Taki Tachibana

Taki Tachibana (立花 瀧) is the male protagonist of Kimi no Na wa.. He is a 17-year old high-school student who lives a busy lifestyle as he juggles his part-time job at an Italian restaurant, spends fun times with his friends, and hopes for a future in architecture. His lifestyle takes a turn when he starts switching bodies with a high-school girl named Mitsuha Miyamizu in his dreams, who wished to live as a handsome boy in Tokyo.

Appearance
Taki is a young man with an average build and height who is noted for being handsome. He has spiky, nape-length brown hair with bangs covering his forehead and dark blue eyes. At times, he is seen wearing band-aids because of his impulsive personality.

When he was first introduced at the beginning of the film, he was shown wearing a plain white t-shirt and blue shorts. He was also shown having a white band-aid on his left cheek. His standard school uniform consists of a white dress shirt with a striped green tie and a dark blue blazer, dark gray pants with a black belt, and dark blue loafers.

While working at his part-time job, he wears a waiter's outfit that consists of a black vest, a long-sleeved dress shirt, a black bow tie, and a black apron that covers his pants.

During his date with Miki Okudera, he wore a dark jacket, a V-neck shirt striped with the colors orange, blue, and white, khaki pants, and black sneakers with shoelaces. At times, he wears an orange wristband on his right arm, which he got from Mitsuha, as a good-luck charm.

As a 14-year-old, Taki was noticeably shorter and had a smaller build, though his facial features have remained the same up to adulthood. He was seen wearing his standard middle school uniform consisting of a white shirt and green tie with a pale yellow blazer on top.

As an adult, he grows much taller and develops broad shoulders. He wears a black suit and a blue tie, which his two friends from high school like to comment on.

Personality
Taki is generally a kind, hardworking and caring individual. He is also helpful, responsible, and level-headed. Although he is organized and mostly handles everything quite nicely, his busy lifestyle and creative side; being interested in architecture and art and having artistic abilities, can come off as unorganized but hardworking. He can also sometimes be persistent, and may even be called sensitive towards others as he is quick to anger. This causes him to come off as impatient and stubborn, as he is shown with a bandage on his face the first time Mitsuha wakes up in his body, which suggests that he was injured in a fight.

Taki is somewhat quick-tempered and blunt, and he has a tendency to accidentally blurt out the first thing on his mind without restraint or tact when he is nervous or stressed, whether it may be wrong or right. However, he quickly fixes his way of speaking by saying what he really wants the second after. Although polite, Taki is very straightforward and can easily stand up for himself and others and hates taking belittlement from others. In contrast to Mitsuha who takes the belittlement from her father and her classmates without so much as a whisper in retaliation, Taki in her body ends up delivering verbal (and in some cases, physical) lashings. He puts his excess of assertiveness to good use when it rubs off on Mitsuha and she eventually gains the confidence to stand up to her father.

Although he tries to restrain himself, he gropes Mitsuha's chest when he inhabits her body, which would lead to Mitsuha calling him a pervert later on. He is also considered very carefree and tomboyish as Taki in Mitsuha's body, as he doesn't take much consideration about things like skirts, bras and Mitsuha's growing popularity. Taki also noted that Mitsuha became more popular because of him inhabiting her body, with both boys and girls sending love letters to her, indicating that Taki is charismatic and sociable. However, he seems to quite poor in romance and he states that he is single because he apparently wants to, having absolutely no idea what to do during his date with Okudera, and being dishonest about his own feelings. This is seen when he denied his feelings towards Mitsuha although they were very obvious.

Taki is a very determined person, as he explores the rural parts of Japan in order to meet Mitsuha in person, with only sketches of her town that he drew from his memory since he doesn't know the name. Even after finding out she has passed away since three years ago, he is still determined to find a way to reconnect with her. Five years later, even after having lost all the memories about her, that determination still stands.

As an adult, Taki has matured but still has his former personality. He has developed an even deeper fascination with architecture and Itomori, as he wants to build heartwarming landscapes that Tokyo will be remembered by, since it could disappear just like Itomori. Deep down, he also feels empty and always feels like he is searching for someone or something, though he thinks he mixes up this feeling with stress to find a job until he reunites with Mitsuha again.

