politics. Musubi vs mankind.
Even though we never really see the outcome of that confrontation, Shinkai did effectively communicate it to us during the scene itself. We start by seeing Toshiki rise from his seat and he's the largest thing in the frame, but then Mitsuha approaches and suddenly we cut to just her. Not him, not both of them. It's only her in the frame because her perspective and spiritual guidance completely removes him from the picture - much like how he removed their god and his own family years before.
my eyes genuinely hurt sm right now, pleas watch it..
spoilers (abt entire movie)
i love this movie..ive heard good stuff abt it so i watched it..
I KNEW IT WAS SAD BUT LIKE I WAS SOBBING WHEN MITSUHA TRIED TO EVACUATE EVERYONE AND LITERALLY NOBODY FULLY LISTENED TO HER their asses were WALKING 😭🙏
this was an insane watch bro, im sitting on my bed watching the movie on my phone and crying because the fuck do you mean she DIED 3 YEARS BEFORE HE MET HER?!?!???!
that comet bro.. that comet.. it genuinely had something against them let me enjoy the movie dude 😔
AND when they wrote their names on e/o’s hands.. THEY WERE FUCKED UP FOR DOING THAT TO MITSUHA AND TAKI ALIKE OH MY LORD
i should not have watched this while on my period bro I’m so lightheaded right now it’s not even funny
the art is so beautiful man.. the scenery is so well-drawn, especially in the later parts of the movie when there are more scenic parts.. and the comet part where it impacted.. that was a very well done explosion..
also taki a freak ain’t no way 😭
i genuinely don’t know how to describe this movie other than the fact that it was such an insane experience (glaze because i love this movie).
i don’t watch movies often lol.. im lowkey gonna watch a silent voice now cause it looks nice!
