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I love Your Name but I understand its themes of fate aren't gonna be for everyone and I appreciate hearing another person's perspective on it.

I can't express enough how vindicated I feel watching this. I watched this movie with my SO at the time, and we ended up having an argument because of how completely unsatisfied I felt coming away from it. The whole forgetting thing, moving on to monotonous lives, change just not happening, all because someone said a line once that people forget about these supernatural occurrences? It felt like such bullshit and I didn't have the words you do now to really explain how I felt. I was just labeled as wrong and dumb for feeling such a strong lack of satisfaction. That I just didn't read it "correctly". I was in a part of my life where I never would stand up for myself with these things. I was on the opposite end of change from where I am now and I valued someone more than myself, made evident by the fact that they didn't value me either. So honestly, thank you for helping tie up a loose end, however small it was.

I think you might have also missed where the Grandma talked about. Having the same body switching experience. When she was younger, but then never acting on it.

If you are opposed to the concept of fated relationship and attachments then I suggest watching 5 Centimeters per Second, which illustrates two individuals slowly drifting apart. Also Honey and clover (anime version) has similar themes of obsession and letting go among many others. Its an anime about art college students growing up and learning which paths they want to take in life. These two stories are gold mines for exposition and commentary.

What are you talking about? Taki and Mistuha EARNED that future together. It wasn’t just “fate”. She would have been dead without Taki and Mitsuha going through the change they did and use it to save the town.

I disagree that the meaning behind their meeting is mitigated by the meteor striking. Nietzsche has a principle vaguely defined as "If you lived life in an endless loop, would you still be satisfied with it?" The idea of a red string of fate isn't necessarily to change your trajectory in life; Nietzsche can be seen as arguing that, at worst, you have no agency in the direction you choose. The ending is much like the idea of that string: fate decided their meeting, their interactions, and their eventual fates. There still exist two potential paths, and either is viable. Like Schrodinger's Cat, both are simultaneously as real as one another. I would say the point is to find someone different than you to expand your horizons. That's what makes the story so engaging. That's why I don't believe the point is fate necessarily so much as the idea that, ultimately, your end point can be anywhere you want. It's how you view it internally that matters most. You could end up single and poor but happy and loving life. You could end up married with a giant family where you cheat on your spouse and end up coping with severe alcoholism. The destination nor the journey matter most; what matters is that you have no regrets nor would you alter any event or happenstance. If you have a regret, use it to shape your future. If anything, I would say the message is that fate isn't fatalistic. It's only as determined as you are unwilling to change.

If you haven't yet Mawaru Penguindrum takes an interesting take on fate, even a character who claims everything is destiny + fate when we first meet her. There's also a v good 5-ish part essay that gives much more cultural context (I don't have it on hand rip), and overall the anime feels like a good follow up/contrast o:

Katawaredoki and Mitsuha's Theme are some of my favorite OST songs, theres a ton of tracks from Your Name and Weathering With You that never fail to hit.

I haven't even made it through half of the video yet but so far this has profoundly resonated with me. Generally I am very happy with who and where I am, I always will be. I have the best friends and family anyone could ask for, and a nice stable job with a good income and so much more. And yet I can always feel this sense of longing for something different, something new. My life is comfortable, enjoyable but has veey little variety. My job is stable but barely stimulating, and I'm not proactive about trying new things like I want to be. Change, especially major change terrifies me to no end, and yet I still long for it, at least for just a little taste of what life could be if I was a different person. I sit and I think about the games and anime I enjoy so much and experience a life so different from my own that i can't help but enjoy getting lost in them, and yet when it is over there's that tinge of emptiness all over again. Nothing has changed. In many ways fate has blessed me with a good life that I'm sure many other people would wish for and yet I still wish fate had built me just slightly differently. Thank you for this video though. I don't really know what I'm trying to say through this comment but... To me this just hits a bit different

Great vid I never get tired of seeing your insight on this kind of concepts

Shinkai stated that he didn’t like the ending but he ran out of funds halfway through. I think I understand the consequence of that now

I think fate in media is just in general a hard thing to please everyone with. As it doesn't really exist (the same way in the real world, at least)/mean the same thing to everyone, we all have very different interpretations on what makes a story that involves that factor satisfying. I don't find the fate theme to be all that compelling in Your Name, but I like every other aspect of the story and love the character relationships.

I was talking with a friend of mine about fate and she said she believes in it, that we all are drawn to certain places and people. I said I was unsure to belive fate exists, I told her our actions make what we are now, but there's might be something greater than us that helps us to be where we are, and I took as example the way that, if I decided to take a fallow year before actually going to university, I haven't met her or any of our friends in common. I think people looks for having complete control of their life, which is impossible, or leaving the flow of their lives to "fate", which is painful if thinks doesn't goes as expected. We must find a point where we are brave enough to face life and make what we want about it, but stop worrying about things exceed our control and just let them be.

