Weathering with You: The True Role of the “Weather Maiden” and the Movie’s Message

Weathering with You(Official) is a feature-length animated film directed by Makoto Shinkai, released in 2019. Following the massive success of his previous work, Your Name., it was released amidst enormous expectations. While its box office performance didn’t quite reach the heights of Your Name., it was still undoubtedly a massive hit.

The movie was released on July 19, 2019, but just the day before, on the 18th, the Kyoto Animation arson attack occurred. I remember going to see Weathering with You as planned the day after such a horrific incident took place. I felt a strange mix of confusion?thinking, “What am I doing?”?and a sense of pathetic helplessness. I remember distinctly that I couldn’t watch it with a normal mindset.

In this article, by exploring what kind of existence the “Weather Maiden” depicted in the work truly is, I want to consider what kind of story Weathering with You ultimately was. Finally, I intend to reconstruct the history of the “Weather Maiden” (though this is merely my personal perspective). To do that, I will start by looking back at the visual expressions unique to this work and presenting two questions.

The Appearance of Rain, The “Floating” Scenes

Question 1: The Happy Rain

The most important element in Weathering with You is, of course, “rain.” In the early part of the film, Hina, as a “Sunshine Girl,” uses her prayers to turn rainy skies into sunny days.

The film goes to great lengths to tell us how wonderful the blue sky is and how deeply the weather is connected to people’s inner feelings. The blue sky depicted is truly beautiful, and the beauty of the sunset Hina showed people on the day of the fireworks festival was beyond words. Indeed, a clear sky is something magnificent for us.

Thus, while rain is “loathed” in the narrative context of the beginning, if we look at the actual animation, the rain falling to the ground is depicted remarkably vividly.

Visually, it is not portrayed as something “loathsome” at all; it looks like an innocent existence unrelated to such negative feelings. Why does this kind of contradiction occur?

Question 2: The Creepy “Floating” Scenes

Another characteristic of Weathering with You is the expression of “floating.” There are two scenes in the work where characters “float”:

An important feature of these two scenes is that “floating” is not depicted as an exciting phenomenon at all.

Rather, to my eyes, they were depicted as chilling scenes. In the first scene, Hina is about to be taken away from the earth, and it is also the moment her physical changes become apparent. That part alone has a strangely horror-like fear to it.

In the second scene as well, Hodaka is bobbing around Hina, but there is absolutely no sense that he can reach her. And in fact, he cannot reach her. Even though the person he is trying so desperately to save is right in front of him, it seems completely impossible to save her.

The phenomenon of “floating” is usually a feat of fictional worlds like animation, and is typically portrayed as something “wonderful.” After all, flight is humanity’s dream. However, in Weathering with You, it is depicted as a phenomenon with the exact opposite meaning. Why on earth is that?

Having presented the two questions, I will first state the answer to the first question.

Rain Trying to Return to Earth and the True Role of the “Weather Maiden”

Rain Wants to Return to Earth

One answer to the question “Why is the rain, a ‘loathed existence,’ depicted so vividly?” would be: “Because the rain wants to return to the earth.“

If you think about it, the clouds floating gracefully in the sky were once water on the ground (most of it was likely ocean, but still, it wasn’t in the sky). The phenomenon of “raining” can actually be thought of as “water that departed for the sky returning to its hometown.”

The raindrops falling to earth might be celebrating their long-awaited return, saying, “Man, I’m finally back! So nostalgic!” They might even be chatting with old local friends. Such an explosion of joy is seen in the shot right before the heavy rain begins after Hodaka and Hina return from the sky world. It is a masterpiece scene where the Sky Dragon returns to earth.

I felt a power similar to Anavel Gato‘s declaration, “Solomon, I have returned!” They have, indeed, come back.

Humanity Blocking the Rain’s Return

Thinking about it this way, our feeling of “I don’t want it to rain” starts to seem a bit selfish. Of course, I know that rainwater is very useful for human life, and it would be trouble if it didn’t rain at all.

