Your Name, the theory of cords, the red string of fate

Hello, it is the month of July, and I came again with a topic interesting enough to give you goosebumps. So hold tight and have a good read.

We all know the anime history is rich in its depth of content. From the films to the series - all hold a sublime linear composition with its plot and structure. This made it awe-inspiring for the watchers like you and the critics like us. Today we are again going to shout out for something that once created ruckus into the anime world. Known for its uniqueness and individuality; Yes, fellows, you guessed it right. I am writing down something related to Your Name, the film, and its use of a metaphor.

The theory of Cords(A Red String)

Hitoha Explaining The Importance of Cords

When the film introduces Mitsuha's life to us, Hitoha(her grandmother) solemnly explains one evening - why they make braided cords at the shrine. It is tradition, one long forgotten since a great fire 200 years ago, yet they do it anyway, in remembrance to uphold these ancient traditions. It is a clean, thematic introduction to the story's use of cords and ties that bind people, places, and even times together. But it also introduces the viewer to the broader motif in Your Name - its use of lines.

So when you recognize that one of the first, most important shots of the movie depicts an enormous celestial line that cuts across the sky, the film begins to become a criss-cross puzzle for its central motif. Symbolically, the comet trail resembles a thread that connects the two characters, connecting time and space. But narratively, the comet serves to connect and capture the media attention of Japan. And it is what we later learn makes Mitsuha and Taki's relationship all that more pressing.

Opening Scene

So clearly, the lines in the story exist in part to remind us of connections. The cords are arguably the most alluded to the example of this, like in Hitoha's explanation. And while the Cords are the last connection to a centuries-old tradition, they are also the present-day, symbolic tie between Taki and Mitsuha.

The Symbolic form of 'Cord'

The cords connect a country girl and a city boy and tie together the age-old story of star-crossed lovers. It is easy to notice that Mitsuha's red braided cord is depicted quite prominently as the red string of fate, a well-known Asian motif symbolizing love and destiny. But lines are not simply straight; they can twist and tangle and change shape. We see this first-hand through Taki in a metaphysical scene depicting flashes of Mitsuha's life. The braided cord twists in and out, indistinguishable from the red string of fate, and at times transforming into a dragon, the comet, a single sperm cell, and later an umbilical cord. The biological metaphors, in particular, are interesting to note, as they evoke very primal, physical ideas of connection, either between a man and a woman or between mother and child.

As a motif, the lines are quite versatile in several subtler ways, as well. Conceptually, we see them in the subway lines that interweave the municipalities of Tokyo, and the train lines, physically connecting the rest of the country. They can be literal lines, like the kanji they scribble on each other to communicate, or the lines Taki draws as he recreates the town of Itomori. Even figuratively, lines that cut the frame are often used to draw our attention to the thresholds between places; or to doors that connect the inside and out. And yet, what is peculiar about the presentation of all the lines, cords, and ties, is that they are all, in some crucial way, flawed, fleeting, or incomplete.

The Power of 'Cord'

As much as we are told initially through Hitoha about the power of these ties and connections, the movie systematically demonstrates how these lines all fail in their ways. The braided cords connect to a tradition whose meaning has been lost to history and fire. And while we are shown teases at how the red string of fate ties Taki and Mitsuha together, in their disastrous first meeting, the red string is drawn out and unloosened. It is a fleeting effort at a non-existent connection between two strangers. Speaking of Taki and Mitsuha's disastrous meeting, the trains are a repeated visual reminder of their inability to find each other. Not only are the trains used to convey the monotony of Taki and Mirsuha's unfulfilled lives, but they are also the cornerstone in which the two independently fail to find each other: Mitsuha, only to discover an indifferent and uninterested Taki; and three years later, Taki, only to find that the entire town of Itomori no longer exists.

