What does the anime “Kimi no Na wa (Your Name)” have in common with Blink 182?
Box office revenue exceeds 15 billion yen. Becoming a social phenomenon in Japan
The anime movie “Kimi no Na wa (Your Name)” is becoming a smash hit.
As of October 16, 2016, its box office revenue had exceeded 15 billion yen, making it the sixth biggest Japanese movie hit.
I rarely watch Japanese movies but it was Cinema Day (every 14th of the month at TOHO Cinema, you can watch a movie for 1,100 yen) so I decided to give it a try.
I went on a weekday afternoon but 80% of the seats were taken.
The audience was made up of a variety of people; young couples, mature couples, girl groups, lady groups.
There were a lot of guys too, which was a surprise.
What made the movie a hit?
The smash hit of “Kimi no Na wa (Your name)” was a surprise to even the producers of the film.
Their initial target was 1 billion yen so you can tell how big of a surprise it was to them too.
What were the factors that made it such a success?
I am no anime expert but what I thought was:
- Good story! Exchange bodies and fall in love, that’s typical. Throw in the concept of timing difference into the mix, now it gets interesting
- Reality within fantasy. The story is fiction, but the scenery and story settings are very real. I nearly fell off my seat when I found my apartment in the film
- Music is good. Music matches well with the graphics and story. Just goes to show how music is a big part of a film
All in all, I enjoyed it!
If you’ve thought about going, definitely go!
What does “Kimi no Na wa (Your name)” and Blink 182 have in common?
As I was watching the credits at the end of the film, I spotted Tom Lord-Alge’s name among the sound mixers.
Needless to say, Tom Lord-Alge does the mixing for one of my favorite bands, Blink 182.
I thought the music was good. I wonder if there’s a connection…
What’s up with Blink 182 recently?
With High Standard releasing a new song in 16 years and Blink 182 coming out with a new album, it seems the bands I used to listen to when I was young are still playing strong.
I wasn’t following what Blink 182 was up recently so I decided to do some catching up.
And oh man was I surprised.
Tom Delonge left the band…
I knew that the guys weren’t getting along well but Blink was Tom and Tom was Blink, right?
Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio has replaced him and they’ve released a new album called “California“.
I’ts not bad. I hear +44.
So I looked up to see what Tom was doing and found out that he has his own company called To the Stars and is doing well.
He has a record out under his name Tom Delonge.
A song called “The Invisible Parade” from that album is my current favorite.
Hey Tom, I wanna buy a CD but you only got LP or MP3/WAV on you site!!
One of the best weekends I’ve spent in a while
Watching movies, listenting to music, eating out, riding bikes
I think I’ve finally gotten used to life without work.