2017 marked a great year for anime movies with the release of two extraordinary films
called Your Name and A Silent Voice.
Both are a must watch in my honest opinion and having rewatched them recently, I thought
it would be worth creating a video on Your Name and possibly another for A Silent Voice.
Your Name is a story that delves deep into the theme of love, and it got me thinking
about how we understand and see love today.
On the one hand, interpreting love in modern society feels shallow and almost confused,
whereas on the other, it's seen almost transcendentally, as seen in Your Name, but also other films
like Chris Nolan's Interstellar.
Whilst using Your Name as the example, I want to go through what love is and the power it
holds in our lives, including the value it brings to our world and the importance it
has.
Please note there will be spoilers discussed for Your Name from now on.
If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough and while in the West we traditionally
see animation as something for kids, where anime differs is it has various genres aimed
at all ages, with Your Name generally made for a mature audience given the complexity
of the story and themes.
Before we go into love itself, it's worth having a very quick recap on the story of
Your Name first.
The story focuses on the relationship of Mitsuha and Taki, two teens in rural and urban Japan
respectively.
On seeing a comet, the two find themselves switching bodies through the film, having
to pretend to be the other on average a couple of times a week, as seen in films like Big
or Freaky Friday.
It's during this time they learn more about each other, the way they live and who they
are, developing a bond despite never actually being with each other.
Towards the end, Taki learns that unless he can do something about it, Mitsuha and those
in the village she lives in will die as the comet splits and falls to directly where she
lives.
There is a lot more to the film with elements of time travel, but it'd take me the whole
video to try and go through it all!
So, let's look at the theme of love in the film...
What Love Isn't
Before we explore into the idea of love in Your Name, it's worth understanding what love
isn't.
You see, love is often misconstrued today in a way that I'd argue reduces it's significance
and value in the world, reducing it to satiating ourselves or feeling specific sensations that
often don't delve beyond surface level.
Therefore, it's important to understand what love isn't, as it's deeper than it's portrayed
to be.
So for example, love isn't an emotion or feeling.
We have emotions, and we feel them, but love goes beyond this experience.
The thing is that when we love people, they often make us feel emotions such as happiness,
but equally may make us feel sadness or anger, without it actually diminishing the love we
feel for them.
Therefore, love transcends emotions to be something deeper.
In Your Name, there are times characters make each other feel various emotions, but the
connection and love they're building is growing all the while regardless.
Nor is love romance or physical intimacy.
Most people are readily prepared to acknowledge this because love isn't exclusive to romantic
relationships, even if they're often the most obvious example of love.
Plus, our love doesn't diminish for someone when we're not being romantic.
Again, Your Name exemplifies this perfectly, as the protagonists develop their relationship
without physically being together and perform little or no acts of romance, yet the love
between them grows extremely deep.
Finally, when it comes to what love isn't, it's not unconditional approval.
A parent loves their child, but if a child does something wrong then a good parent will
discipline and teach the child.
Their love for the child doesn't diminish, but they know it's their responsibility to
help the child's growth and that means acknowledging what's right or wrong.
Likewise, the same can be said of any couple as well, as it's commonly accepted that couples
won't always be in agreement and that doesn't represent any lesser love.
For the first half of the story in Your Name, Taki and Mitsuha are shown to be getting frustrated
with each other's actions when switching bodies, disapproving of the other's behaviour, yet
this does nothing to hamper the love that grows between them.
The Red Thread Of Fate
In many East Asian cultures, notably in Japan, South Korea and China, there's a concept known
as the red thread of fate.
Based on a Chinese legend, Gods tie a red thread on the little finger of those destined
to meet each other in certain situtions as they are each other's true love.
This motif is a constant throughout Your Name, with both Mitsuha and Taki wearing a red thread
through the course of story signfying the bond of the two.
However, beyond the red thread, motifs using lines are constantly shown as a metaphor of
how the characters in the film have a story that's intwined, constantly coming together,
breaking apart and being linked again.
This is well explained by a quote in the film that delves into a concept called Musubi:
"Musubi is the old way of calling the local guardian god.
This word has profound meaning.
Typing thread is Musubi.
Connecting people is Musubi.
The flow of time is Musubi.
These are all the god's power.
So the braided cords that we [Mitsuha's family] make are the god's art and represent the flow
of time itself.
They converge and take shape.
They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break, and then connect again.
Musubi - knotting.
That's time."
This culminates in eventual metaphorical use of circles rather than lines, where the characters
accept their love and we see a union of the lines to form circles and thus form a bond
that never ends or breaks, as well as representing the cyclical nature of life.
Now whether you believe in the legend or fate is beyond the point, rather it's through actions
done from our love of others that sees tighter and stronger bonds form between us as individuals
and people.
