Weathering with you

This is the followup anime from Makato Shinkai to his highly successful “Your Name” – and again, it’s a story of a boy and a girl whose lives intersect across magic and natural disasters – in this case, a seemingly set of days of rain, which the girl turns out to have secret powers that can bring sunlight, albeit briefly. Both initially try to market the ability (selling her as a “sunshine girl” online, helping out people who want to have picnics or fireworks displays) before it becomes apparent what using these powers is doing to her – and difficult decisions have to be made…

This is a sweet natured piece, albeit one with some particularly surprising swerves in the finale. There’s familiar anime tropes including the boy who gets embarrassed when he looks at cleavage, the slightly bratty but adorable little brother and the vulnerable magical girl, but there’s a heart and soul to this that makes it still quite engaging. Shinkai has a way of diving into emotional territory in a wholehearted manner that draws on the heartstrings very effectively. Okay, so there’s a little bit of “oh, so THAT’S what’s going on” towards the end, but this is pretty effective as an anime emotion splurge.