Beautifully animated and filled to the brim with heart, “Weathering With You” is a must-see. The movie is directed by Makoto Shinkai who is known for making movies on the topic of love, and “Weathering With You” is no different. It is about a boy who ran away from home and befriends a girl that can change the weather. A kind of outlandish premise, but that’s the beauty of this movie.

The animation is completely astounding. Every shot and every location is filled with small details. Every detail serves to draw the viewer in and give each place some personality. The set design works to give a glimpse of a character and is just as important in animation as it is in live-action and it nails this aspect. One character’s home is filled with newspapers, trash, unmade beds, and dirty clothes thrown on the floor. That serves to give an idea of how this character lives from day-to-day. Several locations in the movie are almost recreations of real places in Tokyo. A few examples are an internet cafe called. Manobo Shinjuku Yasukuni-Dori, the Tokyo City View Observation Deck in Roppongi Hills, and Yoyogi Kaikan Building. The team went through great lengths to make sure that these locations looked as close to their real-life counterparts. Some shots are just beautiful. When the weather changes from rainy to sunny it is truly a sight. It is hard to find an animated movie as beautiful as this one.

The movie spends a lot of time developing the bond between the two main characters, Hina Amano and Hodoka Morishima. The time spent between the characters shows to prove how love can grow in some unusual circumstances and how strong that bond can be. The side characters are fun to watch and never take too much focus away from the main characters. “Weathering With You” is a simple story about love. The things love can do to people and the things that love can make people do. It shows that people are willing to go through hardships with others if it means they stay together.

This movie is worth the price of admission on the animation alone. However, for those also interested in a heartfelt story, this is a must-see.