We know the positive influence acts of love can bring in the world and we know that through
the act of giving without expecting in return, a fundamental aspect of love, we see others
in the world reciprocate, making for more harmonious and connected relationships.
Love Beyond Romance
We previously explored the legend of the red thread, but Your Name's brilliance comes in
its acknowledgement of love in various forms, whether it be the romantic relationship between
Taki and Mitsuha, the friendships the two protagonists form or the relationships with
family.
This is a vital aspect to understand about love, as it's not limited, but rather an incredibly
powerful force that bonds people to do acts of good to support one another, often seen
to be extending beyond those we know to showing kindness to strangers.
In Your Name, this is especially prominent towards the end, as Taki, in the guise of
Mitsuha, is trying to avoid a catastrophe that would kill Mitsuha and everyone in the
village she lives in.
Despite his seemingly outlandish story and panicked state, we see true love in the actions
of Mitsuha's friends, Tessie and Sayaka, both of which support "Mitsuha" despite not fully
understanding or believing in the potential outcome.
This takes an act of great faith on the part of the two friends, which they would only
do in the event of a feeling of deep love and respect for Mitsuha.
The same can also be said of Taki's friends, Tsukasa and Okudera, both of which accompany
him on a journey to find Mitsuha despite having no understanding of what he's doing and realising
he has little to no plan.
Again, they perform their acts in the desire to support a friend with no expectation in
return, showing that love isn't limited to romantic relationships.
Cultivating Growth
One of the fascinating aspects about love is something we briefly touched on before,
which is the influence it has.
You see, love has a profound effect in ourselves, as it's from others we see ourselves be a
more complete whole.
For example, in Your Name as Taki and Mitsuha both start out as characters that need to
mature and grow in specific ways, where their personality traits compliment each other well.
Mitsuha has highly feminine traits to her character, with Taki showing high levels of
masculinity in his personality.
This is evident in the early parts of the film, where Mitsuha is sensitive towards others
but afraid, or unwilling, to stand up for herself and her beliefs, as seen in an early
interaction with some classmates and her father who is running for mayor in the village.
Taki on the other hand is seen to be quick tempered, with a patch on his face after getting
into a fight and is acknowledged as such by Okudera.
On switching bodies, the two characters influence each other's lives in ways where their natural
personality is supportive of the other's circumstance.
In the guise of Mitsuha, we see Taki stand up for her in class when she's being talked
about, while Mitsuha's sensitivity brings Taki closer to Okudera, developing a close
loving friendship as a result.
Eventually, we see this influences the two individuals, with Mitsuha growing the strength
to take important action in her life to save those she loves, and Taki becoming much more
sensitive to others around him, again shown in his compassion when trying to save the
villagers towards the end.
The fact is, with love, what we often find is that the influence of those we love affects
us and vice versa.
It's here we see an important power of love, that is it helps growth of individuals.
I have and continue to experience this in my own life, as I'm consciously aware of the
influence that my wife has had on me.
Actually, it happened just today, I was losing patience and getting angry at someone and
she immediately curbed my behaviour.
I almost immediately knew what she did was for the best, albeit I'm a bit of a moron
and too stubborn to acknowledge it outright.
Fundamentally, she did an act of love that was for the best for me and my own growth.
The point is, people in love won't necessarily seek this for themselves, but acknowledge
that this is part of the parcel of love, that those who give us love help us grow.
So What Is Love And Why Is It Fundamental?
So with everything discussed so far, we've understood what love isn't, the concept of
how our spiritual journeys in life are intertwined and constantly changing, that love is far
reaching well beyond our spouse and love principally helps our growth, but this still begs the
question, what is love?
Well, I think between evolutionary psychologist Anne Campbell and Jewish psychiatrist Abraham
Twerski we get a pretty good definition.
Anne Campbell says "Love means to commit yourself without guarantee", while Abraham Twerski
says that the act of love is to give without expecting in return.
In effect, love is incredibly powerful, it's something that allows us to act in kindness
towards others on the basis that we have some basic foundational bonds.
It's reach is widespread, from us loving our spouse, family or friends, to loving strangers
and other living things.
And this is the most important thing to take away, love is deep, it's complex, but importantly,
it's something that allows us to do good for others in the world in a way that's truly
meaningful, purely on the basis that we want to give to them.
And Your Name explains this extremely well, as Mitsuha and Taki perform great acts of
kindness for each other without ever knowing what might be the outcome, potentially resulting
in death or forgetting one another entirely.
Ultimately, it's love that pushes them to act regardless.
Love can be an incredibly powerful sensation and force as our lives come together, intertwine,
break apart and reconnect.
With love, knots grow stronger, more unified and ultimately, unending, benefitting us and
all those around us for a better world.
Have you seen Your Name and if not, are you planning to watch it?
Let me know in the comments.
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