Manga: Your Name. Another Side: Earthbound

Your Name. Another Side: Earthbound Vol 1 

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

During the events of your name., Mitsuha and Taki's miraculous encounter forever changed their lives. But they weren't the only ones affected by their body swapping -- Mitsuha's friends and family have their own sides of the story to tell! 

I completely loved Your Name, it surprised me and wasn't at all what I was expecting! Ever since I heard about this spin off, I've been excited to get back to the characters and explore them more than we did in the initial three volumes of the main series! 

We get a brief recap to remind us what happened in the main series and then we dive in to exploring the characters! I loved getting to see what it was like for Taki adjusting to being Mitsuha and being in a girls body which I had been excited for in the main series. It provides plenty of funny instances, like interacting with her friends and telling off some mean girls for the first time. Plus the hilarious "bra issue" he had. We also get to see some more of her sister and the strangeness that she noticed going on with Mitsuha, when Mitsuha was actually Taki. And of course we get to see some more of Mitsuha's friends. 

This volume focuses on Tesshi, for the most part. He's the heir to the contracting business and I really felt for him. Mitsuha and he are quite similar in the family duty and business duty that they have, but while Mitsuha is planning to leave, Tesshi feels like he can't because of the workers. 

I feel like his struggle is quite relatable, and I admired his determination to change things in the town. But I loved getting to delve in to his character more and see how Taki and Mitsuha interacted with him respectively, and how Taki helped him in his own way. It not only expands the characters, but also expands upon the world a little bit and lets you see more of it and brings the town more to life. 

Manga: Your Name 3

Your Name Vol 3
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

To save Mitsuha and all of Itomori from the comet Tiamat, Taki joins up with Saya-chin and Tesshi to evacuate the town. But Mitsuha's father is stubborn and refuses to listen...

Okay guys, this is the final volume and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I'm gonna keep things as vague as I can! I have to say, this has sucked me in more and more and the twists have truly surprised me throughout! 

The comet is imminent and Taki and co are springing their plan in to action to get the town evacuated because as is typical, no-one believes the teenagers. Meanwhile Mitsuha has gone to Tokyo in search of Taki....but he doesn't recognise her!? 

This volume is so tense as we wait to see if things will change and the town will be saved and if Mitsuha and Taki will finally be together. I have to say, the volume did give me pause towards the very end, but...I'm not going to lie, this story is wrapped up beautifully and it hit me right in the feels! Now I have to go watch the anime of it! 

This story has been so beautifully drawn and paced and told and I enjoyed it way more than I was anticipating when I started it and wasn't too sure what the story was all about or where it was going! The surprises keep on coming right up until the end and the story has really kept me on my toes! 

Manga: Your Name Vol 2

Your Name Vol 2
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

The second installment of the manga adaptation of the film that took the world by storm!

There's no synopsis for this volume, so I'll give you a little bit of a run down on what to expect from this volume!

So the last volume ended on a pretty major cliffhanger, with our two main characters no longer swapping bodies and I've been super excited to see what's going to happen next and how it plays out! This volume focuses on Taki as he sets out to find Mitsuha and where she lives and tries to figure out what's going on. Taki gets his sleuth on basically!

Literally as soon as we start reading this volume, within the first chapter...there's another huge plot twist and I was like "Whaaaaaaaaaattt?! What's happening?!" and my brain was kind of trying to reconfigure, as it where, to work out how it all fit together. This actually happened a lot over the course of the volume, I'm not going to lie... 

This series keeps taking turns that I don't expect and the more I read the more it twists and changes. I think it's going to be one thing or one thing is going to happen...and then there's a plot twist and the story becomes something else and then it does it again...and again. It certainly keeps me on my toes! It also leaves me on another cliffhanger, although admittedly not quite so bad as the one from the first volume! I definitely had to take a moment to mentally sort through everything once I'd finished reading! 

I also have to comment on the art, because it's really well done! The landscapes in this volume are gorgeous, as is the art that Taki drew!

Your Name's second volume moves along at a nice, fast pace, with no faffing about and it completely changes how you look at the story. Everything you thought you knew was apparently wrong, and this is going in a completely different direction to the one that I thought it was! 

Manga: Your Name

Your Name Vol 1
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Mitsuha, a high school girl from a town deep in the mountains, dreams of an unfamiliar life in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy from Tokyo, dreams that he is a girl living in the mountains. As the two change places in their dreams, their encounter sets a miraculous story into motion.

Very recently I went to MCM Comic Con in London, and I decided to check out one of the anime panels. The first thing they talked about on this panel? Your Name. We got to watch the trailer for the movie and heard all about how it was so popular that the movie was being re-released back in to cinemas and so on. I was intrigued by the trailer, and I thought it looked like a Freaky Friday kind of thing but more serious. So when I saw there was a manga version coming out, I had to check it out! 

The artwork is gorgeous, especially the settings and I really liked the contrast between the two different settings! How I wish I could draw! It is kind of like Freaky Friday in that there's body swapping going on, but my initial impression of that was wrong. There's a lot more to it than that, and I was so curious about how it was happening and why and how they'd resolve it. 

I really loved Mitsuha and Taki, and I loved watching them develop a friendship despite the odd circumstances as they navigated swapping with each other and sharing lives and tried to help each other out...sort of. I liked the way they went about doing it too, dairy entries and notes and stuff. I totally got Mitsuha's frustrations with living out in the sticks and wanting to be in the city, and wanting to be more than what she was expected to be. I think she's a relatable character. Taki I didn't get as much of a sense of but I imagine once over the weirdness of it all, it's probably a nice break for him to be in Mitsuha's place with family and all their traditions. 

I was really, really enjoying this manga....and then the end happened and I was like nooooooooooo! Seriously, it was like *drops bombshell* "Continued in volume 2!" *insert evil smiley face* and I was like NOOOOOOOOO to the max. Seriously. It's going to be torture waiting for the next volume! I'll have to check the movie out, but then again I was going to watch the movie after I was done with the manga because they're probably a little bit different...aahhhh decisions! 

Your Name is certainly intriguing, and I can see why it's become such a phenomenon and why everyone raves about it. It's funny but also at the same time heartwarming and has a serious tone to it so it doesn't end up being too silly or a comedy. It's also really touching. The characters are relatable, and it keeps you reading as you want to discover what's going on, and how it's going to be resolved. I'm definitely intrigued to see how this is all going to turn out and what's going to happen next! 

If Your Name sounds like your kind of thing, or you want to check it out, Yen Press are giving away 5 copies over on GoodReads! 
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