Taki Tachibana

Taki Tachibana is the main male protagonist of Kimi no Na wa anime film.

Taki 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 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.

Trivia

 * The kanji for him given name, Taki, 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.