Animation can control the weather far more easily than live-action filmmaking, so much of the pleasure of Weathering with You lies in the ways writer-director Makoto Shinkai and his team envision rolling clouds, torrential storms, and blazing sunlight. (The photorealistic drops of water, a notoriously tricky element to recreate onscreen, are extraordinary.) Rain and sun are the main ingredients of the film, as it’s set in a Tokyo that’s experiencing historic—and violent—storms. A teen runaway (Kotaro Daigo) struggles to find shelter amidst the elements, until he meets a “sunshine girl” (Nana Mori)—a young woman with the mystical ability to dispel a storm in a concentrated space for a short period of time. Together they start a business, essentially offering sun for sale. Like Shinkai’s metaphysical body-switching fantasia Your Name, Weathering with You works on multiple levels: as eco-fable, social commentary, and teen romance. Yet those storms are the movie’s most distinguishing, astonishing feature—bursting onto the screen with sudden force, then giving way to luxurious shafts of golden light. It’s an exercise in artistic prowess that reminds us how little power over the weather we actually have.