Kimi no Na wa.
There is not much known about Taki's background, but he lives with his father in an apartment. His father appears to be a busy individual, as he isn't seen being home often. According to the film's director Makoto Shinkai, Taki's parents got divorced sometime before the beginning of the story.

Itomori Incident (2013)
By the time of 2013, Taki is fourteen years old and in his last year of middle school. Somewhere around summer, Mitsuha started switching bodies with Taki, though it was him three years in the future when he was seventeen, the same age as Mitsuha at the time. As such, Taki in the current timeline didn't experience the body-switching and didn't know who Mitsuha was.



One day, when Mitsuha had gone to Tokyo to find Taki, she finds him on the train on her way back home. On the train, Taki is reading through some flashcards, paying no attention to Mitsuha just in front of him. Mitsuha calls out to him and asks if he remembers her, but Taki bluntly asks her who she is. Although Mitsuha is saddened by his answer, she doesn't further her inquiries. In Taki's case, he makes the impression that she is a strange girl. However, he seems to be interested in getting to know her, as he asks for her name when she is about to get off her station. Mitsuha gives Taki both her name and her braided cord that she is wearing, something that Taki would often wear as a good-luck charm for the following years.

The same night, Taki watches the TV and hears about the comet. He goes out to his balcony and sees the falling stars, which he thinks was nothing more or less of a beautiful view. However, Taki didn't know about the comet hitting Itomori, as he wouldn't learn about this until 3 years later.

Main Story (2016)
In 2016, Taki is seventeen years old and in his third year of high school. He also has a part-time job as a waiter at an Italian restaurant called Il Giardino Delle Parole. In September 2016, Taki experiences the body-switching with Mitsuha, though he switches with the Mitsuha three years prior to the Itomori accident, when she was alive and the same age as him in the current timeline.



Taki first realizes that they are switching bodies in their dreams when he sees Mitsuha's name written on his hand and the memos on his phone that were written by her. Although they don't remember much about the body-switching, it is obvious that they are switching places due to the reactions from the people around them. Trying to solve the strange phenomenon of the body-switching and to protect their different lifestyles, they begin setting up rules and promises each other to leave reports, as they communicate by writing messages on paper or on their phones. Although they are grateful towards each other at times for helping out in their respective lives, like Mitsuha helping Taki out with his relationship with his crush Okudera; and Mitsuha becoming more popular because of Taki; they also experience annoyment and bickering, often leaving insults on each other's skin.

One day, Taki wakes up in Mitsuha's body and accompanies Mitsuha's younger sister Yotsuha and their grandmother Hitoha to leave the ritual alcohol kuchikamizake, made by Mitsuha and Yotsuha and thus becoming "half of their souls", as an offering at the Miyamizu shrine on a mountaintop outside the town. The shrine is believed to represent the body of the village guardian god who rules human experiences and connections, and Taki is explained that departing to the shrine means having to leave the most important thing belonging to oneself in exchange. At the way back home, Taki is confused about some old Itomori expressions and about the comet, to which Hitoha notes that Taki is dreaming. At that time, Taki wakes up in his own body and starts crying.

Right after, Taki gets a message from Okudera, and he quickly realizes that Mitsuha had arranged a date with Okudera for him. Taki hurries to Okudera and they go on their date. They enjoy themselves, but since Taki is hopeless in terms of dates, Mitsuha had seemingly given him some advice, though Taki mentions that she is only making fun of him due to his inexperience. While they are watching an exhibition, Taki sees a picture of Itomori and looks at it in awe. After the date, Okudera notes that Taki previously had a crush on her, but now liked someone else, to which Taki embarrassingly tries to deny.

Taki later reads through the memos Mitsuha wrote and wonders what she means by saying that the comet would be visible after the date. He then proceeds to call her to tell her about the disastrous date with Okudera, but he cannot reach her. At the same time in Mitsuha's original timeline (2013), the comet struck with the residents perishing. After this, Taki's body-switching with Mitsuha ceases. In pursuit of an answer to the abrupt ending of the body-switching, Taki begins drawing pictures of Itomori for weeks in hopes of finding Mitsuha. Since Taki doesn't know the town's name, he relies solely on his memory of Itomori's sceneries. After completing his drawings, he departs on a trip to Itomori with Tsukasa and Okudera to search for Mitsuha. When passing by a restaurant, an older man that lived in Itomori before appears to be impressed by his drawing.

