Kimi no Na wa / Your Name

 

Book Title: Kimi no Na wa / Your Name

Author: Makoto Shinkai

Genre: Light novel, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance

Synopsis

Mitsuha, a high school girl living in a small town in the mountains, has a dream that she's a boy living in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy in Tokyo, dreams that he's a girl living in a quaint little mountain town. Sharing bodies, relationships and lives, the two become inextricably interwoven - but are any connections truly inseverable in the grand tapestry of fate?

My Review

Though I have already seen the movie, so I knew the story; I was still curios and intrigued on how the light novel would be, even more so when I learned that the director of the film was the same person who wrote the light novel based on his film and that he had  finished writing it before the anime film itself was actually finished. Which would make this a film turned novel but became film, not sure if there's a term for that but yeah.

The light novel itself, for all intent and purpose was light and completely different to what I'm used to reading. Good for a light reading, especially  to get out that reading funk...

So the story follows with two high school students, a young boy and a young girl, who experience this out-of-this-world experience of swapping bodies (very Freaky Friday vibes).
Throughout their experiences, they have the amazing power of changing each other's lives and fate of not only for themselves but also those around them.

The novel, I found would have been a little confusing for me, mainly the switching of points of views, if I hadn't watched the movie first. Don't get me wrong it wasn't bad, it was just that I can see how the narration and story would lend itself to a film format but in the novel there was no clear way to tell which first-personal perspective was now speaking, especially between the two of them with no real transitions to mark the difference.

Admittedly, it does take a little of getting used to as the narrative switches without warning but once you get used to that, it's a wonderful story that was captivating and funny. 

It was a wonderful and great companion to the film. Watching the movie again after reading, I realized that there were many small details hinted in the movie that were clearer in the novel that I had not notice before.

I, personally, wouldn't want to read the novel and not see the film first, but they are both excellent versions of  Your Name and the final line of the book and film was the perfect ending...

Overall I enjoyed the book. It's definitely worth the read and would recommend if you're a fan of this genre.