Man your videos are so real, like talking about real life, you do the best job of relating stories to your own experiences and in part our own as well, thanks for your time homie.

Yet another outstanding video. You are amazing at analyzing and explaining both the topics you speak about aswell as expressing your own views. I love hearing your thoughts on these topics as it’s extremely interesting to see your analyses. Im super thankful i found your channel and you never cease to expand my own analyses even when I disagree. You are among my favorite creators on this platform. I also really enjoy how real you are in your videos, they feel so genuine and personal and it makes it that much better. Keep doing you, much love and take care of yourself. Thank you for being you.

I disagree almost entirely with all that is said here. I really like Your Name and it isn’t a perfect movie and could have done some things better, but I think this view of it is more about your view of fate than of the movie itself. Some things I disagree with is that their development gets undone because of the meteor and the amnesia, that isn’t true, we are shown that even if they don’t have the memories, their feelings aren’t erased, the way they changed isn’t lost. Mitsuha convinced her dad to perform the evacuation, it wasn’t because of Taki, Mitsuha was the one that changed thanks to Taki and the experience to become able to face her father, something she could have never done before. We also see that years later Taki in interviews says he wants to do landscapes in Tokyo that leave heartwarming memories in people since the City could disappear like Itadori, this is a new motivation he got from the experience, even if he doesn’t remember. Another thing is that I don’t think they get together because of fate, but because of love. It’s never expressed that fate was pushing them neither together or apart. It’s more that Mitsuha’s family had this supernatural power that makes them exchange body with someone and they all forget it. The difference is that unlike her mother and grandmother, Mitsuha doesn’t let go of it, why? Because she loves Taki and Taki loves her. If it was just fate why did the mother and grandmother just moved on from it and don’t care much about it, shouldn’t they also have fallen in love with the person they changed bodies with? Since it’s fate? This is why I disagree, you interpreted it being all fate, they fell in love because of fate and they still miss each other because of fate. But why does it only work like that for the two of them and not the others. IMO it’s because the others didn’t fall in love. That fate wasn’t trying to make them fall in love, or at least wasn’t trying to keep them in love for years. This connection was only created with the purpose of saving the people of Itadori, and after that the supernatural elements left them alone and the feelings of emptiness that remained is because they are missing the other person, not because fate wills them to live like that. Also, I don’t get how them falling in love it’s weird. People fall in love for a myriad of reasons. They experience something that connected them a lot and they learnt about each other a lot and also help each other help. Taki improved Mitsuha by helping her become more assertive and willing to do things to change her own life, and Mitsuha helped Taki become less quick tempered and to find bigger motivations and purpose in life, both on his career and in his love. Also, they don’t live their lives accepting faith, they are moving forward, Mitsuha moving to Tokio like she always wished and Taki looking for a job where he can follow his passion. They don’t live at the mercy of fate, they just miss each other, which it could even be seen as going against fate since they are supposed to have forgotten, but they didn’t. I also think the movie presents Taki’s search for Itadori and Mitsuha as something he is doing because he cares about her and wants to see her, not because fate is forcing him. You can say that it’s all fate fault, but in the movie that isn’t said and it is looked as Taki being stubborn in his pursuit. I do not believe it robs him of his agency. And are we ever truly free? How much are we tied down to what our parents taught us or not taught us?To what we learnt from our friends? From what out countries, cultures and religions taught us? You see, we are never truly free, but does that make it fatalistic? I don’t think so. Fate isn’t shown as a bad thing in the movie, if anything, it’s benevolent since it did stuff in order to save people’s lives. It’s only evil or wrong if one views any form of fate as bad and an afront on freedom. Is having a fated person a bad thing? Is our parents making plans for our lives when we were babies a bad thing? I think the theme of this story is not about fate actually, and the fate stuff was more a vehicle for the plot and for the characters development, and that the real point was their love that can trascend fate. I think nowadays our society has become a lot more individualistic, depending on other people for our happiness is viewed as bad, doing things for others in pursuit of happiness is also viewed as nonsense. Today it’s always me me me, what I want and what I need to be happy has to be all about us and our own fulfillment. It’s not like a fully disagree with this premise, but it’s not accurate. We need people, we advocate for full freedom of everything, but can we be happy if we are free of everything and everyone? No. We need others, we need love, our families, our friends, our partners, they are all necessary for us to be fulfilled. Helping others is also a source of happiness that tends to be forgotten. So as most of this comment says, I think the reasons stated in this video are too biased in disagreeing with the views the movie has on life. I can’t say for sure who is right, the movie, you, or me. While I do think it’s fine not to like the movie or not liking the themes, I believe it can cause an incorrect assessment when we put too much of our opinion in it. Interpreting fate as bad for people is fine, but that is not the message the movie is sending. Although I may disagree with this video in a lot of ways, it’s always cool to see other people’s experiences, and there’s other videos I do agree with more, like the Steins;Gate video, which I loved. Keep up the videos, I like them as well as the many other people watching.

