Shadowing Practice: Your Name And How Anime Changed My Life | Analysis - Learn English Speaking with Video

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It's pretty unusual for a film to have affected me so much that it pretty much changed me as a person.

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this, so it'd be cool to know what movies have affected you guys. As this is mine.

For a huge portion of my life, I always had this mindset that anime was dumb.

And what the hell, why are their eyes so big?

Even though, like the hypocrite I am, I used to watch Mega Man NT Warrior and Knights of the Zodiac.

In high school, there were kids that recommended anime to me, to my disdain, such as Death Note.

And upon watching the series, two things stood out to me.

One, man, these shows are insane.

And two, these intros are so loud and I don't like them.

But I pushed through, and Death Note is freaking amazing.

Go watch it.

The one thing I noticed at this point was that the shows may be different to what I'm used to, but that doesn't make them any less good.

Eventually, the summer of 2018, I watched Aggretsuko and My Hero Academia, and they ended up becoming my gateway animes.

And after this, I decided to finally watch an anime movie.

As before, I had only watched From Up on Poppy Hill, which I thought was excellent, And I chose your name, or Kimi no Nawa.

As I heard, this film was revered, and award shows in the US were criticized for not adding It and Kou no Katashi, a silent voice, to their best animated film category.

So I rented it digitally and watched it and- OH MY GOD, HOLY SH- The story, the visuals, the characters, the music all jumped at me and kept smacking me in the face back and forth, the intimacy of the shots,

the way light hits the characters, the emotions of the protagonists, the journey each take, the feeling of loss, and the feeling of finally connecting,

reconnecting, absolutely roundhouse kicked me in the eyes because I was crying by the end of the movie.

I didn't know what to expect.

I went in completely blind, and man, was I happy about that, because Kimi no Nawa is a masterpiece to me.

And I know some people think it's overrated, some people don't like it as much, but to me, this anime film has affected me more than any other I've watched so far,

and yes, I'm finally gonna talk about Kimi no Nawa, Your Name.

I'm spoiling everything here, so if you haven't watched it, do yourself a favor and watch the movie as quickly as possible.

Your Name is a 2D anime film directed by Makoto Shinkai that deals with the ties people have, the effects custom and traditions have on people, and how time weaves everything together.

The movie heavily integrates an Asian myth called the Red Thread or String of Fate.

The belief goes that two people connected by this thread are destined to be together, no matter what time, or place, or circumstance.

And this is the main concept that Your Name expands upon.

See, Your Name is a time travel, body switching movie.

I know.

What?

Let me explain what happens so you don't get confused if you haven't watched the movie.

So twice-ish a week, the main characters randomly switch bodies whenever they fall asleep, meaning Taki, the male protagonist, awakens in Mitsuha's body, and Mitsuha awakens in Taki's body.

Taki won't remember anything of what happens when Mitsuha takes over his body, so they have to write down on their phones what happened on the day of the Switch so the other knows.

And also, memories of the Switches flee from their mind, like dreams.

The reason why they switch bodies randomly is later explained in the plot.

Her name presents the idea of a greater power tying things together, called musubi.

Weaving threads is musubi, people sharing bonds and relationships is musubi, and the literal flow of time is musubi.

The character Taki lives in Tokyo and Mitsuha lives in the fictional rural town of Itamori.

Itamori's lake was created by a meteor splitting and crashing on Earth, creating the hole, and centuries later a new meteor is going through the Earth

and it's gonna split apart and create a second crater, unifying with the old one.

When Taki drinks Mitsuha's Kuchikamizake, he reconnects with Mitsuha, and as that is Misubi, a union with half of her, he is guided by the thread that Mitsuha gave him three years ago.

The sequence in which Taki travels through Mitsuha's life is this beautiful sequence that can only come from 2D animation, a spectacle that showcases gorgeous art.

And this sequence displays how everything is connected, from the fall of the meteor, to the creation of life, to the cutting of the umbilical cord, to the cutting of hair, to the end of life.

Scenes like this are what make your name so beautiful to look at.

There's so much attention to detail that feels natural and never in your face.

I appreciate the direction this film went, not being excessively showy, but rather being very small scale, even though the third act deals with a literal meteor strike.

What's more incredible is that like most Japanese animation, most of what you see that's animated is drawn by hand.

