your name. Another Side:Earthbound

by Arata Kanoh, Makoto Shinkai (Original Story), Taylor Engel (Translator)

Mitsuha is a young girl living in a rural town named Itomori and is fed up with her life. One day, her family and friends notice she's suddenly acting strange. Little do they know, a high school boy from Tokyo named Taki Tachibana found himself randomly switching places with her when he fell asleep. But he has no clue how to act as a high school girl in an unfamiliar place! This is the story of the hit novel your name. from the perspective of Mitsuha's friends and family as they deal with her strange new quirks--and avoid disaster.

Genres: Light Novel, Manga, Fantasy, Romance, Japan, Young Adult, Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2016

About the author

Japanese & Chinese: 加納新太
Chinese: 加纳新太

Reviews

[Marcus Leong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel contains the stories of four characters which were not told in the film: Taki (in Mitsuha's body), Teshigawara "Tesshi" Katsuhiko, Yotsuha, and Miyamizu Toshiki (father of Mitsuha and Yotsuha).

Taki's tale is one that was not really shown in the film: everyday life living as Mitsuha when their consciousness are swapped. While it seems like a lighthearted, silly story, it builds on Taki's growing understanding of this mysterious and conflicted girl, and in turn, his affection slowly grows as well.

Tesshi seemed strangely defensive of his boring hometown, and also especially of Mitsuha, but the inner workings of his mind is explained: he is bound by obligations.

Yotsuha's story is an adorable one, where she tries to work her young mind to find all sorts of explanations for her older sister's recent strange behaviour. In her quest to do so, she encounters a spiritual occurrence tied to the Miyamizu bloodline.

Perhaps the most disliked character in the movie, Mitsuha's father, Toshiki, gets to share his side of his (his)story: a middle-aged scholar met the young heir to the head family and shrine of the town, fell in love, and married into her family. His eventual excommunication from the family and the start of his political career were fuelled by the loss of his one and only greatest love in his life.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

what i didnt need from your name was more tit squeezing.

[Thanawat · Rating 4 out of 5]

นี่คือภาค spin-off ของ your name ที่คุณต้องอ่าน your name มาก่อน จึงจะเข้าใจเรื่องราวของ earthbound ได้

มัน Shinkai มากๆ

เหงา ซึม จับจิตจับใจ

เรื่องราว 4 เรื่อง ของตัวละครที่เป็นตัวละครหลักใน your name โดยที่ทั้ง 4 เรื่องนั้น ไม่มีเรื่องของ “มิตสึฮะ” แต่รายละเอียด story ของตัวละครที่แยกออกมามีเรื่องสั่นเป็นของตัวเอง กลับหมุนรอบ “มิตสึฮะ” ทั้งสิ้น

ผู้เขียนทำให้เห็นความเป็นมนุษย์ มีเนื้อมีหนัง มีเบื้องหน้ามีเบื้องหลัง มีตัวตนที่ลึกไปยิ่งกว่าตัวละครที่เรามีโอกาสเจออย่างฉาบฉวยใน your name

ที่ชอบมากคือการเอาเรื่องเล่าที่ฉายภาพ “ชนบทญี่ปุ่น” รวมทั้ง “ตำนานเทพเจ้าและศาสนา” มาเล่าผ่านตัวละครได้อย่างดี

[M. Carmen C. González · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ejemplar obtenido a través del sistema de "Masa Crítica", de Babelio. ¡Gracias!

No sé hasta qué punto debería considerar este libro como un ejemplo de narrativa transmedia. La fuente original (lo que nos ha llegado a España, me refiero) es la película de animación japonesa “Your Name”, que ha recibido múltiples premios y que, si no la habéis visto, estáis tardando.

