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During the course of Your Name. (orig.: Kimi no na wa.) we learn that in Mitsuha's time her home town Itomori is about to be hit by a splintering comet. When Taki in Mitsuha's body is going to save the town together with her friends, they mention the fact that the region was already hit by a meteorite a thousand years ago, which actually created the lake that Itomori is built around (transcribed by me from the German translation):

Sayaka: But, it's improbable that it happens, right?

Tessie: No, not necessarily! Do you even know how the Itomori lake was formed? By a meteorite crash, thousand years ago there already landed one here.

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Mitsuha (Taki): I understand, that's why!

When hearing that, Mitsuha/Taki remembers what I think to be a painting of the comet in the shinto cave where he drank Mitsuha's sake. He seems to have a realization of some kind, but it's unclear to me what he "understands". It might be just the realization of why there was a painting of the coment at the shrine, but even then, it's still quite a coincidence that the Itomori region is hit by a meteorite twice (and albeit not at the exact same place, then at least quite closely, close enough for both craters to merge into a bigger lake after the impact).

So, is there any further connection between the meteorite impact a thousand years ago and the one in 2013 that Mitsuha and Taki try to save the town from? Is it even related to the whole body switching, too (earlier Taki/Mitsuha suggests that the body switch "dreams" could be there to warn/prepare them for the meteorite hit)?

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  • Are you saying comet?
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Nov 18, 2019 at 13:26

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The movie does not combine the two events. They remain unrelated even though improbable. 1000 years ago there was a comet that caused the beautiful late to form. There is another comet headed their way. Let's just say there is something special about this town. The women in Mithuha's family have experienced switches too. The grandmother talks about this, so it's not just Mitsuha and therefore not a warning for the comet. But because others never exchanged anything physically with their switching partners, the memories faded away like it was a dream - the grandmother mentions this too.

Even for Taki and Mitsuha, the same would have happened, but she travels to Tokyo and hands him that read thread which binds them with more strength. So the effects of the switching stay as memories for longer. Taki finds himself at the shrine because of this distant memory. Inside the shrine, he finds the kuchikamizake that Mitsuha made 3 years ago, just before the comet struck. As explained in the film, she uses her saliva for this which means this offering is one part of her.

Taki drinks this kuchikamizake and it re-establishes his connection to Mitsuha. He also witnesses time through the years. He sees the comet that struck 1000 years ago, he sees the town of Itomori, the whole life of Mitsuha Her birth, her mother, her father, her grandmother, her switching, her trip to Tokyo to meet Taki, Taki receiving the red thread on the train, the next comet, her death.

Boom! he's back in Mitsuha's body and thus is in the cusp of giving birth to a brand new timeline. A timeline where the town gets evacuated and Mitsuha doesn't die - and together they make it happen.

So in summary here's the answer to the questions raised:

1) but it's unclear to me what he "understands".

Taki doesn't understand, he recollects. He does a quick trip back in time and reconnects with the events of his switching with Mitsuha. Additionally, he has a quick glimpse of the history of Itomori through time.

2) is there any further connection between the meteorite impact a thousand years ago and the one in 2013 that Mitsuha and Taki try to save the town from?

No, there is no connection. It's like lightning striking at the same place twice.

3) Is it even related to the whole body switching, too (earlier Taki/Mitsuha suggests that the body switch "dreams" could be there to warn/prepare them for the meteorite hit)?

It is not related to the body switching because a couple of decades back the grandmother, too, faced body switching and that had nothing to do with a comet.

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  • That is...a nice summary of the film, but you might want to concentrate on the specific question a little more. The first paragraph does adress it a little, but all the following paragraphs seem rather unrelated to the question asked. So maybe you can point out their relevance for answering the question a little more.
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    Mar 7, 2019 at 18:51
  • @NapoleonWilson yeah it was a muddled answer. I added a summary answering the questions raised in the post. Thanks.
    – MovieMe
    Mar 8, 2019 at 6:27
  • I'm not so sure about "no relation between the two impacts". They say "orbital period of 1200 years" in the movie, so if it was that and not exactly 1000 years, then it could be the same one.
    – Fabian Röling
    Mar 9, 2021 at 14:58
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    @FabianRöling - good point. They do mention 1200 years. But the thing is this comet had to split at its nucleus into two parts for the resulting meteor to be large enough to strike Itomori the way it did. The two lakes are comparable in size so if 1200 years ago the same comet had split it would change the resulting mass of the comet and change it's trajectory altogether. The orbital period of 1200 years for comets is only if the comet doesn't split and have a significant portion removed from it. To add, the remainder of the comet we see will no longer have the 1200 year orbital period. 🤔
    – MovieMe
    Mar 10, 2021 at 15:33
  • But the orbital period was likely calculated less than 1200 years ago, so it would be about that medium sized comet anyway.
    – Fabian Röling
    Mar 10, 2021 at 17:41

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