And to have everything go perfectly, Shinkai's storyboards need to be perfect.

It's not like a 3D animated film in which you can easily switch camera angles, it's It's more like a live action film.

If you shoot your footage and it comes out wrong, you have to do it all over again.

That's why the storyboarding process and direction is so important in 2D animated films.

The director, Makoto Shinkai, made his first animated short films on his own, drew them and colored them and such, and that's insane to me.

It gives me hope that one day maybe people will watch what I make.

The guy loves drawing backgrounds and weather, and the way he lights his shots gives scenes an ethereal beauty which is hard to describe.

Lighting is integral to filmmaking as it sets the mood.

And simple things like these I've tried to apply to my own work.

For example, this shot from the anime I'm working on, Interstellar Ranger Commence.

Here's a simple shot, but once you add lighting, it gives the scene a completely different vibe.

You can make something feel cold and distant, or warm and comforting with lighting.

The director of Kono Katashi, Naoko Yamada, also understands this completely, and is a huge reason as to why shows like K-On! look so beautiful.

I also made a video on K-On!, check it out if you haven't.

The film itself is incredibly fairytale-esque.

I love the fact that the story tells a simple tale of love persisting even

if you forget about being in love in the first place.

Even if time and space separates two people in love, there's something otherworldly that connects them.

A lot of Makoto Shinkai films have a tendency to not flesh out the characters excessively, past their most basic desires and what they feel.

For example, we get to know a bit about the characters in 5 centimeters per second, but not excessively.

It's more of an introspective look on the loss of youth and young love, something we all experience.

Meanwhile, Your Name tries to do something different.

The film is a lot more extrospective, it's a film about how everything is tied together, and there's a lot more hope in the film.

And I think that's a good reason why I love it more, Because it gives hope that there's something good after the bad.

Maybe it's just me.

There's something in your name that feels like escapism while still feeling authentic and grounded.

You see, these ordinary characters deal with extraordinary situations.

Like 5 centimeters per second, a good amount of the story deals with a character wanting to reach another.

For example, Taki wanting to reach Mithaha.

But we feel more, as we get more than just narration about what they feel.

We see them act out on their feelings and desires that much more they are very active protagonists.

At least that's what I took away from it.

Like stated before, the third act of the film deals with ordinary characters having to deal with an extraordinary situation, and like stated in my Iron Man 3 video,

a great way to add tension to a scene, or in this case an entire act, is a time limit.

Taki as Mitsuha only has a day to get the entire town's population to move to the safe haven

that is the school, as the meteor passing through will split and destroy everything.

And while we have certain things go in the protagonist's favor, there are a large amount of setbacks, and the way the characters slowly get more and more desperate is distressing.

That's a reason why the Katawaredoki scene in the film is so amazing.

It's a beautiful moment of youth and innocence that lets the audience breathe and reflect, before having Mitsuha, not Taki and Mitsuha's body, run down and save the town in her own way.

Letting the audience breathe is essential to every great third act.

When you have non-stop action and excitement, the action will eventually become stale, so moments of pause are necessary to let the viewer process what they just saw.

This should be obvious, but surprisingly, a lot of big blockbuster directors don't seem to understand this.

Something that really works in the movie is the two protagonists' circle of friends.

It helps to know who the people that surround the main characters are, as when they switch bodies, we see them react to their new personalities.

Taki being less impulsive and more feminine as Mitsuha's in his body, and Mitsuha being more reactionary and more masculine as Taki's inner body.

There's a charm to it, going small-scale with them discovering each other's bodies, to then eventually having the characters get used to the situations and going on with their lives.

I genuinely find it really neat

that the main characters fall in love with one another by reading what the other wrote the previous day, and by how the people who affect the other's life treat them.

They never have a full-on true conversation until they meet during Katawaritoki.

100

Taki calls Mitsuha's grandma, Grandma in the movie, and at a certain point, it's almost as if it's his family.

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Mitsuha builds up Taki's relationship with his co-worker Okudera, and through this, they appreciate what the other has, and ultimately appreciate who they are as a person.

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It's like switching bodies with your significant other, and getting to know their life and routine.

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You get to know the people they care about, and through this, you start to understand, respect, and care for your significant other that much more.

