The enormously successful anime film from director Makoto Shinkai, Your Name swept the world following its release in 2016. Shattering box office records both in Japan and internationally, it rapidly became one of the highest-grossing anime films ever produced, owing much of its success to its spectacular visuals, brisk pacing, and affecting love story.
Naturally, Your Name's popularity has fans searching for more. Including the other works of Shinkai, there are a number of highly regarded anime films out there that deal with similar themes or share similar aesthetic sensibilities. Be it a coming-of-age tale with a supernatural twist, or a story of love overcoming all odds, the anime film industry has a lot to offer for fans of Your Name.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Available To Rent On Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube & More
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an earlier work from Mamoru Hosoda, famous for his directorial role in the original Digimon movie. The story follows a girl who suddenly gains the ability to travel and quite literally leap through time. She soon realizes that time travel isn't quite as simple as it may seem and must face the consequences of her actions.
There's a sort of summery coming-of-age vibe here that should feel familiar to those who love Your Name, as well as a similar supernatural gimmick that keeps the plot moving forward. It's not quite as overtly romantic as Your Name, but Hosoda is able to utilize the time travel plot to bring about some emotional ends just the same.
5 Centimeters Per Second - Not Currently Available To Stream
5 Centimeters Per Second was, by far, Shinkai's best-regarded work prior to the release of Your Name, and it deserves that accolade. Many of Shinkai's trademark stylistic elements are present here: a deep sense of longing inspired by the insurmountable gap between lovers, and, of course, beautiful background work.
However, despite their similarities, 5 Centimeters Per Second ends up feeling something like a thematic foil to Your Name. Where the latter is hopeful and inspiring, 5 Centimeters Per Second is a far more somber, almost gloomy affair. Despite their thematic dissimilarity, these works complement each other in fascinating ways, and 5 Centimeters Per Second remains one of Shinkai's most affecting and well-realized works in its own right.
A Silent Voice: The Movie - Available On Netflix
As the most successful work from one of anime's most prominent female directors, Naoko Yamada, A Silent Voice has an impressive reputation on its own terms. However, comparisons to Your Name were inevitable on account of the proximity of the two films' debuts, and the occasionally similar thematic content found in both.
A Silent Voice doesn't share much of the spectacle and supernatural bombast that Your Name has, and instead presents a harrowing interpersonal drama of redemption and understated romance. However, the dramatic love stories included in both bear a certain resemblance, making A Silent Voice a frequently recommended title for Your Name fans.
The Garden Of Words - Available On Netflix
The Garden of Words is an interesting midpoint in Shinkai's filmography, sitting significantly between Five Centimeters Per Second and Your Name. Longtime fans of his work often draw comparisons between his earlier work, being Five Centimeters Per Second and its predecessors, and his later, more hopeful work which includes everything after Your Name.
The Garden of Words doesn't neatly fit into either of category, perhaps because it's a much shorter film that doesn't have the grand ambitions of much larger pieces like Your Name. Regardless, the animation and artwork are characteristically beautiful, and it's representative of a transitional period in the director's career.
Patema Inverted - Available On Hoopla
Patema Inverted is a great but underrated anime movie that most probably haven't heard of from director Yasuhiro Yoshiura, and also one that shares a number of striking similarities with Your Name. Both are youth love stories with supernatural elements, and both include a handful of rather surprising twists to keep the plot moving along.
Instead of body-swapping, Patema Inverted envisions a world where gravity is inverted for a subset of the population, and a boy-meets-girl encounter across gravitational alignments sets the plot in motion. It might not command quite the same visual splendor as Your Name, but an intriguing gimmick and strong central romance make it worth checking out.
Wolf Children - Not Currently Available To Stream
Supernatural coming-of-age stories are a frequent theme of Shinkai's, which often gets him compared to Wolf Children director Mamoru Hosoda, who makes stories involving similar subject matter.
While Shinkai's work typically focuses on younger characters, Wolf Children opts to center the story around a mother raising two less-than-normal children, which is a compelling perspective, and one that works to the movie's advantage.
Whisper Of The Heart - Available On HBO Max
Whisper of the Heart is one of a handful of underrated titles from the legendary Studio Ghibli, and it's also one of the studio's most overtly romantic films. Although romantic subplots are found in many of the studio's offerings, Whisper of the Heart puts its love story at the forefront.
Similar to Your Name, the film is essentially a coming-of-age story wrapped up in a romance plot. The audience gets to watch the two main characters grow together as they overcome their obstacles. Whisper of the Heart is far more grounded in its approach than Your Name, opting for small-scale struggles as opposed to supernatural heroics.
Weathering With You - Available On HBO Max
Weathering With You is Shinkai's other blockbuster hit that followed the release of Your Name. Critics immediately drew comparisons between the two films on account of their shared similarities in aesthetics, themes, and music (with the soundtrack having been produced by the same group for both films).
Living up to Your Name is a difficult task, though, and Weathering With You wasn't released to quite the same uproarious excitement and box office fanfare as its predecessor was. Still, Weathering With You is an excellent film on its own terms, and occasionally succeeds in important areas where Your Name was lacking.
Liz And The Blue Bird - Available On Amazon Prime
Naoko Yamada's understated masterwork Liz and the Blue Bird is a heartfelt love story that inspires an intense feeling of longing in its audience, similar in effect to Your Name. The story grapples with similar themes of emotional and physical distance between two characters but does so in a subtle, low-key way.
Perhaps an apt comparison would be that Liz is to A Silent Voice what, for Shinkai, Five Centimeters Per Second is to Your Name. Although these works all deal with similar thematic concepts, Liz and Five Centimeters Per Second approach the subject matter with distinct aesthetics, and follow the stories to very different conclusions.
The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya - Available To Rent On Amazon Prime Video & The Microsoft Store
Disappearance is a climactic film that (sort of) caps off the story that started in the wildly popular 2006 anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, with this movie dealing with the titular character's disappearance. Disappearance remains enduringly popular on account of just how successfully it delivers on the plot threads introduced in the earlier seasons of the show, making for an immensely satisfying viewing experience.
Like Your Name, Disappearance features a love story wrapped up in a supernatural plot and one of the best anime romances in an anime not exclusively about romance. However, the latter leans far more heavily into the supernatural and science fiction elements of its narrative than Your Name. Newcomers should also beware that while Disappearance is excellent, it will be difficult to understand without a background in earlier Haruhi anime.