Taki, finally finding out the town's name, is immediately informed of the shocking truth that a comet hit Itomori three years ago and killed most of the residents. Taki thinks that there might be some kind of mistake and proceeds to prove it with the memos Mitsuha left behind on his phone, but they disappear. Taki and his friends go on to study about the disaster, and when Taki finds Mitsuha's name in the records of fatalities, he becomes absolutely devastated.

Unable to further their research, Taki, Tsukasa and Okudera go on to an inn to spend the night. Taki soon begins questioning the body-switching and Mitsuha's existence, and his memory of her slowly starts fading away. However, the word braided cord sparks Taki's interest since someone had given one to him in the past. He then vaguely remembers Mitsuha and departs to the Miyamizu shrine the following day. When he discovers Mitsuha and Yotsuha's kuchikamizake still stored in the cave shrine, Taki realizes that everything that happened wasn't just in his dreams. He also understands that their timelines were separated by three years.



Hoping to reconnect with her body and warn her of the comet strike, Taki proceeds to drink Mitsuha's sake and wishes to travel back in time. The plan seems unsuccessful until Taki falls and sees a comet. Taki then goes through a dream sequence with Mitsuha's braided cord as a connection. He sees most of her life in the dream, including the time where Mitsuha, having fallen in love with him, met his past self while trying to meet him personally, until moments before her death. Taki desperately tells Mitsuha to escape before the comet struck, and before seeing the comet strike in the dream, Taki wakes up in Mitsuha's body, alive and well, making Taki overjoyed. Upon seeing "Mitsuha", Mitsuha's grandmother deduces his identity and tells him the body-switching is part of the Miyamizu family history as caretakers of the shrine. However, Mitsuha's grandmother doesn't believe Taki's story about that tragedy was about to strike either way, so he immediately goes out to convince Sayaka and Tessie to help him evacuate the town by cutting the power and broadcasting a false emergency alert. Taki tries to convince Mitsuha's father and other small children, but with no success. Taki thinks that Mitsuha would be able to succeed in his stead. So when he realizes that since he and Mitsuha are switching places, she should be in his body in the Miyamizu shrine since he had fallen asleep in there, and starts making his way there.

When Taki reaches the crater as the sun set they sense each other's presence but were separated by their different timelines by three years. Hopelessly, as they watch the sun go down, Mitsuha and Taki return to their own bodies and are placed within the same timeline, commenting that it is "Kataware-doki". It surprises them both deeply upon seeing one another in person for the first time. Mitsuha begins crying and Taki explains that he is just as happy to see her. He details the process he had to go through to save her, including drinking her kuchikamizake, to which Mitsuha comments on Taki being a pervert. She also calls him out for touching her chest and he quickly apologizes. Jokes aside, Mitsuha realizes that Taki still had her braided cord around his wrist.

Taki explains that he had kept it for three years from the first day they met, and gives it back to Mitsuha to wear. After conversing, enjoying each others company and treasuring their moments together, Taki explains to Mitsuha about his plan and that she has things to do. Taki then suggests them to write each other's names on their hands so they would remember one another, to which she happily agrees to. With Kataware-doki ending, Taki writes his name (though it was later revealed that he wrote "I love you"), but before Mitsuha can do the same, they are returned to their original timelines, with Mitsuha being sent back to 2013 to prevent the comet and Taki remaining in 2016. He tries looking around for any traces of Mitsuha, but with no success. Taki repeatedly says Mitsuha's name in an attempt to not forget her, but in the end, he does. The feeling of forgetting someone dear to him, makes Taki cry while shouting out for "her" name.

After Mitsuha saved everyone in her town back in 2013, Taki wakes up in a new-created timeline, though still in 2016, after spending the night in the mountains. However, he has completely forgotten everything connecting to Mitsuha, the body-switching and everything that happened the previous days.

Epilogue (2021)
Eight years after the comet struck, Taki is 22 years old. He has graduated from both high school and university and is now searching for a job as an architect. He goes into various job interviews and explains his reasons for applying for the job; to build landscapes and wanting to leave heartwarming memories in Tokyo since the city could disappear one day just like Itomori.

Taki mentions that once in a while, he finds himself glancing at his palm, but has no recollection of the feelings behind the incomplete message. He also feels like he has lost something precious to him and that he is always searching for someone or something, a feeling that has possessed him since five years ago. Taki theorizes that it must be something from a dream he could never recall.