Train Visuals

The comet itself is a trick, a threat, and a lie that separates Taki and Mitsuha by three years. Sure, as Taki dreams, he gets insight into Mitsuha's story, but we quickly see it is a story of loss; how Mitsuha was separated from both mother and father earlier than most children can understand death and isolation. The cutting of the umbilical cord is just another reminder of Mitsuha's physical and emotional separation. Mitsuha later mirrors this after being rejected by Taki, symbolically cutting her hair. The kanji, whimsically, used to show Mitsuha and Taki's way of communication later reminds us of the limitations of these written lines. And It even foreshadows the jarring end to their reunion during Kataware Doki. All that remains is a partial line break across Taki's palm, like a dash in a sentence - the rest of the thought left unfinished. The lines, in every sense, are the story's symbolic dashes, line breaks punctuating half-finished connections. And when you notice that the doors have never been seen both - opening and closing, it is easy to conclude that the lines rather represent the unfulfilled connection. 

The Changeability of Cord and its Motif

So the lines are imperfect, and arguably, the movie presents a far more compelling case for a flawed line of the motif, rather than the lines as these great connectors. And yet, the movie's tone is positive. Despite the disaster, ruin, and years of failed connections, happiness can still be found, and a town can still be saved. That Taki and Mitsuha do finally meet after all those years is enough to indicate that a motif is simply about failed connections, it is incomplete.

So how do we resolve this? -

Musubi

The movie's answer comes from our expositional hero, Hitoha. According to Hitoha, Musubi is the connection between people, symbolized by the tying of threads. Musubi is the tie that binds, the knot that keeps people together. It is the god's power and the god's art, which itself is not linear: "They converge and take shape. They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break, then connect again."

It is spiritual and circular, and never-ending. And to punctuate Hitoha's thoughts, we are shown the home of the holy shrine, surrounded by two great circles - a great crater cradling a river that separates the gods from the people. So the antithesis to our failing lines is the infinite line, the circle. If the door frames are only human thresholds, then the sacred shrine atop the mountain has two more perfect thresholds that connect the realm of the Shinto gods to the human realm. And in each of the ways that the lines were metaphors for limited connections, the circle is seen in 'Kimi no Nawa' instead reminds us of connections that are whole and fulfilled. Circles are the perfect connection, a symbolic manifestation of Musubi because the movie argues that things must come full circle to be complete and become whole. It is the motif of the Cord.

The Great Crater and The Shrine

How the Movie represents the Cord

It is embedded in the movie's entire narrative structure. We only understand the opening shot of the falling stars when we return to that same shot at the climax scene. Only later do we even realize the movie opened in media res? Even outside of the movie's disguised timeline, time is still played fast and loose. It is part of Hitoha's central thesis on Musubi and connections, and we see how cycles are a part of the natural and divine order of things. It is strange and perhaps a little ironic, but only through the repeated cycles of time and nature, our characters can find a conclusion, a happier one for the town and each other. Without the cycles, we were left with half-finished connections and incomplete stories. Mitsuha and Taki chasing after one another, and at one point, their bodies are laughable circular, but the whole path to their actual meeting is a tangled journey through time as well. Mitsuha's failure on the train is in reality that the inciting incident in Taki's journey; that after safekeeping her bracelet for three years, time circles back and compels him to return it to her.

This Bracelet represents the fulfillment of their connection

And in their fateful meeting, we see that the real power of the tired braided cord is in the unsaid promise it represents. Just as Taki wore it for Mitsuha for three years, so too does Mitsuha tie it for Taki as a promise to stay tuned to the bond they have made with each other. What makes the braided cord special isn't the cliched depiction of the legendary "red string of fate." It is the time invested by our two characters. As Taki returns the braid, Mitsuha ties it again - a real connection fulfilled, reformed Taki and Mitsuha's bond as a whole once again. Interestingly enough, the only times we see the braid tied are when Taki or Mitsuha are inhabiting their native bodies. While it is a visual tool to help establish which characters we are following, thematically. It still reminds us that the tied braids are part of what makes the characters whole and truly themselves.

A Cord between the Living Being and Nature

We will come back to the summit in just a bit, but the other major geographical circle is reflected in the defining landmark of the region, Lake Itamori. And we can see a mutual connection between the lake and the people that as much as the lake defines the natural geography of the town, the town defines the legend and history of this lake.