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The movie really builds up the relationship of Taki and Mithaha as this long-distance relationship.

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The one scene in which Mithaha goes on a four-hour train ride to Tokyo to meet Taki before they had even met, because time is brilliant to me.

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There's always a feeling of desperation in the movie, which morphs into a sense of dread in the third act.

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The whimsical cuteness of the body switching being like dreams

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that you start to forget becomes a curse around halfway through the movie

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and what was once a fun gag now actually becomes an actual dilemma.

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I... Who, you?

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The relationship between Taki and Mitsuha is so poignant

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that the movie reserves a very long amount of time after

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the climax of the meteor strike to further tug at the viewer's heartstrings.

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Will these two ever meet each other again?

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And the time skip is also a brilliant way to show where the rest of the characters of the film are, now that five years have passed for Taki and eight years have passed for Mitsuha.

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The narration at the film's end, which is the same narration as the beginning of the film, reaffirms the feelings of the protagonists, that they accomplished something great and they found love but cannot remember,

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and it's an easy yet substantial way to show the audience what the characters feel.

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It's a prolonged, nearly eight minute melancholic sequence in

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which you see time pass and the seasons pass and the two cross each other unknowingly, and it's excruciating.

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It's a long, slow burn until the two finally encounter each other out of pure chance and after waiting for so long,

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and understanding how these characters have been feeling for years, one can genuinely scream, Goddamn, finally!

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And the music by Radwimps that plays as the two search for each other intensifies the moment leading into the cathartic, final scene of the movie, and it is truly heartwarming.

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It's the message that no matter what time, place, or circumstance, whatever separates what was once tied together by something,

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in this case, love, the separated will come back together again in the end.

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Because that's Musubi.

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A union.

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And having body switching in the film isn't just for gags, it affects the way the characters feel and think as well.

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Mitsuha always wanted to live in Tokyo, and eventually does, but Taki being an architect is influenced by the culture and simplicity of where Mitsuha lived,

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and wants to preserve that idealized Homi Itamori he has in his mind.

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As if all of this wasn't enough, the soundtrack to this movie is phenomenal.

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The song and score in the movie are all composed by radwimps, who absolutely nail everything.

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The song's lyrics also make total sense in the context of the movie.

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The score also has multiple versions of Mitsuha's theme, and each variation translates to what's going on on screen at the moment.

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If Mitsuha's in the scene, if she's not, it all feels different.

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And the score has a profound impact on the scenes.

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The music when Taki goes on a date with Okudera, Mitsuha's theme plays, even though she's nowhere near Taki and Okudera.

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It's a melancholic version of her theme, which creates a sense of longing to be there.

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She made the date and she wanted to go.

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When Mithaha reaches the netherworld, when Taki goes through Mithaha's life, everything is distinct and meticulously composed.

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The Katawari Doki scene would not be the Katawari Doki scene if you change the music.

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It's that impactful.

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On this scene, it is easily one of my favorite scenes in all of animation.

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Not only for its brilliant animation, but the fact that it has two of the best cuts I have ever seen, ever.

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It's incredible how much was achieved, how the movie is able to tell a non-linear story and have it flow so effortlessly.

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How it makes you care for the characters, tradition, and the world that inhabit the film.

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The movie has inspired me in ways I can't even really describe, and after this movie I just went full weeb mode.

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I started consuming as much anime as I could.

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I still can't believe I was ignoring an art form for years, thinking it was dumb.

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That was incredibly stupid of me.

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I started making an anime because of how influential anime is as a medium.

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It feels incredibly whimsical, yet more mature than most animated features.

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Even anime films directed towards a younger audience are full of adult themes and treat the audience sincerely.

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They know the audience is smart.

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It's not Minion garbage.

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It's not trying to be relevant.

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Films like Kimi no Nawa, Kono Katashi, Akira, Princess Mono no Kei, From Up on Poppy Hill, Paprika, and shows like Rizero,

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Toradora, Kei-On, Monogatari, Origairu, My Hero Academia, and so many more have been huge inspirations to me.

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And I'm trying to apply what I've seen into the work I produce now.

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I am so happy to have dived headfirst into this world, which produces the weirdest things I have ever seen.

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But I love every bit of it, as cliche as some of the shows can be.

