Natanael Delgado March 5th, 2020

Your Life

As a TV show, Your Lie in April has plenty of time to explore its story. It can afford to

be subtle. As a movie, Kimi no Nawa is more limited in its timeframe, so it must be more direct

about its themes. The film uses specific Japanese ideology to describe a world where time and

reality itself is like a tapestry of many strings, winding around each other, binding to each other,

coming undone and then joining back together again. This is the best and only real explanation

for the premise that propels the plot. Like the classic science fiction novels, this movie takes one

simple idea and runs with it. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde asks, “What if one person was two

people?” Frankenstein asks, “What happens when someone goes too far in the name of science?”

Kimi no Nawa asks, “What if two people had to switch bodies over and over?” And while I

certainly wouldn’t say that the show is necessarily about that, I do appreciate it, nonetheless.

Your Lie in April on the other hand, while not any less fantastical, is totally grounded in

reality. It also deals with interconnected lives, but in a less obvious way. Music can be taken as a

metaphor for how someone lives their life. Arima had a rough start to his music career. He was

forced to play by his mother who beat him when he played a wrong note. The good part is it

worked really, really well. His playing inspired three of the characters to take up music and

changed the course of their lives. One of these people, Kaori, was inspired not to become a

pianist and surpass him, but to become a violinist and play with him. She finds out that she’s

going to die soon, so she goes through a drastic change in personality and more or less forces

Arima to play with her. The reason she had to force him is due to his trauma from his mother’s
abuse. He now plays in such a precise, yet passive way, that he can’t really hear the music

anymore, and even though others can hear the beauty of it, he is not able to reconcile the events

that led to his talent. Kaori forces him to play to the point that he has a breakdown on stage, then

flips the script and adapts her playing to his speed, like a parent steadying their child’s bicycle.

So, she passes her philosophy of music on to him. Where Arima used to play for his mother, and

he used to be able to play the piece exactly the way the composer originally envisioned it, Kaori

taught him to play however his heart desires. She teaches him to pick a specific emotion and

send it to the audience through whatever he’s playing. Kaori didn’t necessarily need Arima, but

Arima needed Kaori.

Taki and Mitsuha, the main characters of Kimi no Na wa, were thrown into this weird,

stupid situation where they actually have to meddle in each other’s lives. They are forced into a

super high level of intimacy and they go through a whole montage of conflict as a result. Unlike

Arima and Kaori, these two more or less get past the part where they “hate” each other, but only

after they realize that they miss each other when their connection inexplicably ends. Taki goes to

ridiculous lengths to try to find her again, and by doing so finds out that she and her entire

village died and that he had been going back four years every time he was in her body, and

reconnects to try to save the village from what had already happened. He does half the work, she

does the second half, and they forget about each other. Not because they actually wanted to, but

there was nothing they could do about it. The show ends with them finding each other again,

remembering only vaguely the relationship they once had.

These stories have a few important things in common. Both of the stories explore how

our actions affect the lives of those around us. In Your Lie in April, the action comes first, and

the lives are affected and connected as a result. In Kimi No Na Wa, the lives are connected first,
through sheer coincidence, might I add, and because of that interconnectedness, what we do

affects those around us. Another thing both shows explore is how little we can control who

comes in and out of our lives. Your Lie in April has an incredibly sad ending where Kaori dies

and the story woven between her and Arima hits its final note, and while Taki and Mitsuha do

find each other at the end, the memory of the incredible adventure they had together is lost

forever. People have liked this sad kind of love story since Romeo and Juliet, probably before

then in some mythology. This is a theme I can resonate with a lot, as it never seems that we as

human beings get to choose who we spend our lives with, we mostly don’t control who we were

born to, where those people take us, and who happens to be in the same place and time as us.

What we can do is move forward from there the best way we know how. Staying true to

ourselves, as Arima learned to, and putting it all on the line for those around us, as Taki did.

How to live? For yourself. Why? For those around you.

Bibliography:

Kincaid, Chris, and Ali. “Your Lie in April. The Impact We Have on Others.” Japan Powered,
28 May 2017, www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/your-lie-in-april-the-impact-we-have-on-
others.

Clenista, Justin. “The Intricacies of Makoto Shinkai's Newly Coveted Kimi No Na Wa (Your
Name).” Medium, AFSA Box, 7 Dec. 2016, medium.com/afsa-box/the-intricacies-of-makoto-
shinkais-newly-coveted-kimi-no-na-wa-your-name-fef4bc366313.