Digamos que este libro rellena los “huecos”, explica lo que sucede entre bambalinas, allí donde no enfocan los haces de la cámara, acompañado de algunas ilustraciones con el mismo estilo de la película.
Son cuatro capítulos, divididos a su vez en varias partes numeradas. Cada capítulo dedicado a un personaje distinto. Empezamos con Taki (el protagonista masculino de la película), y sus vivencias, porque en su versión cinematográfica lo sobrevuela un poco pero no se centra en él lo suficiente para apreciar tanto detalle como hay aquí.
También se le dedican capítulos al entorno de la protagonista femenina: su amigo, Teshigawara; a su hermana, Yotsuha; y a su padre, Toshiki. Sus puntos de vista enriquecen muchísimo la historia, pero por sí solos se bastan y sobran para demostrar que valen para ser protagonistas de sus propias narraciones. De hecho, los capítulos de Toshiki me han parecido los más interesantes al estar tan unidos a la temática religiosa sintoísta y me hubiera gustado que se profundizase más en esos conceptos.
El estilo es sencillo. Maneja muy bien el ritmo y los golpes de humor. Sin embargo, a mi parecer, peca de lo mismo de lo que peca la mayor parte de obras japonesas: el tono picante. Abunda sobre todo en el primer capítulo, y una vez hecha la bromita de las tetas, repetirla hace que llegue un momento en el que no solo pierde la gracia, sino que se convierte en de mal gusto.

Perdonándole ese detalle, es una lectura muy amena que combina muy bien tras el visionado de la película homónima. Si tenéis un rato, os gusta el anime y os ha gustado la peli, echadle un ojo.

[Ilaria Massariol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se avete amato "Your name" e il suo mondo, sicuramente apprezzerete questo approfondimento.
Tuttavia, a me per quanto abbia intrigato la lettura della light novel principale, questa lettura non ha entusiasmato più del dovuto.

Quest'opera, che rappresenta complessivamente un buon approccio con la realtà narrata da Shinkai all'interno del romanzo principale, ci mostra in modo approfondito le personalità e la psicologia dei personaggi che hanno rappresentato, più o meno, dei tasselli fondamentali nella costruzione dell'opera di "Your Name".

Questo volume rappresenta sicuramente un giusto compromesso tra ciò che ci è stato mostrato e ciò che invece abbiamo interpretato nel corso delle vicende.

Lo consiglio?
Se siete particolarmente legati a questi personaggi, si posso consigliarlo.
Per chi sperava un qualcosa di diverso da un'analisi dettagliata del romanzo principale, si può anche evitare.

[Panchaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

ชอบมากกว่าไลท์โนเวลเรื่องหลักอีก อาจจะเพราะมุมมองที่ขยายกว้างขึ้นจนทำให้ตัวละครมีมิติ และเปิดโอกาสให้เกิดการตีความที่กว้างขวางขึ้นไปอีก ยิ่งตอนหลัง ๆ ยิ่งเข้มข้น เห็นความย้อนแย้งในจิตใจและความกลมของวัฒนธรรมญี่ปุ่นอันก่อกำเนิดจากศาสนาชินโตด้วย ชอบอะไรแบบนี้มาก และชอบความพลิ้วไหวในภาษาญี่ปุ่นเหลือเกิน เรื่องการอธิบายความรู้สึกในก้นบึ้งของมนุษย์ ก็ต้องภาษานี้นี่แหละ

[Ozymandias · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am curious about light novels (a pretty uniquely Japanese thing which we’d probably classify as young adult novels) so I thought I’d give this a go after reading Your Name. This novel is a collection of side stories connected to the events of that novel/film and as such doesn’t really tell a coherent story of its own. But that’s fine. I enjoyed the film and was curious to see what parts they expanded on. The film had a lot of room for expansion I thought, particularly in the early days. The bodyswapping story seemed ripe for all sorts of incidents surrounding their insertion into unknown yet preexisting social connections. And it didn’t last long enough to my mind.

But here lies the mistake in my interest: this book by necessity follows movie continuity. All those interesting avenues to explore were alternate routes that the film could have taken. Which means that there is actually very little left for them to do with the concept beyond expand on the secondary characters. And so that’s what we get. The entire book takes place in Itomori. We get to hear from most of Mitsuha’s family (her sister and father) as well as her friend Teshi. All these stories basically say the same thing: Mitsuha’s acting weird; what should we do about it and how should we explain it? While it interesting to learn more of these people’s backgrounds and characters, I don’t feel particularly thrilled by anything I’ve learned. It doesn’t help that it isn’t so much narrative as stream of consciousness thoughts.

The first chapter is closer to what I expected this book to be. It tells the story of Taki in Mitsuha’s body trying to pass as her. The film was mainly experienced from her POV for the first half so we missed a lot of this stuff. But in truth, there’s nothing very interesting there. Taki likes feeling her breasts. What a revelation. He doesn’t know how to put on a bra. He struggles with the idea of avoiding conflict. He’s afraid of what she’ll do to him if he steps at all out of line. All of this stuff seems pretty obvious. And unimpressive. This is again the limits set by the film impeding any sort of creative expansion. I hadn’t realized before reading just how little there was left unexplored by the film.

