The Lobster Dance

I have a new book (and film) review of Makoto Shinkai’s your name. on Contemporary Japanese Literature. 

your name. is a novelization of director Makoto Shinkai’s your name., an animated film that tells the story of Mitsuha, a high school girl from rural Gifu prefecture who wishes she could be a boy in Tokyo in her next life. After an incredibly vivid dream in which she wakes up as “Taki,” a high school boy living in downtown Tokyo, she discovers it’s not a dream at all – and Taki is also switching bodies with her. As the two teenagers try to navigate each other’s lives and relationships, only able to communicate with each other only by writing notes in each other’s cell phones when they switch, they begin to unravel a mystery involving Mitsuha’s town.

As a nonbinary queer person, this film and book raised a lot of existential questions for me about physicality, memory, and bodies. Check out the full review here, and thanks again to Kathryn for letting me discuss this book!