Weathering with You

It follows a 16-year-old high school boy, Hodaka Morishima, who runs away from his troubled rural home to Tokyo, and later befriends Hina Amano, an orphaned girl who has the ability to control the weather.

It features the voices of Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori, with animation direction by Atsushi Tamura, character design by Masayoshi Tanaka, and its orchestral score and soundtrack composed by Radwimps; the latter two previously collaborated with Shinkai on Your Name (2016). A light novel of the same name, also written by Shinkai, was published a day prior to the film’s premiere, while a manga adaptation was serialized in Afternoon on July 25, 2019.

Weathering with You was theatrically released in conventional, IMAX, and 4DX theaters in Japan on July 19, 2019, and was released in the United States on January 20, 2020. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the animation, screenplay, music, visuals, and emotional weight. The film grossed US$193.8 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing Japanese film of 2019 and the seventh highest-grossing anime film of all time, unadjusted for inflation.

The film won a number of awards, including being selected as the Japanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. It received four Annie Award nominations, including for Best Independent Animated Feature, tying Spirited Away, Millennium Actress, (both 2001) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2005) for the second-joint most nominations for an anime film at the Annies, behind Ghost in the Shell (1995) and then Belle (2021) with five.

When his ferry to the city is hit by a torrential rainstorm, he subsequently meets Keisuke Suga, after he saved his life. As Hodaka begins to struggle financially due to a lack of job opportunities, he later finds a Makarov PM handgun that was abandoned in a trash can. He meets Hina Amano, an employee of a McDonald’s restaurant, who takes pity on him and gives him food. Suga hires him as his assistant at a small occult magazine publishing company where they investigate urban legends related to the unusually rainy weather in Tokyo. They hear the legend of “sunshine girls” who can control the weather. Hodaka sees Hina being intimidated into working at a club. He attempts to intervene, but is attacked by the club owner. He draws the gun, and out of panic, fires it, barely missing him. Hina grabs him and takes him to Yoyogi Kaikan, an abandoned building with a shrine on the roof, where he throws the gun away after realizing his mistake. Hina shocks him by demonstrating her ability to clear the sky by praying. He later discovers that Hina lives alone with her brother Nagi, and they have no adult guardian. Seeing how they are also in financial trouble, Hodaka proposes to start a business together: a job to clear the weather for large social gatherings, such as weddings and parties. Their business becomes a success, however, Hina was filmed and broadcast on television after being hired to clear the sky for a fireworks display, leading to their site getting flooded with requests. They decide to temporarily suspend business to give them some time to rest.

Meanwhile, the police are searching for Hodaka, as his family had filed a missing person report. They later trace Hodaka using a security camera, where he was captured using the gun. Officers arrive at Hina’s apartment and interrogate her; Hina realizes that because they have no legal guardians, social services are going to separate her and Nagi. Suga, having also been visited by the police, fires Hodaka, explaining that police suspect him of kidnapping him. Hodaka, Hina, and Nagi try to run away but are halted by the weather, which is worsening, subsequently causing delays on public transport. Two police officers find them walking in the street, and tackle Hodaka to the ground, however, he is set free by Hina, who unintentionally uses her powers to send a bolt of lightning to a nearby truck, causing it to explode, distracting the officers. They eventually take shelter in a hotel. Hina reveals that her body is slowly turning transparent the more she uses her power, and reveals that her sacrifice will allow the weather to return to normal. The next day, Hina has vanished and the rain has stopped. The police track Hodaka to the hotel and take him into custody. Nagi is sent to the children’s counseling center.

Hodaka, realizing that he has fallen in love with Hina, wants to bring her back, and escapes from custody with the help of Suga’s niece Natsumi. The police surround Hodaka in the abandoned building, but Suga, inspired by Hodaka’s desperation to see Hina, helps him escape. At the rooftop shrine, Hodaka jumps through the shrine gate and is transported into the sky, where he finds Hina and asks her to leave with him, insisting that Hina let go of her worries about the weather and start living for herself. As soon as they come back to the rooftop shrine, Hina, Hodaka, Natsumi, Nagi, and Suga are all arrested, and the heavy rains resume. Hodaka is sentenced to a three-year probation and sent back to his home in Kōzu-shima.

Three years later, the rain has been falling without end in Tokyo, submerging much of the city. In the spring of 2024, having finished his probation, Hodaka graduates from high school and returns to Tokyo to start college. He meets with Suga, who has expanded his business. After Suga encourages him to find Hina, Hodaka finds her praying on a street overlooking the drowned city. They reunite, with Hodaka promising her that they will be all right.