However, putting aside the issue of whether it is useful to us or not, I feel we could be a little more considerate of the feelings of the rain trying to return home. What Hina and Hodaka turned into a business as the “Sunshine Girl” was essentially like telling someone who had finally stepped off the train at their hometown station, “Go back!”

Every time the “Weather Maiden” repeats such “unreasonable demands” using her supernatural power, the Maiden, who originally belongs to the earth, gets taken by the sky. From the rain’s perspective, they might say, “You should at least bear that much risk.”

But if that’s the case, the fate of Hina, who inherited the power of the “Weather Maiden,” is too cursed. Why did the Maiden come to bear such a fate? The key to solving this lies in a mysterious phenomenon that occurred during the escape scene of Hodaka, Hina, and Nagi.

Towards the end of the story, in order to escape from the police, Hina called down lightning with her prayer… but isn’t that strange? We thought the supernatural power of the “Weather Maiden” was to clear away the rain, but it seems that’s not all.

From here, let’s finally spread the wings of imagination and pile delusion upon delusion to reconstruct the history of the “Weather Maiden.”

The True Role of the “Weather Maiden” and Her Sad History

If the “Weather Maiden” can bring down lightning with her prayer, she might also be able to make it rain, or perhaps generate all kinds of weather phenomena.

If so, there is a possibility that the “Weather Maiden” was not originally an existence meant to be taken by the sky. The following story emerges as a hypothesis:

In other words, the original role of the “Weather Maiden” was not to “drive away the rain” but “to mediate the dialogue between the Sky and Humanity.”

Therefore, as long as people were getting along well with the weather, the “Weather Maiden” would not be completely taken by the sky. In other words, she would not become a human sacrifice.

However, humanity became unable to get along with the weather, and the “Weather Maiden” changed into an existence that unilaterally conveyed humanity’s demands to the heavens.

The distortion caused by this change in humanity is brilliantly expressed in Hina’s dialogue. She said, “I heard that if the Sunshine Girl becomes a human sacrifice and disappears, the crazy weather will return to normal.” She used the expression “crazy.” Weather cannot be “crazy” in the first place, but regarding this matter, we must not forget the words of the Shinto priest who appeared in the middle of the story.

The priest at the shrine with the ceiling painting depicting the “Weather Maiden” spoke about what exactly makes “abnormal weather” abnormal. Summarizing what he said, it comes down to “whether it is abnormal or not is up to human selfishness” (this sense seems to be the basic “view of nature” in Weathering with You).

Weather phenomena that appear crazy to us are, to them, “just existing as they are.” However, when we stop thinking about their circumstances and begin to eliminate them as “abnormal,” the “Weather Maiden” becomes an existence that merely unilaterally conveys human convenience, and eventually comes to be recognized as a human sacrifice (recognized as a “Sunshine Girl” rather than a “Weather Maiden”).

Thinking this way, that lightning scene can be seen as a historic moment where the “Weather Maiden” listened to the sky’s circumstances for the first time in a long while. Just like the rain, the lightning also wanted to fall, so Hina conveyed to the lightning, “You can fall.”

This is the answer to the first question, and the true role and history of the “Weather Maiden” seen from it. Next, I will state the answer to the second question: “Why do the ‘floating’ scenes feel so chilling?”

Liberation from “Curse” and the Joy of “Falling”

Two People Who Wanted to “Fall”

As we have considered so far, Hina possessed that power in a world where people already only recognized the “Weather Maiden” as a “Sunshine Girl.” While that power is certainly special, the result can be called a “curse.” Yet, Hina once chose the path of martyring herself to that curse for the sake of Hodaka and Nagi.

Therefore, the meaning of what Hodaka ultimately did can be described as “Hina’s liberation from the ‘curse’.” However, that was a huge inconvenience for other people. In fact, with the mediator gone and no longer needing to listen to human convenience, the sky has kept raining for three years. But that is simply the “karma of humanity” coming back. After all, they had been using just a single human being as a “Sunshine Girl.”

On the other hand, Hodaka was not satisfied with the world he lived in either, coming all the way to Tokyo to search for “somewhere not here.” Hodaka was also fighting against the “curse” imposed by the surrounding world of “how things should be” (as was Hina).

