Your Name’s Success in Japan was it’s Failure in the West

I have seen Shinkai Makoto’s Your Name seven times.

Your Name follows Taki and Mitsuha, two teenagers in Japan who form a close bond when they discover that they are swapping bodies. So, why do I love a rom-com about body-swapping teenagers? Because, Your Name explores the duality in identities; in particular, the cultural identity crisis brought upon by the conflict of modernity and tradition. I identify with this crisis as I negotiate between Indian tradition and American modernity. However, many Americans with single identities cannot feel the same way. As such, Shinkai’s Your Name did not translate to the United States because it asserts the importance of tradition over modernity which is not a value that is shared by American audiences.

To understand why Shinkai Makoto’s work did not translate into the US, it is important to study anime from the past that was successful in the US; time after time, anime that contains mukokuseki properties, “[something] lacking any nationality”, has found greater success in the west. In general, mukokuseki refers to both deliberate and unintentional elimination of cultural practices, and mukokuseki content has “narratives scrubbed of cultural particularities and characters purposely made to look non-Japanese” (Noh 4). Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu), the first anime to make a substantial impact in the west, employed mukokuseki. The show’s creator, Osamu Tezuka, framed Astro Boy as culturally neutral as possible by using universal themes and removing any symbols from Japanese culture. Osamu used Western religious motifs, and avoided Eastern Shinto or Buddhist imagery. He removed violent depictions of character death and robot explosions, replacing them with explanations of the character “fainting” or disappearing from the scene. However, Osamu’s level of detail to employ mukokuseki was not enough; NBC localization teams further censored the TV show to follow American values and broadcast standards (Schodt 86). The practice of mukokuseki in media exported from Japan into the US represents the influence of western culture on the east. During the age of Astro Boy in the 1960s, media from Japan was framed to conform to western values, instead of western audiences conforming to eastern media and culture. Japanese directors yielded to western influence for a chance to increase domestic exports and perform on the global market following World War II. In the content that was exported from Japan, all that was left was an echo of the Japanese culture that once was. The struggle to represent Japanese culture continued into the new age of anime through “pseudo-Japanese” content.

The next generation of Japanese directors negotiated between Japanese culture and accessibility to western audiences by creating a “pseudo-Japan” that fits comfortably within the existing hierarchy between the west and the east. Hayao Miyazaki depicts Japanese culture with restraint by creating “pseudo-Japanese” fantasy worlds that are imbued with abstract Japanese symbolism. Although Miyazaki shares a Japanese narrative that does not firmly define good versus evil and does not infantilize abstract entities, the nature of his abstract storytelling allows mukokuseki to take hold when his stories are localized for western audiences which “reinforce the existence of good versus evil in a manner that resonates with America’s Christian ideals and also markets his works as more cheerful [and] child-friendly through their promotional content” (Noh 30). As such, Miyazaki’s films can carry double meanings, one that is popular in Japan and another that is popular in the west, allowing his films to be successful in both markets. However, Miyazaki is restricted to the “pseudo-Japanese” abstractness of those fantasy worlds; without the abstractness, it would be difficult for Miyazaki’s films to be easily localized for western audiences. Similarly, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira creates a “pseudo-Japan” within the crumbling and slowly disintegrating city-scape of Neo-Tokyo. Otomo paints a city choked with skyscrapers, lit up by the glow of neon advertising, and managed by power hungry military leaders and corrupt scientists. Neo-Tokyo’s imagery is familiar to western audiences who are exposed to this manifestation of “pseudo-Japan”, which includes neon lights, family restaurants, convenience stores and love hotels, in other films such as Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue or Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell. This version of “pseudo-Japan” simplifies Japanese society into a homogenous and expansive city-scape and augments certain values of consumerism and commodification that are tangible to western audiences. Even groundbreaking anime directors of the new age such as Miyazaki and Otomo were restricted by the “pseudo-Japanese” imaginary. Within the confines of these premises, which fit comfortably within the paradigm of the East as fantastical or impoverished (Iwabuchi 28), could they tell their stories and portray their culture.