While meeting up with his high school friends one day, he gets a message from Okudera who suggests that they should meet up for a bit. They discuss about how they went to Itomori once and how they didn't remember much from back then. However, at one point, Taki mentions that he was inexplicably drawn to the events surrounding Itomori, and although half of the town disappeared, all the residents survived. He read those articles intently on the net, and he still wonders what had caught his attention, especially since he never knew someone in that town. Before parting ways, Okudera tells him that he'll be happy someday too, to which Taki glances at his hand once again.

Taki subconsciously remembers people who he knew in Mitsuha's body, such as Sayaka and Tessie who he sees in a café once, but isn't able to put his finger on why. Taki and Mitsuha also pass by each other various times on the streets of Tokyo, but thinking they are mistaken by the inexplicable feeling of connection, walks by.

Taki glances at his hand for the third time on the way to work, and Taki suddenly sees Mitsuha when their trains draw parallel. Mitsuha, who is shocked and lost for words, stares at Taki in awe and upon seeing her, he makes a similar reaction as well. At this moment, both realize that they had been, for the past years, searching for each other. They are compelled to disembark and search for one another, finally meeting on a staircase; Mitsuha at the top and Taki at the bottom. However, none of them says anything despite being so shocked. Taki ends up going up the stairs while Mitsuha makes her way down. This makes them both regretful, but Taki soon calls out to Mitsuha and tells her that he feels like they had met before. Mitsuha replies that she thinks the same, causing them both to cry out of joy. The movie ends with them simultaneously asking for each other's name.

Mitsuha Miyamizu
Taki first got to know Mitsuha when they started switching bodies in their dreams. In pursuit of an answer to the strange phenomenon, they agreed to help each other out by laying down rules to protect one another's contrasting lifestyles in the meantime. They initially have a complex relationship: Taki is grateful towards Mitsuha at times, but at other times he is hugely irritated at her for various reasons. Likewise, Mitsuha complains about Taki and the actions he takes in her body as well. This results with bickering, arguments, and both of them leaving insults like "idiot" at each other's skin. However, despite that, they develop a deep connection, comes to understand each other on a different level, and Taki comes to care about her deeply. Taki also learns a lot about Mitsuha; including her lifestyle, traditions, family, and friends. Since Mitsuha is a female shrine maiden, Taki begins to sympathize with and admire her for withstanding the criticism from society and the pressure from her father and broken family. Taki also feels comfortable with confiding anything in her. Okudera notes that Mitsuha is someone important to Taki whom he was changed by.

As time passes, Taki starts developing romantic feelings for Mitsuha. When it is brought up, Taki embarrassingly denies this while blushing, though his feelings for Mitsuha are very obvious. When he stops switching bodies with Mitsuha, he is determined to meet her in person since it redeems impossible to contact her. During the time Taki prepares for his trip to Itomori, he continues with his normal day-to-day life but thinks about Mitsuha the whole time. When he learns the truth about her, Taki is absolutely devastated and is left in a state of hopelessness and confusion. Though his memory of her slowly starts to fade, Taki never loses his strong desire to save Mitsuha, which is why he goes great lengths to do so; going to the Miyamizu shrine and drinking her kuchikamizake in hopes of reversing time to save her. When his plan did become successful and Taki wakes up in Mitsuha's body, he is so overjoyed that he starts crying. In hopes of preventing the disaster and Mitsuha and the other residents surviving, Taki tries to make a plan but cannot seem to succeed. Taki thinks that Mitsuha would be able to do it, which means that Taki believes in Mitsuha and her abilities completely.

When Taki finds out that Mitsuha had previously gone to Tokyo to find him, he is happy and very touched by her actions as she had come to meet him even when he didn't even know her at the time. He also remembers that Mitsuha had given him her braided cord (which makes the two of them connected by the red string of fate), and he realizes that he had kept it as a good-luck charm for three years.