Just as the rain wanted to fall, Hina and Hodaka had wanted to “fall” all along. And as the highlight of the story, Hina and Hodaka truly fell.

The answer to the second question, “Why do the ‘floating’ scenes feel so chilling?”, is that it directly conflicts with the truth of their inner selves. Hina and Hodaka want to escape from a world that won’t leave them alone. For the two of them, accepting the status quo feels like floating, having no footing, and not feeling alive. They were constantly wishing, “I want to fall, I want to fall, I want to fall.”

The sight of those two falling is beautifully paralleled with the lively falling rain.

In short, Weathering with You is a work that depicts the “joy of falling,” and if there is a message in the work, it might be, “Isn’t it okay to fall too?“

“Circulation” Expressed in the End Credits

That mostly covers it, but I want to write a little about the end credits.

One of the things I thought when I first saw Weathering with You was, “There are two end credits.”

After Hina and Hodaka reunite at the end, the names of the voice cast fall from the top of the screen. It was a very beautiful ending, and I thought, “What a clever idea!” but even after “Makoto Shinkai” appeared, the movie didn’t end. After that, the standard end credits began again, with names rising from the bottom.

It feels a bit repetitive for a moment, but this likely expresses “circulation” as a result. Weathering with You was a story of “falling,” but the rain that fell to the ground will return to the sky again. The credits climbing from bottom to top might symbolize the future of Hina and Hodaka rising in some sense.

Summary: The Message of “Weathering with You”

To summarize the above:

I’ve come to like Weathering with You more and more as I write this article. Of course, this is an article based on a strange understanding regarding the lightning, but I think watching movies in such a way is also the real thrill of cinema. Next time, let’s think about the final line, “Hina-san, we’ll be alright, for sure.” What exactly is “alright”?

Appendix: Strange Depictions in the Work and Ghibli Films

Why the Top of the Clouds is Full of Greenery

Speaking of Weathering with You, the world above the clouds is certainly one of its charms. I can’t say anything about what that exactly is since there are no interesting distortions of it so far, but I can make some inferences about “why the top surface is full of greenery.”

The key point is when Hodaka went to the sky world through the Torii gate. At first, Hodaka is thrown out into space rather than the sky, then falls and reaches the world of the Sky Dragons, where he is “eaten” by a dragon. Hodaka passes through the dragon’s body, is dropped to a world one level below, and discovers Hina lying in the “Sky Garden.”

Everyone. Hodaka passed through the dragon’s body. Therefore, there is only one place where Hodaka comes out. The dragon’s anus.

In other words, the reason the top of the clouds is full of greenery is probably because an extremely fertile environment has been created thanks to “that stuff” from the dragon. Since it’s dragon manure, it must be incredibly nutritious. Of course, I’m saying this as a bad joke.

The Oddity of the Ceiling Painting in the Weather Shrine

The scene with the ceiling painting in the Weather Shrine (Kish? Shrine) is also one of the memorable scenes in Weathering with You. However, there is something strange about it. There are four types of divine beasts depicted there, but it seems only the dragon clearly appeared in the work. But that’s probably not the case.

In Weathering with You, heavy rain is depicted four times. The heavy rain Hodaka faced on the ferry (actually, the day before was a typhoon), the heavy rain immediately after the scene where Hodaka first saw Hina’s ability, the heavy rain (or rather snow) during Hina and Hodaka’s escape, and finally the rain that continues for three years.

Probably, when heavy rain falls during a typhoon or similar events, that divine beast is returning to the earth. In fact, after the first two instances, mysterious masses of water come falling down. Those are probably the divine beasts. The third one must have fallen somewhere too. However, the fourth one is a big problem. Typhoons happen often, but rain continuing for three years is an unprecedented phenomenon for humanity (even Noah’s Ark incident was supposedly 40 days).

Perhaps in that world, the dragon is the highest ranking, and doesn’t come down very often. But since the contract with the “Weather Maiden” expired, he thought, “Eh? I’m going!” and came back. Therefore, it is thought that that rain will also finish falling in a finite time. However, we don’t know when that finite time will come.