In contrast, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name rejects any form of mukokuseki and proudly showcases Japanese culture. He exemplifies nihirinjon or Japaneseness by addressing the cultural identity crisis of Japanese youth because this film was intended for a Japanese audience. Nihirinjon contrasts mukokuseki as it refers to content that showcases Japanese culture. Your Name is brimming with Japaneseness; as the film swings back and forth between mountain shrines and Shinjuku Station, Your Name showcases real settings from Japan, typical teenage lifestyles in big cities and small towns, and narratives relevant to Japanese youth such as the tension between old and new Japan. Shinkai utilizes a hyper-realistic style of animation by photographing real settings in Tokyo and the Japanese countryside and reimagining those settings in art. He hopes that Japanese audiences will have a new appreciation for the places they are familiar with in a “fresh and new way” (Sinha-Roy). Furthermore for Shinkai, the characters in his stories are a medium for larger commentary; in Your Name Taki, a boy from Tokyo in the future and Mitsuha, a girl from rural Itomori in the past, represent the negotiation between modernity and tradition for Japanese youth. He draws from his own experiences, growing up in a small village and later moving to Tokyo, to explore this conflict: “I think it is one of the common themes for many Japanese people to choose where to live, Tokyo or their hometown,” he says (Sinha-Roy). Shinkai sets the bounds for these characters: boy-girl, future-past, city-village, modern-ancient, then flips them around through the phenomenon of body-swapping where Taki and Mitsuha experience life in each other’s shoes to explore the issue of modernity and tradition from the opposite point of view. Your Name stands out from popular anime of the past; instead of using mukokuseki properties of “de-Japanification” or “pseudo-Japan” to make it marketable to a western audience, Shinkai exemplifies Japaneseness through the settings, lifestyles, and topics explored in the film.

In one such example of Japaneseness, Shinkai depicts the conflict between modernity and tradition of Japanese youth through Mitsuha’s negotiation between both parts of her identity. Mitsuha’s lineage follows the duality of modernity and tradition that Shinkai weaves through the story. Mitsuha’s late mother, Miyamizu Futaba, was a devout member of the Miyamizu family and participated in the rituals for her family’s shrine until her death. Following Futaba’s death, Mitsuha’s father, Miyamizu Toshiki, rejected the Miyamizu shrine and left the family to pursue a career in politics. In such, Mitsuha’s mother represents dead tradition and Mitsuha’s father represents the process of moving onto modernity, leaving behind Mitsuha who is a combination of both. The duality of her identity establishes the relationship between Mitsuha and many Japanese youth who are caught between the conflict of modernity and tradition. For both Mitsuha and many Japanese youth this conflict is realized as the question: “should you preserve your family — and Japan’s — tradition in a rapidly modernizing society.” Mitshuha’s negotiation of this conflict is explored when she performs the kuchikamizake ritual, the tradition of making a ceremonial mouth-chewed sake as a public dance ritual. Shinkai’s depiction of the kuchikamizake ritual reasserts the importance of locality in Your Name. He is communicating directly to Japanese audiences, especially Japanese youth, about the importance of tradition by making it accessible to them and by portraying a ritual that they are familiar with in a beautiful light. During the kuchikamizake ceremony, Mitsuha’s classmates and other audience members sneer towards her for performing an archaic ritual. This is the last straw for Mitsuha’s bottled feelings, and after the ritual, she exclaims to the Gods that she dislikes her life and her boring hometown, and instead wishes to live as a handsome Tokyo boy in her next life. In a short scene, Shinkai uses Mitsuha as a medium to illustrate the conflict of modernity and tradition in action. He highlights the public pressure to pursue modernity that Japanese youth face through the sneering by Mitsuha’s classmates. He then vocalizes the frustration caused by negotiating both sides of the conflict in Mitsuha’s exclamation at the end of the scene. Shinkai articulates the frustration of many Japanese youth, who have not analysed these pieces of their identity, through Mitsuha’s character, and forms a deeper connection with them. As such, Shinkai shows that he understands his audience and the conflicts unique to them which exemplifies Japaneseness and is the reason that Your Name is successful in Japan.