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No matter how recycled or formulaic anime can be, most of it just oozes creativity and passion.

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It cares more about characters and their relatability and their interactions with others and the world around them more than story.

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And when it does focus on story, we get some of the most insane fantastical stories ever.

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If only more American 2D animation put in as much care and attention to detail.

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Things like Gumball, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show, we need more of that, not more Spider-Man.

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What is this?

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What am I looking at here?

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What is that?

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I was making Return of Zootopia and its finale had heavy anime influence.

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Heck, I even gave the fan film an ED.

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And Interstellar Ranger Commence is a full-on anime.

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And it's been really tough to make.

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And I'm trying my damnness to pay attention to everything.

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From expressions, to lighting, to backgrounds.

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Backgrounds are the hardest.

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Just look at how amazing the shot is, tracking the motorcycle while the background seamlessly just appears in front of us.

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Look at this shot, tracking the characters and their perspective shifts slowly.

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Look at this extreme wide which can only be achieved through animation, or heavily edited and composited sequences in a film.

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Animation is magical.

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Your name is magical.

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And it genuinely changed my life.

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Thank you very much for watching.

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It's fantastic.

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He's also the writer of Story, and I've learned a lot from him.

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195

Thanks Audible for sponsoring today's video and thank you for watching.

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This video is actually kind of important to me.

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It summarized pretty much the last year for me.

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It's been a pretty crazy journey.

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I never expected me to go down this rabbit hole of weebness.

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So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video and please I have a subreddit, I have a discord, lots of stuff going on and I want to thank my patrons from Patreon.

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Really helps me a lot.

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All the support you guys give me, I really appreciate it.

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It's been a really hectic summer.

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I mean, I've been working on so many things.

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It's like my mind is exploding.

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I'm trying not to you know But yeah, it's been fun

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And I hope you guys are excited for interstellar Ranger commence cuz I've sent the scripts out to the voice actors.

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It's been great so far I've gotten some really really amazing amazing acting.

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There's one Scene in particular which is so well acted.

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I was like I got kind of emotional because you know seeing a scene that I wrote being so well acted

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It was just like...

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So yeah, it's been great.

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Thank you very much for watching.

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Thank you very much for coming to the table.

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And I'll see you all next time.

✨ Recommend Video

54 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 215 sentences and 3370 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:27. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

anime /ˈæn.ɪ.meɪ/ (noun) — An animated work that originated in Japan, regardless of the artistic style.
animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The act of animating, or giving life or spirit.
meteor /ˈmiːtiɚ/ (noun) — An atmospheric or meteorological phenomenon. These were sometimes classified as aerial or airy meteors (winds), aqueous or watery meteors (hydrometeors…
sequence /ˈsiː.kwəns/ (noun) — A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series.
protagonist /pɹəˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/ (noun) — The main character, or one of the main characters, in any story, such as a literary work or drama.
thread /ˈθɹɛd/ (noun) — A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
insane /ɪnˈseɪn/ (adjective) — Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ (adverb) — In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ (adverb) — In a genuine manner; truthfully, truly.
commence /kəˈmɛns/ (verb) — To begin, start.
ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ (adjective) — Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
connect /kəˈnɛkt/ (verb) — To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object.
extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ (adjective) — Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual.
breathe /bɹiːð/ (verb) — To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.
magical /ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪ.kəl/ (adjective) — Of, relating to, or by means of magic.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

deal with (verb) — To handle verbally or in some form of artistic expression; to address or discuss as a subject.
look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
go on /ˈɡoʊˌɒn/ (verb) — To continue in extent.
live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
build up (verb) — To erect; to construct.
care for (verb) — To attend to the needs of, especially in the manner of a nurse or personal aide.
go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
pass for (verb) — To be mistakenly seen as something that one is not

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 36 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, breathe /bɹiːð/, myth /mɪθ/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, cathartic /kəˈθɑɹtɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, substantial /səbˈstænʃəl/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, protagonist /pɹəˈtæɡ.ə.nɪst/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like anime, animation, meteor.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have been feeling · I've been working
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have affected · has affected · haven't watched
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is sponsored · was revered · are destined
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	beauty which is · people who affect · end, which is

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Your Name And How Anime Changed My Life | Analysis - Learn English Speaking with Video

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