This book verges on spoiling the film by making it seem emptier than I thought it was. We saw literally everything of interest on screen and there was nothing worthwhile that we missed. I’m not exactly sad I read it, but I’m certain that I’ll never look at it again. It just doesn’t add enough to make it worthwhile.

[Eressea · Rating 3 out of 5]

190712購入KOBO版
--
跟新海誠相比，加那新太實在非常囉嗦
難怪加那版秒五我看不下去....
雖然外傳很囉嗦但重點很少
所以一下子就看完了

四葉穿越那篇挺可愛的
父親篇二葉太過宿命論了
雖然C洽全都感動到不行
但我覺得如果要這樣早知道
以二葉的威力發神諭直接遷村不是更快嗎

動畫真這樣演
我的評價可能從還不錯下降到普通吧

前兩篇基本放閃
用來慰藉心靈的

[Marco Loya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read para fans de Your Name

Empieza tranquilon, no promete mucho y parece que se va a enfocar en simples anécdotas alternas a la película que son divertidas pero que no agregan mucho a la trama.

Pero poco a poco empieza a aportar mucho a los personajes y eventos de la peli.

Si hubiera sido serie, hubiera sido muy bueno incluir lo de este libro. Pero por si solo, este libro no es graan cosa.

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amplía un poco la historia de la película y me encanta que haya profundizado en temas que no se tocan en la peli, como por ejemplo la relación de Mitsuha con sus amigos, la relación de sus padres... Muy recomendable para todos aquellos que nos enamoramos de la película.

Si sois tan frikis como yo, a la hora de leerlo, poneros la BSO de la película de fondo... Le añade un plus muy agradable ;)

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cheap.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your name es de las mejores cosas que existen en este mundo y .

[Ploy Tingtong · Rating 4 out of 5]

ตอนแรก
ได้เข้าใจความรู้สึกของพระเอกตอนอยู่ในร่างของนางเอก การพัฒนาความสัมพันธ์จากคนที่ไม่เคยเจอหน้า พูดคุยกันตัวต่อตัว ได้แต่รู้จักชีวิตของกันและกันผ่านผู้คนที่อยู่รอบข้าง ทำให้เห็นว่าทั้งสองคนเริ่มมีความผูกพันธ์กันจนเกิดเป็นความรัก

ตอนที่สอง
เข้าใจชีวิตของนางเอกผ่านมุมมองของเพื่อนสนิท คือเซตสึ ได้เห็นความกดดัน และการแบกรับภาระของตัวนางเอก และตัวเขาเองในการสืบทอดกิจการของทางบ้าน

ตอนที่สาม
มุมมองของน้องสาวนางเอก ความสงสัยในพฤติกรรมแปลกๆ ของพี่สาว การค้นหาคำตอบ จนได้มาเข้าใจ เมื่อเกิดการสลับร่างกับตัวเอง

ตอนที่สี่
ความสัมพันธ์ในครอบครัวของนางเอก บทบาท หน้าที่นางสังคมของแม่นางเอก ที่มีหน้าที่เป็นผู้นำทางจิตวิญญาณ แต่ความจริงแล้วเธอก็เป็นผู้หญิงธรรมดาคนหนึ่ง ได้เห็นความพยายามของพ่อนางเอกในการเปลี่ยนแปลงสังคมที่เต็มไปด้วยความงมงายให้เป็นไปตามแบบที่ควรจะเป็น จนสุดท้ายเขาเองก็ต้องยอมรับและทำตามในสิ่งที่เขาเองเคยคิดว่ามันงมงาย

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 4 out of 5]

In summary

This book was written expressly for fans of your name. so if you haven’t seen the movie or read the light novel, do that first. Then if you’re hungry for more details about the town of Itomori, Mitsuha’s family, and the traditions of the Miyamizu Shrine or if you just want to revisit the your name. characters, pick up Another Side: Earthbound. There are bits that do get tiresome, but overall, it balances comedy and drama as well as the original.

The Review

your name.: Another Side: Earthbound is not so much a novel as it is a collection of four stories, each from the POV of a different resident of Mitsuha’s hometown Itomori. Earthbound reads very much like fanfiction in that it expands upon details glossed over in the original works and offers alternate perspectives of the story’s events.