Your videos have been a great inspiration for me, keep up the good work

I really appreciate your videos thank you !

Your videos rock :) Thank you for making these

Also gods yes "This does not mean that every method of survival, through our current lens is required. So I believe we should be very cautious in the comfort we find. Is that comfort disrespecting something greater about us?" Those few lines go so hard. I am trying to make my friends, who are better off in life than I am currently (in regards to financial freedom and housing) understand this- and failing, because their priviledge blinds them. It is a very painful and lonely experience- but I try regardless- because I feel like I have no other choice when it comes to kindling the flame that's needed to bring forth positive change. The world is becoming more unliveable for many of us every day- and I really think it shouldn't be that way, we don't have to just surrender to that fate when things could be different.

Dude this and "A Silent Voice" made me as a grown ass man in my 20's bawl my eyes out upon first viewing, very few stories have this emotional response from me so they hold a special place in my heart.

This explains why the movie was such a bummer to me, when I watched it. Thank you for giving words to it in such detail!

Fantastic job on explaining your view

On point Prof ☕☺️ thank you

another great vid thank you professor

Anybody else click on this thinking it was about the Fate series?

The losing memory thing didn't bother me too much but the magic bs deleting data on their phones annoyed me to no end

Great video!

Hello Professor Viral, thanks for your informative video's which explains the connection between anime and real life. By the way I recently saw Talentless Nana; it's epic man.

So i just realized. Why is there no video about the monogatari series on your channel? :3

Forgetting something isn't a big issue imo, just like Lain in the end abandoning everyone and them abandoning their memories of her. It doesn't mean that it never happened or that everything was for nothing. The same goes for characters taking their own life, you could argue they never changed as a person, they just ended everything before they could actually change anything. But with that being said I understand the criticism and I would agree the ending/p2 wasn't as good as the beginning, it certainly could have been more. It was rushed for dramatic effect.

Great vid!

When they both met on the crater, didn’t they cast their own red string? I took this as they decided to choose their own fate together.

27:54 I felt like I seen him in this certain type of video before now that i think about it🤨🤨🤨

Doing something with Haruhi would be intriguing. My love-hate dance with that show is always something that I like to think about.

Just starting the video when I start writing this, but I wanna bring my take on fate and free will I am of the stance that the world is deterministic, but specifically, I believe in a form of causal determinism, I'd say it's causal soft determinism. Things happen as a result of what's already happened, true randomness is a myth, the only evidence for true randomness is in the quantum realm, a realm we can't really study well right. We make decisions based on what we've experienced, we make decisions on the emotions we feel when we make them, and those emotions are the result of our memories and our circumstances, but we make those decisions, and I believe that is still free will, if we didn't make our decisions based on all that, we'd merely be a true random number generator, we are no longer a culmination of our history. I don't think this view really effects my life, I don't feel like I find comfort in it or discomfort, I find it doesn't free me or restrain me, it doesn’t really effect anything, it's just things functioning as they always have. Humans are flawed meat computers, so what? We think, we feel, we live, we die, we impact the world around us, we get impacted by the world around us. Stories revolving around fate, whether treating it as a thing you can reject or a thing you can't avoid, I almost always get a bit frustrated by, to some extent, at least once I think about it, the best stories about fate in my experience, tend to be the ones that actively make you forget that this is fate we're talking about, or stories where the characters reject worrying about it. I find "your name" good, but I recognise it is incredibly flawed, it's mostly beautiful visually, and it is good at tugging at the heart strings. You're wrong in the distinction between daralism, fate, determinism, and destiny. Determinism is all of the above, it is just that the future is already determined, before it gets there, fate is a vague concept which applies to all metaphysical form of determinism (almost synonymous with theological determinism), there's also a few different forms of determinism that function like you say determinism describes, the differences tend to be the answer to "why" logical determinism is basically that "if the past is decided, the future probably is just the same", causal determinism (which I believe in) is that the future is determined because actions have equal and opposite reactions, randomness doesn't exist.

I thought you were a big channel because how good the content is.

"gotta have rizz over the most important moment in his life" legit made me pause

Curious about your thoughts on stories where defying fate is the whole point. For an example, fire emblem awakening (minor, vague spoilers) The characters are told something is fated to happen and the whole core of the story is “challenging fate” to create the future they want. Does that kind of story avoid this kinda criticism?

I have often said something similar, along the lines of Pascal's wager. Free will exists, or it doesn't. You can live as if it does, or it doesn't. If free will exists, but you live as if your life is fated, you will miss opportunities. If free will exists, and you live as if it does, you will maximize your opportunity. The kicker is that the other half of Pascal's wager doesn't exist, because if free will doesn't exist, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE WHAT YOU BELIEVE. Ergo, live as if free will exists.

