I completed by second novel in Japanese 君の名は the other day, so I wanted to make this review now while it was still fresh in my mind.
This movie has always had a special connection to Tokyo for me, since I studied abroad in Tokyo in the year following its release. I listened to the soundtrack everywhere and even found some of the real-life locations in the city. (I’m sentimental like that.)
Overall:
*has a ton of heavy descriptions of places
*lots of internal thoughts/monologuing
*the build-up of the story to the main action part is very long (about 50+ pages or so )
*there’s a lot of N2 grammar
*the vocabulary starts out not too hard, but progressively gets harder by the last 75 pages (the climax scene)
*there is a lot of vocabulary related to comets, space, and meteors.
Since I have such a high opinion of the movie, the book just cannot compare personally. The scenes are not nearly as funny in the book because my Japanese is not as great, and the descriptions of the places don’t have the same umph as watching it on screen. I think thats part of beauty of seeing it on screen (“picture is worth 1,000 words”)
But I still recommend anyone to try reading it if you enjoyed the movie and would like to try reading a novelization.
Vocabulary
There are many words related to meteors, natural landscape and rock formations, and natural disasters. For example:
彗星（すいせい）: comet
隙間（すきま）: crevice
斜面（しゃめん）: slope
地形（ちけい）: terrrain
防災無線 （ぼうさいむせん）: diaster prevention radio
Level Verdict
Same as 天気の子, you need N3, but N2 understanding really helps bc there’s lots of N2 grammar besides vocab. That understanding just adds to the story.
For first-time JP readers, I think it’s a lot harder to get into this story if you are reading at a slower pace because the build-up is so long.
Let me know your thoughts too if you’ve read it.
An In-Depth Review
I recommend reading both these reviews as well for a greater in-depth review of 君のなは.
framed in beige 