Earthbound begins with “Thoughts on Brassieres.” Those who loved the hilarity of Mitsuha and Taki switching bodies will get more of the same with this story, which delves into Taki’s struggle to live as a girl. As you might guess from the title, it’s got a LOT about boobs and bras throughout and, yes, more self-groping from Taki. It also expands upon the movie’s glimpses of Taki (as Mitsuha) playing basketball and confronting classmates talking smack about Mitsuha. In addition to the body-swap comedy, the story also includes Taki’s growing fondness for Itomori and his reflections on the girl whose body he inhabits but whom he’s never actually met.

Next is “Scrap and Build,” where we get the perspective of supporting cast member Tesshi. The movie presents him as Mitsuha’s friend, but this story makes clear that he’s more than a childhood buddy. He, like Mitsuha, has certain responsibilities because of his family’s standing in Itomori, which means he understands her position better than most. So while there’s the comedy of him baffled by Mitsuha’s periodic “fox possession” behavior, he also shows how the pressures within Itomori can lead to a real love-hate relationship with the tiny community. In addition, we learn about the influences that enabled him to help Taki (as Mitsuha) evacuate the townsfolk the day of the disaster.

After that is “Earthbound,” which follows Mitsuha’s little sister Yotsuha. She provides observations of the body swaps from the perspective of a family member and a grade schooler. For some reason, breasts feature largely in this story, which strikes me as odd. It’s one thing for Taki, a teenage boy, to be obsessed and baffled by them, but it feels like a tired old joke when Yotsuha also goes on about them. However, a unique thing in Yotsuha’s narrative is her perspective on Miyamizu Shrine. As a shrine maiden, she shares her sister’s intimacy with its traditions, and that intimacy allows for a surprise encounter with a long forgotten past.

Finally, we have “What You Joined Together,” which dives into the memories of Mitsuha’s father Toshiki. Included in the initial part of the story is a conversation between Toshiki and his future wife Futaba about the purpose and meaning of the Miyamizu rituals. Unless you’re acquainted with Shinto folklore or academic analysis, this dialogue —although it does point to the coming comet strike—is a slog. Fortunately, after this first meeting, the narrative simplifies to that of a man falling in love. For those curious about the Miyamizu family, it provides an extensive look at Mitsuha’s mother, who receives only brief mention in the original works, and the circumstances that estranged Toshiki from his daughters.

By the way, regarding the translation, it flows satisfactorily for the most part. However, there are parts where the formatting (specifically punctuation and italicizing) gets awkward, and a couple sentences seem to be missing a word. In addition, the Itomori residents speak in dialect, but for some reason, Futaba speaks normally for her initial academic conversation with Toshiki and then drops into dialect for the remainder of the story.

Extras include fold-out color illustration, character sketches, and nine black-and-white illustrations.

For more manga and book reviews, drop by my blog Keeping It In Canon!

[Niran Pravithana · Rating 5 out of 5]

ใครชอบ Your Name แนะนำให้ต้องอ่าน Another Side: Earthbound เป็น Side Stories 4 เรื่องสั้นที่เติมเต็มความรู้สึกของ anime ได้เต็มอิ่มจริงๆ ทำให้หลายประเด็นที่ค้างคาใจในหนัง จบลงแบบสมบูรณ์สุดๆ

ตอนที่ชอบที่สุดคือตอนที่เราอดีตความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างคุณพ่อกับคุณแม่ของมิตสึฮะ ซึ่งเรื่องราวมันเสริมประเด็นเนื้อเรื่องในหนังได้แบบลงตัวที่สุด เรื่องราวที่มาโคโตะ ชินไก ร้อยเรียงไว้ ก็คือทุกสิ่งทุกอย่างได้ถูกกำหนดมาไว้แล้ว (things happen for a reason เหมือน Sign ของ M. Night Shyamalan)

ทำไมฟุตาบะ คุณแม่ของมิตสึฮะถึงต้องเสียชีวิต, ทำไมโทชิกิ คุณพ่อของมิตสึฮะ ถึงโกรธแค้นศาลเจ้ามิยามิสุ จนผันมาเป็นนักการเมือง ความเกี่ยวพันของคนหลายคนในอิโตะโมริ ไม่ใช่เรื่องบังเอิญ แต่ถูกกำหนดไว้โดยโชคชะตา (ผมเป็นคนอินกับเรื่องของ predestination ก็เลยชอบพลอตแบบนี้เป็นพิเศษ)