31:55 real q but doesn’t this only apply if the believer thinks they have / do not have free will? Whether there is free will or not doesn’t affect the positive mindset that free will grants to the believer In that sense whether it was fate that rewarded Taki and Mitsuha doesn’t matter because they acted to seize the opportunity that lay in front of them, and they were rewarded for doing so regardless of whether that reward came about because of fate or free choice Maybe I’m pulling out of my ass idk But I agree that Shinkai showing how taki and mitsuha had grown into a better person after meeting the other would have made the story that much more fulfilling

Im not gonna lie to you, in rn at the middle of the vid and you just effectively critized everything wrong with my life and i have no idea how to tahnk you or how it happened. I have a problem with attention, so much that it affects my memory, it makes it so that everytime there is another stimuli i forget stuff. Ive comed to the realization over and over again, the thing that will make my life change, over and over, only to forget it, cuz there is no one else to hear the tree fall. So i stand there confused into why im looking at a fallen tree when i just saw it fall. Im... obsessed with that loss, that confusion, im too focused on trying to remember fhat thing that will change me that i deny ANYTHING that could replace that. I make my life unfulfilling and mediocre by deying the change. By focusing in the things i cannot hold. When maybe i just need to learn and let go. Maybe there is a place where no once can care and we all just have a party.. maybe im that place.. and i need to fight for my own happiness.. ive been delaying that.. because i want someone to hear it? Someone that could make me remember with the same intensity, someone that could hold my hand and i feel its warmth.. but maybe im that person. Im the only one i need? Maybe i dont need anybody else ..Is that just a way to cope? And what if i need the way to cope?! I mean, maybe its a bad decision.. but have you ever though that maybe what you need IS a bad decision? Maybe the next step is to fall, and then to land.. in refusing my life its purpose. To change. To never stop. I am human after all.

27:52 WE WON

WOO YOUR NAME ANALYSIS VIDEO

The concept of soulmates and stuff like that, I have never enjoyed it. Whats the point in doing anything if its already pre-determined??? If I'll meet my soulmate no matter what I do and we'll get together, why don't I just lay in bed all day?

Just to chime in to say that if he had written his name the the god woul've just erased it like all the notes of their interactions in the notepad and cellphone.

Hmmm.... it didn't feel like fate to me, especially since Taki willingly sacrifices the most precious thing he has - their shared memory - to save the people of the village. Fate may have its plans, but we're free to mess with them.

Berserk Review/Analysis.

Oh god why did he lost his memory. Andsh doesnt get to follow upin his steps and show how she has toput workand change to do hange her cities fate. And dang, him inspiring her could b a major factor for falling in love. And he could have the mesages and that have him try to question his life, and put work in. Goddamit, a major factor about that fate stories is that youjusst have tohave themput workin, and at least remember something . There can be pretty interesting takeson fate, and soulmates. Spirit circle is amazing,and its an anime and its really a curse that sets themupas antagonists near allthe time,but also how well they would fit together. Cause its about several incarnations pretty great manga. fat is opretty good, if there are grave odds empaphized and that fate is not rooting for them. Like pretty good for enemies to lovers too. Or doyour best fail and still enjoy what you can. Hellilove that about lexx, where the universe is fun cartoonish dark,in a loop, and extremely deterministic. And itkinda does butitsreally inspiring how the misfits, emmost is driven by them being horny, but thy stillnever give upon their goal finding a place to belong despite evrything that can go wrong, going. I love when its against the fate or at least trying and finding something despite it. fate makes a way better problem or antagonist than goal. i think. the 12 monkeysseries is pretty good too, and fate kinda exists or how impossible it seems tochange things and how they hav to grow and adapt to, like the first season bein set up to, to that and them trying tochange , its really good . Or how fate in groundhod day is really punihing himand forcing him togrow as a person and at the end he does,and puts work into improving himself.And do things for others. And to end ithe has to stop thinking of himself first . While yah tere is romance,his growth is what changes things. And ilove how he cant exploit her interestnotmore because itmaks him looklike a stalker XD

Is this sad man, I might watch it before your video but I can’t do sad shit

Man, I was already not a big fan of Your Name since I struggled to feel invested in the main characters. But when you went into detail about Mitsuha and her personal struggles with her identity and change, it makes me all the more upset that all of that is tossed out the window for a forced romance. EDIT: Oh God, I forgot how Taki just... doesn't remember anything, so both characters end up back at the start in terms of development. Sigh...

Hello!

Common W Professor Viral Video

Yo

Engagement

haha, you talk like we can actually choose what to believe, I mean how and what we believe is also affected by past knowledge, anatomy, and so on

silly :)

It,s nice to watch some good drama from time to time great movie ty Viral