Shinkai asserts that Japanese youth should reiterate the importance of tradition and preserve both aspects of their identity. When the body-swapping stops abruptly, Taki travels to Itomori to find Mitsuha. However, his journey stops when he learns that the town of Itomori, and its inhabitants, were wiped out by a meteor three years ago. Here, Shinkai breaks the convention of parallel time; while Taki serves as a bearing for the film’s present, we learn that he has been body-swapping with Mitsuha from three years in the past. In a desperate search for answers, Taki travels to the Miyamizu shrine outside Itomori. Inside the shrine, he finds Mitsuha’s kuchikamizake and proceeds to drink it. The kuchikamizake represents the physical means by which Taki can return to Mitsuha’s life; by consuming Mitsuha’s sake, he becomes immersed in her timeline. Furthermore, since Mitsuha and the kuchikamizake are symbols of Japan’s past, Taki establishes a connection with ‘tradition’. Taki wakes up as Mitsuha on the day that the meteor strikes Itomori. Taki, as Mitsuha, takes charge of Your Name’s climax. Here, Shinkai weaves a series of beautiful, high-energy scenes where Taki evacuates the inhabitants of Itomori and saves them from the meteor. Shinkai affirms the importance of tradition through the destruction and restoration of Mitsuha and Itomori. He exemplifies the loss of tradition through the realization that Itomori was destroyed, and he develops that grief through Taki’s denial and confusion about the meteor strike. As such, the time-bending restoration of Itomori reiterates the importance of saving tradition. Furthermore, since Taki, a representation of modernity, travels back in time to save Itomori, Shinkai highlights the fact that tradition cannot be saved without modernity. Thus, Shinkai concludes that modernity and tradition are not mutually exclusive, and instead Japanese youth should preserve both aspects of their identity.

Despite being one of the highest grossing anime of all time, Your Name’s success did not translate into the United States. Your Name’s domestic earnings ($5,017,246) represented only 1.4% of its total earnings ($358,180,115). For comparison, another popular anime, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train’s domestic earnings ($47,700,000) represented 10.5% of its total earnings ($452,974,619). This trend continues in Your Name’s international accolades; journalists expected Your Name to shine at the Academy Awards in 2016, however, the film was not even on the consideration list for the ‘Academy Award for Best Animated Feature’. In contrast, Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises, along with Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai have all been nominated for the Academy Award. Although Shinkai was touted as the director that would break the glass ceiling for anime in the United States, Your Name simply did not receive the earnings, accolades, or entrance into popular culture that anime movies in the United States have received in the past. The reason for this is clear; in contrast to the films stated earlier, Your Name was not created for international audiences, and thus was imbued with Japanese qualities, such as the conflict of modernity and tradition of Japanese youth, that do not translate outside of Japan.

Audiences in the United States do not empathize with Shinkai’s perspective that tradition should be preserved. Instead, they reflect the modernization trend that the country is leaning towards because modernization supports economic growth which is a core principle of American society. Furthermore, modernization undermines tradition, which takes the form of cultural homogeneity or assimilation into one ‘correct’ culture. In media and popular culture, the principle of modernization takes the form of the ‘American dream’. Unlike media that supports the importance of tradition, this trope has stolen the hearts of audiences, received numerous accolades, and millions at the box office. On TV, with 20 Emmy nominations, Unbreakable Kimmy Smidt tells the story of a small-town girl captured by a cult reclaiming her life in New York City. On the big screen, with 6 Academy Awards, Slumdog Millionaire follows a young boy from the slums of Mumbai who lands a spot on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. These are just two of many stories that follow a protagonist who leaves behind a small town and works hard to achieve success in a big city. In contrast, Shinkai’s Your Name considers the importance of leaving big cities and the modern lifestyle to regain the importance of tradition and original heritage. Time and time again, American audiences buy into stories of modernization, thus Shinkai’s Your Name, which depicts the importance of tradition from the perspective of Japanese youth, does not find a place in the United States.

Your Name’s failure in the United States reiterates the fact that the United States is still not ready to conform to foreign media and culture. As such, foregin stories, opinions, and perspectives will be out of reach for American audiences for some more time. This also represents a deeper issue where Americans reject any culture and perspective that does not fit into the cultural homogeneity of the United States. This issue upholds a cultural identity crisis for immigrants assimilating into the United States. However, the progress of anime as well as titles like Squid Game and Parasite show that the tides are changing for the better.

Works Cited

Noh, Susan S. Nostalgia in Anime: Redefining Japanese Cultural Identity in Global Media Texts. Georgetown University, Master’s Thesis. 2017.

Schodt, Frederik L. The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution. Stone Bridge Press, 2007.

Iwabuchi, Koichi. Recentering globalization: Popular culture and Japanese transnationalism. Duke University Press, 2002.