Why couldn't Mitsuha and Taki remember each other's names?


In the second half of _Your Name_ (after the body switching stops happening),
Mitsuha and Taki can't remember each other's names. They can even end up
forgetting the names within 10 seconds of seeing each other. Why does this
happen? One theory I have is:

> Before Taki intervenes, Mitsuha would have died when the comet hit. Taki
> couldn't remember her name because her future was hanging in the balance.

But this answer doesn't entirely work. For one,

> He still fails to remember her name after they rescue Itomori, and Mitsuha
> is no longer at risk of dying

And second off

> Taki was never in risk of dying in the comet, but Mitsuha still can't
> remember his name either.

So why did this happen? I know this is somewhat the main theme of the whole
movie, but it never made sense to me how they could forget so quickly. It's
almost like something was actively causing them to forget.




Losing the associated memories is one of the effects of this mysterious
phenomenon that the entire movie is based around, it happened in the scene you
are asking about, but it also happened in reference to Mitsu's grandmother.
All the supernatural occurrences in the movie are supposed to be caused by the
shrine god, comet, the shrine maiden (Mitsu) or some combination of those
three. Losing the memories associated with the body-swap/time-travel was quite
simply just one of the effects of the supernatural phenomenon surrounding
"Kimi no Na wa".

Going into specifics as to why it was that moment, exactly what memories they
lost and why it happened so suddenly starts to enter the territory of artistic
interpretation, [this reddit
post](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/54ptzv/help_explaining_kimi_no_na_wa_spoilers/)
explains a few useful plot moments for understanding this and comes up with
quite a good interpretation for why it happened at that moment because it had
just reached twilight and they had just left the shrine which holds the
symbolic meaning of leaving behind your most precious thing (their memories of
each other).

The issue that I think you noticed with your theory is that it limits the
forgotten memories to be specifically about death when really it was about
much more. The reddit post is just one interpretation, exactly why is really
up to the viewer.

