A video uploaded by YouTube user Ms. Rachel showed that some scenes in the hit anime, Kimi no Na wa or your name. by acclaimed director, Makoto Shinkai, were taken from other animes such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) by Mamoru Hosoda and Nijiiro Hotaru (2012) by Kōnosuke Uda.
These particular scenes were some of the most moving and dramatic shots in Kimi no Na wa. It was when Mitsuha, the girl protagonist from the film, was running down the mountain in a desperate attempt to save her town. The user argued that it looks exactly as the scene from Nijiiro Hotaru.
And when Mitsuha tripped and fell as she was running down the mountain, the user pointed out that the key animator copied that scene from when Makoto (protagonist from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) tripped and fell as she was trying to stop Kosuke from getting killed.
Though the semblance is undeniably similar with the scenes from Nijiiro Hotaru and Kimi no Na wa, the director of Nijiiro Hotaru, Kōnosuke Uda defended that this does not mean it has been copied:
久し振りに虹色ほたるで検索したら、うーん・・・てな事になってる。
私個人の意見として、劇場で見た時に「あれ？」とはなったけど、だからどうだということはないです。
監督の中でキチンと変換されていればそれはオリジナル。パクリという言葉で片付けるのは違います。— 宇田鋼之介 (@tanusuke45) July 26, 2017
“When I saw Your Name in the theater, I was like ‘Wait, is that…?’ But that’s just my personal opinion. If a director makes sufficient changes, then that’s original. It isn’t something you can just call a rip-off and have that be the end of the discussion.”
Another video was recently uploaded by the same user that compared stills from Nijiiro Hotaru and Kimi no Na wa vis-a-vis each other:
And as a result, Kimi no Na wa received negative reactions from some fans:
“At first I thought ‘Hmph, no way,’ but they’re actually exactly the same.”
“Your Name undeniably ripped off those scenes.”
“Totally and completely.”
“After watching that, it’s impossible to say the scenes weren’t ripped off.”
“I wouldn’t say Your Name ripped them off, but it definitely imitated them.”
But there were also others who defended the film and said that it was not a rip-off:
Regardless of what this controversial video points out, fans who have seen Kimi no Na wa would agree that it remains to be one of the most moving and well-crafted animated films to date.