ถ้าคุณอ่าน Another Side: Earthbound จบ ผมเชื่อว่าคุณจะหลงรัก Your Name เพิ่มขึ้นอีกหลายเท่าตัว และถ้ามาโคโตะ
ชินไก เป็นคนวางพลอตเรื่องและผูกเนื้อหาทั้งหมดนี้เอง ต้องบอกว่าผู้กำกับคนนี้ไม่ได้มีดีเพียงแค่นักวาดการ์ตูนอารมณ์เหงาๆ แบบหว่องกาไว เท่านั้น แต่เค้ายังเป็นอัจฉริยะในการเขียนบทคนนึงเลยก็ว่าได้ อดใจรอดูอนิเมะเรื่องถัดไปของมาโคโตะ ชินไกแทบไม่ไหวแล้ว

[Rifat · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought it was like the anime movie. But I was absolutely wrong. It was another side by Arata Kanoh describing four parts- Taki in Mitsuha's body, Teshi , Youtsuha and their father. Although the story was a little slow, it didn't feel bad.

I loved the cute one, Youtsuha who was literally worried about the abnormal behaviours of her elder sister.How desperate she was to know the reason behind this! She personally asked Sayaka and discussed secretly something related to Mitsuha's weird action. Oneday, Youtsuha got connected to another woman's body someone who was an ancentor.

There is not so important story about Mitsuha in Taki's body here. It shows the scenes or tells how Taki took all these sort of weird things happening surrounding him or her. It took many days to make up with Mitsuha's thin and soft body.

Here, Teshi's character was made clear enough. A boy with lot of dreams wants to do something but doesn't like his father much.

The last one:Mitsuha's father. It shows the birth of the two sisters and also the death of their mom.It also shows why Mitsuha's father joined politics and left home of in laws.

[Widyanto Gunadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it may not add much to the plot of the original anime movie, this another side story gives us a clear and detailed account of Taki's life as Mitsuha, which was not the focus of the main anime as well as shedding some lights into the background story of a relatively unknown and much hated character, Mitsuha's father, gives us a different perspective on how we should think about him and on how he views his parental relationship with his beloved daughter.

[Abriel Lafiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this side story novel in the eagerness of some juicy fanservice from Mitsuha's greatness, only to get 1/10th of what I was promised baited and received something completely unexpected. So was this novel a mistake? I think not, in fact, I think it's definitely worth it.

There are 4 chapters in this novel, each focuses on the narrative of a different character. While I'm a bit salty that there was no Mitsuha's POV, I find this kind of 3rd person approach pretty refreshing, as I got to know more about both Mitsuha and the character narrating the story at the same time.

The novel kicked off with a relatively pure fanservice chapter featuring Taki mostly doing some "experiment" on Mitsuha's body. To tell the truth, it's pretty fun to read, the people's reaction was spot on to the sudden changes and how things played out with their daily activities feel compelling enough to make it less tedious of a trip.

While I do find the chest joke rather repetitive, the writing made sure to mitigate that by adding some extras every time it's been mentioned, so welp. If anything, Taki does get some spotlights here with how his opinion on Mitsuha changed over time as he underwent more body swap with her. One of the biggest concerns regarding the romance of the anime is how "forced" it was, and this chapter pretty much settled that problem.

As I was wondering what kind of whacky stuff gonna happen next, the 2nd chapter took a complete 180-degree change in tone, to a more serious one as well as expanding worldbuilding and characterization. The protagonist of this chapter (Teshigawara) really hit the spot to me, mostly since I can relate to him to a certain extent.

In the anime, he's pretty much a background character, but the novel made sure to fill up that hole and turned him into something interesting enough, especially his goal and mindset which I really enjoyed. This also explained his actions in the anime and thus made it feel more natural. And of course, I got to know more about Mitsuha, mostly about what she had to go through before the main event in the anime, which is cool.

The 3rd chapter's main focus, from how I see it, is actually the lore of Your Name. I always feel like the anime didn't do well in this regard as it solely relies on visual to tell the tale without going in-depth of the matter, so this chapter pretty much fixes that issue. Not to mention there were some pretty cute interactions between Yotsuha and Mitsuha (real and fake ones). Overall a pretty balanced chapter if I have to say.

