Summary

• The ending of Your Name might be confusing due to its complex time travel plot involving body-switching and two timelines.
• In the emotional Your Name ending, Taki and Mitsuha do not remember each other but feel a strong connection, hinting at a new beginning.
• Despite memory loss, Taki and Mitsuha, drawn together by fate, meet again in Tokyo, suggesting their love story will continue.

The ending of Your Name explained the end of the beautiful and emotional story, but it also seemed somewhat confusing due to its time travel storyline. In Your Name, Taki and Mitsuha are two high school students who seem to have a strong bond even though they do not know each other. The way Your Name explained its narrative is not exactly linear. Still, despite its complex time travel plot, Your Name charmed audiences with a heartwarming story about a connection so strong that it could travel time and space.

Your Name earned $382 million worldwide at the box office (via Box Office Mojo), which ranks alongside films like one of the best Studio Ghibli movies Spirited Away. With a story spanning from 2013 to 2021, Your Name explained from the start that Taki and Mitsuha are somehow switching bodies, but the reasons why and how are only revealed towards the end of the movie. More than the body-switching, the key to understanding the Your Name ending is to better comprehend its two timelines.

Why Taki Didn’t Recognize Mitsuha In Tokyo

Mitsuha Only Experienced Taki's Future

Time travel can make any story tricky, and that is not different for Your Name. After realizing she had feelings for Taki, even though they still hadn't met, Mitsuha decided to go to Tokyo and introduced herself to the person she had been switching bodies with for weeks now. Your Name explained that Mitsuha failed to realize that whenever she would wake up in Taki’s body, it was 2016, not 2013, meaning that the fragment of Taki’s life she was experiencing was happening three years in her future.

Your Name explained that Taki and Mitsuha were not only switching bodies, but their consciences were also traveling through time. While the movie presents Taki and Mitsuha’s days in each other’s bodies, Taki himself would only experience the switch three years after Mitsuha. That is why Taki does not recognize Mitsuha in Tokyo, as it would still take three years before he started experiencing the body switch seen in the 2D animated movie.

When Did Mitsuha Die?

Mitsuha Passed Away In 2013

Your Name explained that Mitsuha died in 2013 after the Comet Tiamat split while entering Earth’s atmosphere and hit the town of Itomori. From Mitsuha’s point of view, the comet would only hit Itomori after she switched places with Taki several times and tried to visit him in Tokyo. From Taki’s point of view, the destruction of Itomori by the comet happened three years before he switched bodies with Mitsuha.

That is why Taki does not take any interest in the news of the comet at first and why he is so shocked to realize Mitsuha had been dead for the past three years in the Your Name ending.

How Did Taki Restart The Switch (After Mitsuha’s Death)?

The destruction of Itomori and the death of Mitsuha in the Your Name ending, a moment in which Your Name's soundtrack turns into silence, meant the end of her and Taki’s body-switching. Once time “caught up” with Taki, Your Name explained that the messages from Mitsuha disappeared from his phone as if they never existed. After Taki comprehended that Mitsuha and all of Itomori’s citizens had died, the character found one last hope by remembering what Mitsuha’s grandma had taught her about the flow of time.

"Taki managed to once again wake up in Mitsuha’s body."

Although Taki was not sure that his plan would work in the Your Name ending, he still went to the cave in which Mitsuha’ kuchikamizake had been kept for all those years. By drinking it, Your Name explained that his special connection with Mitsuha, represented by the red string and its many forms, was reactivated — and thus Taki managed to once again wake up in Mitsuha’s body. In a sci-fi time-travel movie twist, he had returned to 2013, after Mitsuha had cut her hair short, but before the comet hit Itomori.

Why Didn’t Taki Write His Name On Mitsuha’s Hand?

The Anime's Body-Swapping Came With Caveats

As strong as the bond between Taki and Mitsuha was, Your Name explained that neither of them would be able to hold the memories of the body-switching days for long. That seemed to be a consequence of the body-switching process, as Mitsuha’s grandmother, who also had strange dreams about another life, could not remember her own experiences. Taki was aware he and Mitsuha were going to forget each other after the “magic hour,” and he suggested they both write their names on each other’s hands.

Taki decided to write, “I love you,” instead.

However, Taki decided to write, “I love you,” instead, which turned out to be the right decision in the Your Name ending and the perfect symbolism for one of the best romance anime stories. Even if Taki had written his name on Mitsuha’s hand, she would have quickly forgotten the context of it. By writing, "I love you," in Mitsuha’s hand, Your Name explained that Taki made sure that she could at least know that he was in love before she lost all of her memories from their time together.

How The Town Was Saved In Your Name

Knowing About The Fate Of Itmori Allowed Taki To Act

Taki wakes up in Mitsuha’s body the day the comet will hit the town and tries to warn everybody of what is going to happen but without success. Still, Your Name explains he kicks off a plan with Sayaka and Katsuhiko to evacuate as many people as possible. After the magic hour, Mitsuha returns to her body, and as in some of the best time travel movies, she knows what is going to happen. In the Your Name ending, she completes Taki’s plan by convincing her father, the mayor, to evacuate Itomori.

Did Taki And Mitsuha End Up Together?

The Pair Find Eachother Despite The Memory Loss

In the Your Name ending, Mitsuha and everyone else in Itomori are saved, but neither Taki nor Mitsuha can remember each other. Eight years after the comet fell, Mitsuha lives in Tokyo — which has been a dream of hers since the beginning. For Taki, five years have passed since he visited Itomori for a reason he could no longer remember. Fate had been one of the central themes of Your Name, and, as such, Taki and Mitsuha ran into each other in Tokyo.

Your Name explained their emotional connection as the two stopped dead while passing one another, immediately drawn to the other. Neither Taki nor Mitsuha could remember each other, but they could still feel that the other person was special for some reason, similar to The Adam's Project's Adam and Laura story. That is why Taki and Mitsuha introduced themselves at the stairs as if they had been looking for each other for the last few years.

It was a highly emotional scene, as audiences expected the two to never see one another again. However, this moment provided hope that their love story would continue. Even if they never remember their experiences, the Your Name ending suggests that Taki and Mitsuha started a new history together right at that moment.