Words can’t express how excited I am for Makoto Shinkai’s upcoming anime film, Tenki No Ko: Weathering With You. Tenki No Ko translates to “weather child” or “child of weather” in English, and is about a runaway high school boy who meets a girl that can control the weather. From the critically-acclaimed Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters Per Second), Tenki No Ko: Weathering With You is going to be one of the biggest films of the year in Japan. The story of Tenki No Ko is still a mystery, but there are a few things we may be able to infer from the clues revealed in the trailers.
What is Tenki No Ko About?
After Your Name broke box office records worldwide, writer and director Makoto Shinkai has a lot to live up to. Every critic is dying to see if Shinkai really is the next Hayao Miyazaki or just a one-hit wonder. Currently, tot a lot is known about Tenki No Ko’s story. So far, two trailers have been released and the second trailer released last week included a lot of small details many people may not have noticed. Here is my in-depth analysis and three Weathering with You story predictions based on the recent trailer (see trailer at the bottom of this post).
1. Selling the Weather
A large portion of the plot will revolve around Hodaka and Hina using Hina’s powers to sell weather conditions online. In the second trailer, a very quick shot shows a tablet with an online order form that shows the price of 3400 yen (around 31 USD). Underneath the price, it says “If you don’t like the rain, Sunshine Girl will bring the sun 100% guaranteed,” in Japanese. That shot is followed by the same order form on a mobile phone.
2. Trouble with the Yakuza
It’s obvious in the trailers that Hodaka gets mixed up with the Yakuza or at least with some small criminal organization. In the trailer, an older, sketchy looking guy named Keisuke asks Hodaka if he’s looking for work. Shortly after, there is another quick shot of Hodaka being cornered by the police.
Later on in the trailer there is a gun fired, followed by Hodaka trying to run from a thug holding a gun.
I have a slight suspicion that Hodaka may have gotten into some debt with the Yakuza and he and Hina are using their weather ordering website to help pay off his debts. Unless there is something else Hina and Hodaka need money for, I don’t think Shinkai would have them sell the weather for their own profit because this would take away from the likability of the main characters. It could be that they are selling the weather just to make up their own costs of living and Keisuke pressured Hodaka to do some other smaller jobs for the Yakuza, but we’ll have to watch the film to find out.
3. Hina will Return to her own World
This is the biggest prediction on this list and one that I wish I’m wrong about. Seeing that two of my favorite anime are Anohana and 5 Centimeters Per Second, I’m a huge sucker for sad endings. But at the same time, I like seeing the characters happy in the end, so I’m torn about the idea of Hodaka and Hina not living happily ever after.
With that said, I believe Hina will return to her own world or at least not remain with Hodaka in Tokyo. Obviously Hina isn’t a normal girl, but I’d go even further and say that she isn’t human. Hina is either a weather god or spirit incarnated in human form for some unknown reason and must leave the physical world at the end of the film. There are multiple pieces of evidence from the second trailer that points to this conclusion.
The Ring and the Necklace
Firstly, Hodaka buys Hina a ring, but immediately after the two of them are seen crying and holding each other. In one shot, Hina is smiling, while holding a small box and looking at Hodaka. I’m guessing in this scene, Hodaka tells Hina he is falling for her after giving her the ring as a gift.
In the next shot, Hina is seen with a ring on her finger. The tears Hina sheds are not tears of joy after receiving a gift, but tears of sadness. Likewise, Hodaka sheds tears of his own with a forlorn expression at some unknown revelation. I believe that overcome with emotion, Hina tells him the truth about what she is and how she must return to her own world.
Later on, there is another shot showing Hina lying in bed with the necklace she usually wears around her neck, but this time it’s on her wrist and the raindrop pendant is glowing slightly. I interpreted this scene as Hina losing strength in this world, while Hodaka desperately clutches her hand, wishing she wouldn’t go.
Obon: The Return of Ancestral Spirits
Secondly, based on this shot of a social media post, the events of the film take place during August of 2021. Specifically, the date August 11th is very close to the Obon national holiday in Japan.
Obon week is a week for honoring one’s ancestors in Japan and a time where people usual visit their family graves to pay their respects. It’s believed that during Obon, spirits of the dead come to the physical world to visit their relatives and at the end of Obon, the spirits return to their own world.
Likewise, I think Hina will also have to return to her own world at the end of the film. During the final seconds of the trailer, Hina is shown in a traditional Japanese yukata, gazing at the sunset. When do people wear yukatas in the summer? They wear them during summer festivals and in August there are numerous Bon odori(dance) festivals in Japan.
The Shinkai Effect
The final nail on the coffin that leads me to believe Hina will leave at the end of the film is Makoto Shinkai himself. If you’ve watched other Shinkai romance films (5 Centimeters Per Second, Garden of Words), you’ll know that Shinkai has a strong the-one-that-got-away complex. Of all Shinkai’s romance films, Your Name is the only film where the two love interests actually end up together with a happily-ever-after type ending.
I strongly don’t think that Shinkai would release two films with happily-ever-after endings back to back. If he did so, people would criticize him for simply following the Your Name formula and Shinkai is too much of an artist to release the same film twice. He wants to do something different, and regardless of whether or not these predictions end up being true, I know for a fact we’re all in for something special when Tenki No Ko is released in Japan this July and early 2020 in North America.
Do you think my predictions are correct or am I way off? Have you got any predictions of your own? Let me and my readers know in the comments below!
Tenki No Ko: Weathering With You Trailer
On June 30th in Japan, Kimi No Na Wa is being broadcast on TV nationwide. Apparently we will be shown new scenes from Tenki No Ko during that broadcast. Please subscribe and stay tuned for my future post about that reveal.
If you’re looking for more anime reading, be sure to check out:
5 Romance Anime to Fill the Your Name Void
5 Truly Scary Japanese Horror Anime
Detective Pikachu Film Review
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