It takes only two words to sum up why 2016 was always going to be a hard act to follow: "Your Name."
To call Makoto Shinkai's body-switching romance a hit is a little like calling Tokyo Skytree "pretty tall." The film made up nearly half the domestic anime box office and, worldwide, became the highest-grossing anime film of all time (Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" still claims that honor on the Japan charts). Its success did not go unnoticed in Hollywood, where J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot snapped up the remake rights this September.
The year 2017 did not feature any "Your Name."-size theatrical hits — though not for lack of imitating. Engaging in that sincerest form of flattery, films such as "Napping Princess" and "Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?" featured "Your Name."-esque rural settings, teen romances and fantasy/sci-fi twists, and while they were modest successes they didn't quite click like Shinkai's smash did.