While the first 3 chapters were quite entertaining in some ways, the final one took me by complete surprise with a stunning approach that managed to "connect" everything in the anime as well as this novel. At first, I thought it's just a random drop of flashback to expand the side cast, but I was wrong, there's more to it than it looks.

As I kept reading it started making sense with how things went in the anime, and I finally understood the real meaning of the theme it was trying to deliver. "Everything ends up where it should be", such a simple phrase, yet best describes the whole story behind Your Name.

With all that being said, while I did enjoy reading this novel, the fact remains that it's just a mere supplementary of the main story, which also means a double edge-sword. A good story is one that should stand on its own, having to rely on other instances is no doubt a major drawback unless said material possesses a strong enough impact to go toes to toes with the original version, which is, sadly, not something that Earthbound had accomplished.

In conclusion, Earthbound was worth reading despite going against my original anticipation. It's not anything breakthrough, the writing is simple, a bit dragged on in fact, yet managed to give me some food for thought every time I finished a chapter, and that ending sure is something…

[TheOASG · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you were to suddenly become someone else, would your friends and family notice? Would they even believe you if you claimed to be swapping souls with a stranger?

Even as Taki’s and Mitsuha’s lives are interrupted by bouts of someone else taking over their bodies, the rest of the world moves on. Another Side: Earthbound is a midquel to your name. with four sections (what the novel calls chapters) each focusing on a different character.

So, a few of you may be wondering: can you read Another Side: Earthbound without having seen or read your name.? The first two arcs, following Taki-as-Mitsuha and Mitsuha’s friend Teshigawara, are pretty harmless in regards to spoilers. Out of the four, the first definitely feels most like scenes cut from the movie: Taki wonders what kind of person Mitsuha truly is, and he has to adjust to the fact he is a female some days. (Fortunately, he can rub “his” chest to relieve a lot of stress.) The whole section represents the best of your name.: we get the humor of Taki versus the bra while also seeing his more caring side, standing up against those who passive-aggressively bully Mitsuha.

Next, Teshigawara’s chapter shows his conflicting feelings about his father’s construction company and his ties to Itomori. He didn’t make much of an impression on me in your name., and I think author Kanoh did a good job of showing how everyone is the star of their own story. Teshigawara isn’t thrilled about succeeding his father, but knows he has it better than the almost-princess of Itomori, Mitsuha. I’m sure a lot of readers can relate to the feeling of finding our hometown boring but knowing it’s not so simple just to break away.

The last two chapters focus on Mitsuha’s younger sister and father. This is where Another Side: Earthbound starts exposing (and later centering on) some of your name.‘s secrets and twists. Since the light novel assumes readers know how the swaps work, it doesn’t try to dance around the supernatural aspects. However, this also means we lose some of the mystery and intrigue when the how-to is explained during Yotsuha’s mystical experience. And while the rest of the stories loop back around to Mitsuha, hers just kind of ends. It’s a shame since we spend so much time reading how Yotsuha tries to figure out why her big sister likes to grab her boobs some days. (There really is a lot of that here.)

As for her and Mitsuha’s father, his shift from paranormal researcher and priest-in-training to town mayor comes across as every single “dead spouse now living away from child” manga plot in existence. A lot of people can change after the death of a loved one, but this is where I felt the light novel was the most shallow. “Life sucks, this town sucks, I’M GOING TO BE MAYOR!!”. I also wish there was at least one more subchapter set after the main events of the movie to really see if how his relationships with Mitsuha and Yotsuba have changed.

As in most light novels, some illustrations are included. Readers are likely to be familiar with the anime-style art of the movie, and the cover art has that similar style. Asahikawa’s illustrations, though, are less influenced by Shinkai’s visuals and more generic light novel style. Considering all the praise, I’m surprised someone who draws in a more anime-like style wasn’t selected. As for the text, the translator does about as well as you could expect in a body-swapping stories. No one wants to debate how Japanese verb styles and personal pronouns should be adapted in English, but the reluctance of Taki in calling Saya by her first name and Teshigawara by Tesshi will really come across as strange to those unfamiliar with Japanese customs.

your name. Another Side: Earthbound is not an essential collection. But if you enjoyed any of these characters in the original, then you will no doubt want to spend more time with them.

