Was there any hint of the year before it is revealed?

Question

Before we find out that there is a three year gap between Taki and Mitsuha, were there any visible signs that the audience could have determined the date gap with? The anime has recent technology such as smart phones but it seems that the year was always absent from the screen when they were in the diary application or memos.

They were sorted by date, but seemingly neither of them noticed that there was a time gap until this moment. Odd that they could go to school and never have to write the year down on their papers they submit, but I'm just wondering if there was any way for us, as viewers, to have noticed the date discrepancy beforehand?

Answer 1

What I first noticed as a discrepancy and wrongly attributed as an animation mistake turned out to be foreshadowing of the three-year gap:

_{Taki's and Mitsuha's phone screens at around the 28:17 and 28:54 marks, showing September 12 as a Monday and a Thursday, respectively.}

If we were to assume the time in Kimi no Na wa. corresponds to ours in real life, then we can reason that the only years in recent times in which September 12 was/will be a Thursday or a Monday are: 2011 (Monday), 2013 (Thursday), 2016 (Monday), 2019 (Thursday) and 2022 (Monday). However you look at it, there is a three-year gap, except between 2011 and 2013, but we can rule that one out. In fact, we can pinpoint the exact years (2013/2016) in the anime before the revelation of the time gap if we make the following observations:

• Taki's smartphone is an iPhone 6s in space gray, the only finish with a black faceplate. iPhone 6s was first released on September 25, 2015.
• Mitsuha's smartphone is an iPhone 5s. It could not have been an iPhone 5 as noted in the Kimi no Na wa. Official Visual Guide (page 110), due to the redesigned front camera and the new home button integrated with a Touch ID sensor that were first introduced with the iPhone 5s. Either the props design was intentionally rough, or that after the release of the iPhone SE, Makoto Shinkai noticed its extreme similarity to the iPhone 5s and took advantage of it, as well as its convenient release date, March 31, 2016, to help mask the time gap. He even went as far as giving Mitsuha a rose gold colored phone protector, which only became available as a finish since iPhone 6s, to further confuse us of the time Mitsuha was living in. iPhone 5s was released in Japan on September 20, 2013, eight days after the September 12 screenshotted above (is that an oversight?) and almost three years before its doppelganger, the iPhone SE, would be released (that's a three-year time gap right there!).
• The only meteor confirmed to have resulted in a large number of casualties is the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, which, like in the movie, also split into two main fragments after the primary airburst disruption. As a reminder, the fictional Itomori Accident occurred on October 4, 2013.

However, the first true hint was given much earlier, in the fascinating OP:

Notice here Taki suddenly grew taller while Mitsuha remained the same height.

Then in the 12-key-frames animation sequence that basically summarized the film, Makoto Shinkai is again playing tricks on us with the changing outfits, some of which are seasonal uniform switches, by pretending that Mitsuha also moved up in grades when in fact she did not. According to Learn All About Japanese Girls’ School Uniforms and Become an Expert!,

Except for the warm season, girls usually wear sweaters or vests. Unless they have a school sweater or vest that they have to wear, they usually choose their own. The basic colors would be white, black, gray, and beige.

The sweaters are not part of the school uniform, but her own, as further supported by the three schoolmates who showed up for Mitsuha's confession each wearing a sweater of a different color.

Answer 2

Taki woke up as himself again, and saw that Mitsuha arranged a date for him. He dressed up and runs to Onodera senpai.

The scene where Okudera Senpai and Taki just met to start the date...

on 38:41, you can see taki already wearing the red ribbon

on 39:09, you will see mitsuha tying her hair with the ribbon

Mitsuha (on the picture above) on the other hand, also woke up as herself and start to dress up before going to school. But ended up ditching class and goes to tokyo to see Taki's "date".

This was supposed to be the day she will hand out the ribbon to Taki. But on the present situation, Taki was already wearing the ribbon as a bracelet which indicates that there is already a time difference.

Answer 3

Actually, during the party at Tessie's place around 14:00 mark, there's a calendar hanging on the closet near Tessie which has its year displayed as "2013" and only appeared for about 10 seconds (and most of the time blocked by Tessie's dad's body). *Pirated version's resolution is way too low to find this even if you strained your eyes to the maximum. So watch it in a cinema or buy the Blu-ray version. (Click to enlarge picture)

But there's a more obvious clue while Mitsuha went to high school as Taki. While he (she) was staring into the classroom and wondering whether he should step in before being interrupted by Tsukasa, there's a poster on the door showing the annual "High School Music Fest 2016". Around 21:00 mark

*BTW, there's a critical error that must to be fixed before NA or Blu-Ray release: In the last switch, Taki was discussing with Mitsuha's friends about the evacuation plan and searching on the web. The Google logo was a total misuse since it's the version of the current one which released in a late 2015 major update.

Answer 4

On the part where they were just discovering that they were switching bodies...

On Mitsuhi's phone September 12 is a thursday (29:08) On Taki's phone September 12 is a monday (29:54)

In real time, sep. 12, 2013 is actually a thursday and sep. 12, 2016 is monday.