Battle Against Laputa

Watching Weathering with You, one inevitably becomes conscious of Castle in the Sky (Laputa). Seeing the scene where Hodaka bobs around floating while reaching out to Hina reminds me of the scene where Pazu rides the Flaptter and reaches out to Sheeta. However, the “sense of tragedy” in these two scenes is completely different. Pazu’s scene is a super cool, decisive moment, so you can clearly envision the future where he rescues Sheeta afterwards. However, for Hodaka, it really looks like his hand won’t reach. For me, it was a sufficient horror scene.

Also, the falling scenes form a good contrast. In Laputa, the falling scene is a “dangerous” scene, and the part where they decelerate with the power of the Levitation Stone is romantic.

However, Weathering with You is the exact opposite; floating with a strange power is more dangerous, and the scene of free-falling is more romantic. The scene where Hina jumps off from above the clouds at full speed and takes Hodaka’s hand is also a very powerful scene. Sheeta is also eventually caught by Pazu by jumping off, but she probably can’t beat that full-speed sprint.

Perhaps Weathering with You challenged Laputa to a “battle” by depicting the “romanticism of free fall.”

Princess Mononoke

The story of “curses” reminds me of Princess Mononoke. That work was a story where the protagonist Ashitaka, who received an “absurd curse” and was told to “get out” by the people of his hometown, rediscovers a purpose for living.

In Weathering with You, Hina played the role of receiving the “curse,” and Hodaka played the role of being told to “get out.” In the opening scene of the story, Hodaka’s face is covered in cuts while riding his bicycle. I wondered what that was, but he probably had a huge fight with his father.

In the second half of the story, in the photo of Hodaka that the police officer searching for him showed to Hina, only a person who seemed to be his father was in the picture next to him. And his face looked quite grumpy. Probably, after a fight big enough to be a grapple (or a unilateral assault by the father), he was told to “Get out!” by his father.

It seems to be a story where protagonists who seem like Ashitaka split in two finally become able to affirm their own existence, saying, “We’ll be alright.”

Since Ashitaka’s “curse” is, upon reflection, also a “power of a god,” in Hina’s case too, rather than her body being taken by the sky every time she prays, it can be thought that she is getting closer and closer to something sacred. And when she crosses a certain critical point, she can no longer return to the human world.

So if she discards the power of the god, she can return, but she can’t do that unless there is someone like Hodaka who “reaches the other side.” The past “Weather Maidens” didn’t have such a person, so they must be sleeping in that land as “human sacrifices.” Or did they fall as rain? Thinking that they fell, that work becomes a piece that also intertwines Director Shinkai’s view on life and death.

It seems necessary to watch Weathering with You a little more earnestly.

5. What happens if we take the lightning scene normally?

In the main part of this article, I fabricated a story by daring to interpret it with a twist, but let me also write what happens if we don’t twist it.

If we don’t twist it, Hina at that time is “unifying with the sky.” It’s an expression that makes sense and yet doesn’t, but it probably means she is on the verge of becoming a member of the sky world. And to help a comrade who is in the hardship of escaping with Hodaka and the others, the folks from the sky world gathered.

The scene where the lightning strikes was also likely the comrades responding to a vague request of “help me” rather than Hina’s specific request. However, because of that, Hina steps further into the sky world. And after that, when she asked the sky entities, who were practically her comrades by then, “Could you move aside a bit?”, they said, “OK! Then let’s go together!” and took (or led) Hina (their comrade) away.

The subsequent flow is fine as in the main story, but the story that “the ‘Weather Maiden’ does not originally become a human sacrifice” completely disappears. She simply became a human sacrifice by being abused by humans who lost their fear. Moreover, people forgot even that sacrifice, and Hina, who inherited only that talent, activated that ability out of a desperate wish to “show her mother a blue sky.” That is truly a sad story.

In Princess Mononoke, the fact that Ashitaka was able to meet San was truly a gospel (blessing), and it can be said that Hina meeting Hodaka was also a gospel. After all, he chased her all the way to the other side. It was really good that they didn’t end up like Izanagi and Izanami.