Fate is Awful For You

Are we free agents acting on will, or merely puppets of something greater; of fate?

Your Name is one of the most popular anime movies of the past decade, and it is a very entertaining watch. The contrast between small town girl Mitsuha and big city boy Taki, the two main characters of Your Name, provide a great platform to explore the themes of change and identity in this anime movie… that is, until it's all thrown out of the window for fate. Your Name is a take on the red string of fate (also known as the red thread of fate), an old legend that says two people are destined to meet from an invisible string tied around their fingers. Taki and Mitsuha’s body swapping is a result of this… and so is everything else we witness, which raises an important question; did the themes of change or identity mean anything if the characters are simply acting on what must occur? In short, do we have free will, or are we bound by destiny (Fatalism vs Indeterminism)? And which is the healthier belief? Through the anime and these two characters, Taki and Mitsuha, we’ll explore and explain these ideas about fate.

An anime discussion video essay explaining Your Name, fatalism, and fate.

0:00 Introduction
2:06 Part 1 | your name is?
13:48 Part 2 | date with fate
23:32 Part 3 | we hate fate

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