- Krystallina

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

I will start out by saying I love Your Name. The movie was great and I enjoyed the manga series. I was really excited to get a look at the lives of some of the side characters.

From the first story, I already disliked the book. When I read that this was about minor characters, I was not expecting the first story to focus on Taki, you know, one of the two main characters. As I was reading it, I was waiting for it to switch over to a side character, but nope, it's pretty much just a story about boobs. While the whole boob thing was weird and kind of awkward in the movie, it wasn't a main part of the story and it was fairly understandable given the situation. Writing an entire story based on the boob thing though, that is another thing altogether. Completely pointless. I would have much rather read a story from Sayaka's perspective.

The second story focused on Teshigawara (Mitsuha's male friend), which was pretty good. It was cute to see his journey to building the little cafe and the love/hate relationship to the town was an interesting avenue to explore.

The third story was about Yotsuha (Mitsuha's sister). It started off well enough then tailspinned right into an obsession with boobs again. Seriously, the boob things is a tiny bit of the movie. Not sure why Arata Kanoh thought it needed to take up half of the book.

The final story explores Toshiki's (Mitsuha's father) life and was by far the most interesting. This is the only story that actually makes the reader understand the character better. It mostly focuses on his relationship to Mitsuha's mother, Futaba. Beautifully written and full of heart. This was the kind of story I wanted to read. The whole book should have just been this one story. Cut out all the creepy boob stuff. This is the stuff that matters.

Overall, the book was just okay. The boob stuff was weird and unnecessary. Too much time was spent on the philosophy of boob squeezing. The other issue with the book was that,because it was translated, some of the writing is clunky and awkward. I'd read a scene and see so many instances of misused words which completely changed the tone of what was happening.

Okay read, but really the only story worth reading is the last one (and maybe Toshiki's). Really disappointed with Taki's and Yotsuha's.

[Phobez · Rating 4 out of 5]

your name. Another Side: Earthbound is a book expanding on the your name. movie from the perspective of the friends and family around her. They are Mitsuha's friend Katsuhiko "Tessie" Teshigawara, little sister Yotsuha Miyamizu, and father Toshiki Miyamizu. The first chapter however is from the perspective of Taki Tachibana.

I don't write many reviews and I don't plan to say too much except that at first the book was just... okay. The first two chapters with Taki and Tessie were just okay. But the book started to become interesting starting from chapter 3 (Yotsuha). My favourite part was definitely chapter 4 (Toshiki). The perspective of a lot of people who watched the movie should change after reading those parts especially, as this book gives more context behind what happened and why everyone's acting that way. It gives us a glimpse into how for example Yotsuha thinks about what is happening and the background story of Toshiki Miyamizu. In fact, I think if chapter 4 were to be expanded it could even become its own short novel. Something that would be quite interesting.

All in all, if you enjoyed Kimi no Na wa. and would like to know more about the side characters and also more background story that gives even more context to what happened in the movie, I encourage you to read this.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comparison I never thought I'd make: "Your Name" is not entirely dissimilar to "Twin Peaks." On one hand, the sweet, nostalgic sci-fi romance of the former is miles away from the disturbing, nonlinear storytelling in the latter. But this side novel, containing the side stories and experiences of four supporting characters in the original novel, builds a deeper, more cosmic foundation for the initial events that we saw. It is here that the "Twin Peaks" comparison comes into play: both stories are rooted in the notion that ancient cultural practice and native beliefs are not meant to be simply rationalized away as tradition or superstition, and that these folk traditions may have a greater mystical, if not necessarily literal, truth than modern thoughts on spirituality and science would allow.

If you read and enjoyed the first novel, read the second novel. Rarely has a spinoff felt so essential to the main story... perhaps not since "Kingdom Hearts" (see my review of the main novel) or "Twin Peaks."

[Benjamin Frediani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to finish this one until the last few pages that tied up some of the boring bits in an impressively neat and enjoyable way.
I don't feel my time spent reading the mostly boring book was justified by the last few interesting pages though (I felt it was boring as it didn't have a straight plot or a real conclusion: instead it was snapshots of the side characters that gave more background detail on how the conclusion of the original stories plot was achieved - these snapshots felt very much like the author was just giving accounts of specific days of those characters life to flesh out and explain the other story).

If you really love the film/ original story and want to see different angles that make up the plot from some very detailed perspectives then it would probably be worth it for you.