Lake Itamori - Before the Disaster

This duality carries over the iconic shape of the lake in the disaster's aftermath: two broken circles joined and pulled into each other. I will just briefly touch on it since the lake is a different topic, rich with all kinds of symbolism. But I think the most interesting explanation for its shape is an extension of the importance of circles: that it is the symbol of infinity, reminding us that the lake has a sacred connection with the natural cycles, one that's never-ending. At a character level, the lake is also important in showing a whole and genuinely connected Taki, in particular.

Lake Itamori - After the Disaster

After leaving his friends to climb a mountain alone in the rain, Taki finally can prove that the time he spent in Mitsuha's body was real. After this cathartic moment, the camera lingers, and the lake in the background comes into focus. It is a reminder that Taki makes this real, meaningful connection in the presence of these sacred circles. For me, the best example of the interplay of the lines and the circles is in the reunion atop the summit. When Taki and Mitsuha finally meet each other after their cross-country, time-skipping chase. The setting is perfect, with the great circles aligned in the foreground and the background, divided only by an imaginary line.

And for a moment, it might just be another failed connection. And yet, just as the sun sets, Taki and Mitsuha reach out to each other. And with this simple act, the glare of the sun blossoms into a full circle. And as twilight falls, the threshold between the two fades.

Narrative of the Cords (is it subjective or just a haunted reality?)

In every narrative, visual, and temporal sense, we see the culmination of the circles that brought them together for this exact moment. Divine intervention through the power of the Musubi allows them to finally answer twilight's one question: 'Who is that?'

Ms. Okudera's Flashing Ring

All of this is interesting to note, and yet if the circles so clearly represent the possibility for a happy conclusion, it is unclear why the two are still so aimless at the end. We see a glimpse of Ms. Okudera's life, and as she flashes her ring at Taki, we see that her own love story has had its quota. And yet, the magic of the circles has seemingly run dry for Taki and Mitsuha. It is easy to conclude, cynically, that the cycles and circles represent the non-existent fantasy in our lives - that the depiction of time as circular and rewritable is just a form of wish fulfillment. And its premise as wish-fulfillment is like most anime, true to an extent as an allegory the emotional tone of the film is clearly defined by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which claimed over 15000 Japanese lives. Real-life is probably more like the symbolic dashes in the film, where lives and stories are taken away, unfinished. The story is just a fantasy, a dream. But the movie rejects that cynicism. Its message is with not uncertainty, hopeful and faithful in the face of loss and tragedy.

Tohoku Earthquake Japan, 2011

It is a love story written in response to a nation's worst natural disaster in a century. And so, with love and faith, despite countless setbacks, Taki and Mitsuha's reunion is inevitable. It is through this earnest lens we can see one final positive note in Kimi No Nawa's grammar and syntax. Because if the Cord is used to connect disparate ideas or incomplete sentences.

In contrast, the period exists to indicate the end of a complete idea. The full stop is used to punctuate the end of Your Name, both its title and its final scene because it is the last quota the story needs. It is a reminder that even after countless failures and missed connections, Taki and Mitsuha's story can still have some resolution. They can have a happy ending. The circles exist because they underline the hope for a better future. The comet itself is simply a part of a much greater circle, a cycle lasting 1200 years. The ending is the most supreme. This underlying hope is something that is even foreshadowed in the spectacle and music of the climax: a triumphant, cyclical build-up towards what should be a tense moment. But we don't feel that dread. Like a scene from a dream, it is suggesting that this isn't something to grieve over. Instead, it is just a moment, nothing less than a beautiful view.

The ending of Your Name -  A Perfect Full Stop to the Story -

This blog holds sweat and tears from my hard works. And I really enjoyed writing it. It consistently describes all about the famous red string reference of the movie Your Name. While writing it I also learned about Musubi and the power it holds in human bonds. Hope you guys will also be enriched by it.

Thank you for reading it. This concludes this month's quota and from the next month, it will be more interesting. See you in my next blog post.