When Taki and Mitsuha meet each other in person at Kataware-doki, they are both beyond overjoyed and at the same time, nervous. Because, at this time, their romantic feelings are mutual. They prove to be comfortable with each other as they were during the body-switching, but also nervous as they occasionally blush. Before being separated because of their different timelines, Taki confesses to Mitsuha by writing that he loves her on her hand instead of writing his own name. Taki apparently did this because of the huge probability of them forgetting about everything relating to one another. However, he would still be able to convey his love towards Mitsuha since no one could erase his feelings, and as so, Mitsuha would know that someone out there loved her. When they do become separated, Taki comments on the horizontal line Mitsuha had written at the start of her name on his palm, that no matter where she was in the world, he would definitely go find her. However, when he slowly starts forgetting her name, he is so devastated that he starts crying out for her. He didn't want to forget about Mitsuha, who had become so precious and dear to him. Despite this, Taki completely forgets about everything relating to Mitsuha.

For the following years, he feels like he has forgotten someone important to him and is always subconsciously searching for someone. He occasionally glances at his palm where Mitsuha had written her incomplete message, and even though he doesn't remember anything about it, he knows it has some deep feelings behind it. When Okudera says that he would be happy someday, Taki glances at his hand; meaning that the feeling behind the message is Taki's source of happiness. When Taki and Mitsuha see each other, they instantly recognize each other despite not uttering a word, and they also understand that they were always searching for one another. When they finally reunite, both of them are confident that they know each other despite having no memories of each other; and the relief of finally founding that precious someone after so many years, makes them cry out of joy.

As so, their relationship will start anew from this moment. Due to their connection with the red string of fate, Taki and Mitsuha are fated lovers who were destined to eventually meet, despite time, circumstances, or place. So it is therefore heavily implied that they will eventually get together.

Miki Okudera
Taki worked at the same restaurant as Okudera and clearly respects her as a senior, addressing her as "Okudera-senpai". Taki also had a crush on her, which is seen because he had a few pictures of her, was amazed by her beauty, and would also blush and become nervous in her presence. However, their relationship didn't go any further than friends and colleagues until Taki and Mitsuha started switching bodies. When Mitsuha in Taki's body helped sew her skirt as a customer had cut it, Taki gained the admiration from Okudera, as she didn't know that he had a "feminine" side even though he was stubborn. After this, they slowly became closer and started to spend more time together; with Taki occasionally walking Okudera to the station and going to cafés together. This developed a mutual crush between them which made Taki joyful as he had grown closer to Okudera. But this also led to jealousy from other male co-workers at the restaurant, much to Taki's confusion. When Mitsuha arranged a date for Taki and Okudera, it was a disastrous date in the end according to Taki himself. And despite Mitsuha predicting them becoming a couple afterward, Taki was noted by Okudera that he now loves someone else (Mitsuha), instead of her, whom he previously had a crush on.

Despite that, they remain good friends, being comfortable with each other with occasional teasing from Okudera's side. Okudera followed Taki on his trip to find Mitsuha, though Taki saw both Okudera and Tsukasa as bothersome as they didn't help him search for Mitsuha. Okudera later admitted to Tsukasa that she did like him and that even though she couldn't make sense of what Taki was saying about Mitsuha, she supports him and is confident in his genuine feelings towards the person he was searching for. Their friendship is steady even in adulthood, as they sometimes meet up when Okudera is nearby for work. And now when Okudera is married, she reassures him that he will be happy one day, too.

Trivia

 * The kanji for him given name, Taki (瀧), combines the characters for "water" and "dragon".
 * This serves as another connection between himself and Mitsuha as water is also mentioned in Mitsuha's surname and since the Miyamizu folklore includes mention of a dragon, which symbolizes the destructive power of Tiamat.
 * The red braided cord Taki got from Mitsuha could be a reference to a Japanese myth: "The red string of fate". The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break.
 * This is also associated with the concept of the movie: "Musubi", time; which has a similar description. Taki and Mitsuha were separated by time, circumstances and memory, but when they found each other at the end after so long, their feelings were still connected.
 * When he inhabits Mitsuha's body, he wears her hair in a ponytail since he doesn't know how Mitsuha does her hairstyle.
 * However, on the first day they started switching, he wore her hair down.
 * Taki used to touch Mitsuha's chest quite often when they switched bodies, as Yotsuha saw it happening at least three times.
 * When Taki told Mitsuha to write her name on his hand at Twilight (Kataware-doki), it's actually a reference to the first time they started switching bodies, as Mitsuha wrote her name on her hand when she was in Taki's body.
 * When Mitsuha and Taki met at Kataware-doki, it was the only time they were the same age, as one would experience something inhuman during Kataware-doki.
 * Taki has a tendency to clench his fist when embarrassed or nervous.