The detail and thought gone into this book is impressive but I don't think it works as a book to pick up and enjoy as it's got too focus on being an explication of another story and not a story in itself.

[Haru Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the side story of the original version, Your Name. However, I believe this is the other half of the story. These two are linked with each other and their combination brings the reader a full understanding of the meanings and the reasons for characters' actions and thinkings. Nevertheless, this light novel gives us a chance to know the personalities and deep assumptions from both protagonists and side characters. For example, the father of Mitsuha is not just arrogant or antagonistic as we know from the original story, he also is a great husband who decided to marry the woman he loved in spite of the restraint from his family.

In conclusion, I recommend people who want to know more about the movie "Your Name" to get the book since I think the movie is quite hard to understand with some people. Last but not least, I like the comedy and slice of life stories in this light novel. This is one of the manifestations of the perfect rom-com genre I have ever read.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shinto? Oh No!

This book took a different direction from the first book, your name., which I absolutely loved - this book, not so much.

While I initially enjoyed the beginning of the book, I found it became overly pretentious as it delved deeper into the topic of shrines and Shinto religion.
While I appreciate the author's attempt to explore this aspect of Japanese culture, it didn't resonate with me personally.
However, the book is well-written and may be of interest to those who enjoy a more fantastical exploration of religious practices.

While it didn't fully meet my expectations, I appreciate the effort put into the book and look forward to seeing the author's future works.

2.5/5

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong I adore the movie and the story in general but this companion just didn’t seem necessary.
It was nice to see more depth to some of the characters but there wasn’t a lot to it that added to the original plot.
I found the part where Mitsuha’s parents meet and discuss the folktales around the shrine interesting but not much else.
There were cute details like the naming of the sisters in the dad’s perspective and a few funny moments from Yotsuha’s. I liked learning Tesshi’s feelings and motivations about Itomori and his future prospects but again it didn’t add anything and was a bit too long for what it was, which is what I found for the other perspectives too.

TLDR:
Not awful for a light novel but it doesn’t add much to the original as a companion and definitely wouldn’t stand alone.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sono dell'opinione che questo volume non aggiunge nulla alla trama originale di Your Name e non essendo opera di Shinkai la lettura non risulta così coinvolgente come se mancasse quella scintilla che rende uniche le storie del maestro. Spesso l'ho trovato ripetitivo e per certi versi questo ha smorzato l'entusiasmo; in certi punti ho fatto difficoltà a sentirmi coinvolta. L'ultimo capitolo è quello che mi ha fatto cambiare idea e il motivo per cui ho optato per 3 stelle invece che 2.
Nonostante i punti non proprio così positivi, non ho saputo resistere all'opportunità di tornate nel mondo di Your Name e scoprire qualcosa di più dei personaggi protagonisti di questo volume.
A breve farò un meritatissimo re-watch dell'anime ✨

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd recommend picking this one up after a fresh watch of the film or read of the novel, as it wouldn't make much sense read without knowledge of the plot events of Your Name. The four short stories go through the perspectives of Taki and three supporting characters, giving a deeper dimension to the film's plot. I actually found the stories got more interesting as they diverged further into the backgrounds of the characters, as this was where you could see these backstories had to be cut from the film.

I think what was missing from these short stories however was a satisfying conclusion. The stories centre on delving into the thoughts of the characters at particular points in the film, which while interesting, sets the stories up for feeling slightly unfinished.

[Jon Chaisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful side story, looking into the back stories of four characters during the time of the main one. Taki's attempts at getting used to being in a girl's body; Tesshi's disillusionment in his father and the town he's stuck in; Yotsuha's growing worries about her older sister's recent weirdness; and a surprisingly touching story about Mitsuha's father's past that explains his present actions. All four tie in beautifully with key scenes of the main Your Name storyline, further explaining the drive behind the four characters and why they feel the need to believe in Mitsuha/Taki at the most important times in their lives.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this after having seen the film as it added some depth to some of the characters who didn't really get any screen time or development in the movie. We see a bit more inside the head of Taki when the body swapping starts but then this book focuses more on the side characters with the little sister getting a lot more background and even a body swap of her own, the father even gets a good chunk showing how he met Mitsuha's mother and how his role was fated in the overall story.

I'd not want to read this instead of the film as it missed so much out but as a companion it is a worthwhile and interesting read.