Sunday, April 2, 2017

Koe no Katachi vs Kimi no Na wa

Image result for kimi no na wa Related image


Kimi no na wa and Koe no Katachi was shown around the same timing (about a month different?), and so there were many people who actually mistook Koe no Katachi as Kimi no na wa's 2nd season. So I thought I would do a little comparison of the two.

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Firstly, they are both made by very popular anime studios. CoMix Wave Flims (kimi no na wa's studio) is very famous for producing many breath taking movie animations like Kotoba no niwa, and Byousoku 5 cm (please do check them out if you haven't already watched them). They are usually known for their distinct art style with beautiful sceneries, and very touching story lines. They are also known for producing animation commercials. In this aspect, Kyoto Animation (Koe no Katachi's studio) is also very similar. However, unlike Kyoto Animation, CoMix Wave Flims do not produce animation series, and only limits to movies, short OVAs and single episodes.

Kyoto Animation is also known for their distinct art style, and recently, the realistically of their 'camera' work (which CoMix Wave Flims lacks in). Kyoto Animation is known for producing a lot of many popular anime series like Lucky Star, K-ON!, Hyouka, Kyoukai no Kanata, etc. Majority of their works were huge hits. Unlike CoMix Wave Flims, they do not have any specific set of types of works they produce, and range over comedy works like Nichijou, to mysteries like Hyouka, and action shows like Kyoukai no Kanata. Although Kyoto Animation focuses more on animation series, their movies are all very well received. Most of their movies are sequels to their animation series, but Koe no Katachi is a stand alone movie, which makes things a little different from their usual.

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While the two studios are known for their artistic backgrounds, and animation, the two are very different from each other. For me, CoMix has nicer backgrounds with more refined background effects and angles. However, if you are talking about more realistic-looking backgrounds (especially water effects), it's Kyoto Animation. There were times during the movie that I found myself staring at the background and wondering if it was real or not. Kyoto Animation also has a better animation of camera angles, and they add in scenes where the angles follow the character's line of sight, it gives it a very 3D effect. 

CoMix makes backgrounds looking more towards the fantasy side, and focuses more on the beauty of the animation as a whole. You would wish backgrounds in the movies exist in real life. The animation of the mentor in Kimi no na wa was really beautiful and you could only wonder how is it possible to produce such backgrounds.

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The casting of the two movies are also different. In Kimi no na wa, most characters are not voice actors but actual actors. Although Taki's voice actor - Kamiki Ryunosuke - has voiced in many popular movies like Piano no Mori, Summer Wars, etc. Some regular voice actors were also included in the movie (Shimazaki Nobunaga, Aoi Yuki, Ishikawa Kaito, Hanazawa Kana), but didn't quite play a big role in it. Which kind of follows studio ghibli's style. They try their best not to find voice actors to act in movies because they feel that voice actor's voices are too nice, which makes it less natural than non-voice actors.

On the other hand, Koe no Katachi was made up of popular regular voice actors. Of course Koe no Katachi was a lot harder to act because Nishimiya is deaf and can't really speak properly.

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As to which one is more popular...

The number of tickets sold in the first 2 days of release is as follows:
1. Kimi no na wa - 800,000+ Tickets sold - 1.76 Billion yen Box-office
2. Koe no Katachi - 200,000+ Tickets sold - 283 Million yen Box-office

Although some argue that Koe no Katachi didn't screen in as many theaters as Kimi no na wa, it is true that Kimi no na wa was more well known by both anime-watchers and non-anime-watchers. There was many information and social media coverage for Kimi no na wa because many people where talking about how good Kimi no na wa was, and many went to watch it a few times. For Koe no Katachi, however, was very popular amoung the anime-watchers. Many, like me, have been eyeing the movie since the day the PV was released (and we had to wait for like a year).

Kimi no na wa had a story line that makes people excited, while Koe no Katachi touches your hearts deeply (although it leaves you with a very heavy heart). Which also explains why Kimi no na wa was more well spread than Koe no Katachi.

Kimi no na wa's story line was more light hearted, while Koe no Katachi was more mature and had very deep contents. So Kimi no na wa catered to a wider range of audiences, both young and older, while Koe no Katachi was best related to the people above 16 years old, and the duration of Koe no Katachi was long so people who don't like long stories would probably find Koe no Katachi hard to sit through.

But for anime-watchers, Koe no Katachi seems to be a lot more popular.

After watching both shows, I feel that at first I preferred Kimi no na wa. But after awhile, I feel that Koe no Katachi left a stronger impression as some goes by. I found myself thinking a lot about the plot lines and meanings behind the different scenes, while Kimi no na was was just a 'very nice and touching story'.

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Kimi no na wa won many many different awards, their voice actors even won awards in the annual voice actor awards.
List of awards and nominations
YearAwardCategoryRecipient(s)Result
201649th Sitges Film Festival[37]Best Animated Feature Length FilmYour NameWon
60th BFI London Film Festival[38]Best FilmYour NameNominated
18th Bucheon International Animation FestivalBest Animated Feature Special Distinction PrizeYour NameWon
Best Animated Feature Audiences PrizeYour NameWon
29th Tokyo International Film Festival[39]Arigatō AwardMakoto ShinkaiWon
6th Newtype Anime Awards[10]Best Picture (Film)Your NameWon
Best SoundtrackYour NameRunner-up
Best Theme Song CategoryZenZenZenseRunner-up
41st Hochi Film AwardBest PictureYour NameNominated
29th Nikkan Sports Film AwardBest FilmYour NameNominated
Best DirectorMakoto ShinkaiWon
2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards[40]Best Animated FilmYour NameWon
Women Film Critics Circle 2016[41]Best Animated FemaleYour NameNominated
201744th Annie Awards[42]Best Animated Feature — IndependentYour NameNominated
Outstanding Achievement, Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionMakoto ShinkaiNominated
21st Satellite Awards[43]Best Animated or Mixed Media FeatureYour NameNominated
71st Mainichi Film AwardsBest Animated FilmYour NameWon
59th Blue Ribbon AwardsBest FilmYour NameNominated
Best DirectorMakoto ShinkaiNominated
Special AwardYour NameWon
11th Asian Film AwardsBest ScreenplayMakoto ShinkaiNominated
40th Japan Academy PrizeExcellent Animation of the YearYour NameWon
Animation of the YearYour NameNominated
Director of the YearMakoto ShinkaiNominated
Screenplay of the YearMakoto ShinkaiWon
Outstanding Achievement in MusicRadwimpsWon
36th Anima Festival[44]Audience Award for Best Animated FeatureYour NameWon
11th Seiyu AwardsBest ActorRyunosuke KamikiWon
Best ActressMone KamishiraishiWon
Synergy AwardYour NameWon

Compared to Koe no Katachi who was overshadowed by the release of Kimi no na wa.
YearAwardCategoryRecipientResultRef.
201771th Mainichi Film AwardsBest Animation FilmA Silent VoiceNominated[21]
40th Japan Academy PrizeExcellent Animation of the YearWon[22]
Best Animation of the YearNominated
Tokyo Anime Award FestivalAnime of the Year (Film Category)Grand Prize[23]
20th Japan Media Arts FestivalAnimation division - Excellence AwardWon[24]
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In the end, different people have different impressions and opinions on the 2 animes. Although they maybe similar in terms of their outlook, but they are 2 very different works which are both very well-loved.

Which one was your favorite? 

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