Weathering With You Drops Major Your Name Easter Egg

Makoto Shinkai is one of the most prominent anime directors among fans and at the box office, but one of the more appreciated bits from dedicated fans is the fact that most of his films have been teased to take place in the same universe. This was the case with the immensely popular Your Name, which was later edited for broadcast with a special cameo from his previous work, The Garden of Words. It seems that this is the case for his latest work, Weathering With You, as well with the most direct tie-in yet.

Weathering With You recently screened in the United States with a limited theatrical release, and it’s here that even more fans noticed the major shout out to Your Name with some major cameos not unlike the previous cameos featured in previous films. Read on for a full explanation, but beware because there are major spoilers!

Weathering With You takes place several years after the events of Your Name, but before Taki and Mitsuha reunite in the future at the end of that film. When Weathering With You’s main characters Hodaka and Hina meet and discover the full scope of her weather controlling powers, they start up a specialty business. One of these clients is actually the grandmother of a now older Taki, who makes an appearance in the film.

Taki talks with Hodaka and convinces him to buy Hina a present for her upcoming birthday, and the place he visits actually has an older Mitsuha working at the shop! The two Your Name characters don’t have any major impact on the story, so newer fans won’t feel like they’re missing out, but it’s certainly a big deal for those who’ve wanted to see more of Your Name ever since that first film came to an end. That’s probably why there’s still a live-action Western version of the film in the works.

These cameos open up all kinds of strange timeline questions the more you dig into how Weathering With You’s story plays out, but it all oddly works within Shinkai’s already magical realism influenced world. Have you seen Makoto Shinkai‘s latest? If so, what do you think of Weathering With You? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!