Suzume

Suzume has become one of 2023's breakout hits and for good reason; though the film may have some similarities to Your Name and Weathering With You, it's got enough different material to make this film a nicely refreshing experience at the cinema.

I don't know why some critics/audience-members have complained about the supposed similarities to Makoto Shinkai's previous films; directors have styles they refine to their heart's content, so it's an odd thing to point out here. With that said, Shinkai uses his 'magic realism' approach to tell an even more fantasy-oriented story than Your Name; there are talking cats and sentient chairs in this one instead of a 'simple' body-swap.

Of course, the story's well realised but what about the animation? It's gorgeous! Of course it's gorgeous! It's so crisp and fluid that even the few imperfections here and there do not diminish the sense of seeing a fantastical take on modern Japan that's ripe for the 'real fantasy' imagery on display here. Also, the animation has a consistently cinematic (and larger than life) flare that few recent American animated offerings seem to have. The intimate and big set pieces never feel totally out of place. Everything here just... fits nicely.

Suzume is the kind of animation that cinema was made to show off, and in THE showiest fashion possible! Makoto Shinkai has a real knack for theatrical stories.

Suzume gets 4.5/5 stars. 9/10 points. This one is certainly worth getting a ticket to see!

I always wait patiently for the next Makoto Shinkai movie. He always delivers on beautiful animation and an interesting fantasy story and Suzume delvers on that. There are a few things I didn't like, some things I loved but overall I felt this to be a bit on the bland side. This story felt already told by Shinkai and while I always want to watch what he dose next, I always hope he´ll push himself just a little bit more to do something different. He still delivers a charming and moving movie here, but the impact wasn't really there this time for me.

After following a young man to the ruins near her town, Suzume accidently awakens a demon thar protected the world from an evil that creates earthquakes. Suzume most now help Souta who has been hexed into a chair save Japan.

I really love the characters in this movie. They all feel alive and independent. The movie has this road trip vibe where Suzume meets more people and see more of Japan, and every person feels like their own, even if they barely impact the story. Suzume is a character that needed more time to really shine and shown the way she feels and why she acts the way she dose but to me the creative and weird decision of turning Souta into a chair that can walk and talk is a stroke of genius. It makes the story more memorable and really shows the magical capabilities of this world. And the chair is cute no doubt.

What Shinkai often do best is the mix of serious and real with magic and fantasy. This movie can be seen as a fun fantasy road trip, or a look at the abandon culture of Japan as well as the horror of earthquakes. The movie is kids fun, while talking about orphans and even mentioning the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, showing it in a moving and gut wrenching way. This is where Shinkai shines, and this movie moved me to tears at the end. It has this very impactful scene with a kid calling for her mom and it really is devastating. The very end is kind of just there and while interesting doesn't really impact the story too much. In general it feels like the movie was written by multiple people with multiple visions and too much they wanted to say, but there is only 1 writing credit, Skinkai himself. I think he wanted to do too many things this time around and the middle of the movie really slows down to me and some plot points only shine in one scene and is then abandoned. The story also felt like something I had seen before and the hopeless romanticism of Shinkai feels done to death now. It had Weathering with you (2019) vibes, another Shinkai movie, and the plot points were a bit too similar to me. It´s still a good story, but I would love to see Shinkai move out of his comfort zone.

The animation is as always absolutely glorious and incredible. Shinkai has this eye for the small and mundane which he always but energy into as the side of an eraser that is highly detailed with logos and text. Not only the but there are these just picturesque frames that are so beautiful and detailed. Shinkai has been experimenting more and more with the crossing of 2D and 3D animation and now I feel like he is leaning more into 3D. This is for better and worse as the 3D looks incredible and some frames are still absolutely stunning, but I miss his 2D charm. It´s still here, but a bit more in the background comparably.

The score and music is pretty good and cute, not as memorable as it used to be but it works for this movie.

The voice acting is pretty good too and especially love Suzume´s voice actress Hanoka Hara. She brings so much natural voice work to her role and her acting is effortless. While I am not criticizing Souta´s voice work, I noticed his voice sounded recorded. You could really hear it was recorded sound and it created this cheap and unnatural sound to the character.

Suzume is a good movie and I can´t wait to watch it again, but it will take a bit longer for me to return to this compared to Shinkais other works. This movie just lagged a little bit everywhere and while still being enjoyable it just isn't as perfect as I´m used to from this director.

Beautiful animation, brilliant even, with a lot of attention to details. It captures perfectly the nature with the shimmering of roads and the sparkling of the sea.

The story is interesting even if in some places it could have been better. The feeling of old places with memories from the past struck a cord.

Regarding the love story, I'm not sure how the infatuation "that guy looks beautiful" transformed into deep love to say "I am more afraid of a world without him".

The idea of what generates earthquakes is interesting.

As usual for japanese anime, the final "lessons" can easily bring you to tears but you are better if you remember that lesson because it's about life.

I didn't know it was about the earthquake and 311. I wasn't ready at all. For the people who don't know about it, it would be a great adventure anime which has a comedy aspect. But for me, it was pretty heavy.

I don't think it has a crying scene but I cried like a baby at the scene that reminded me 311 also made me think of the people who lost their loved ones on that day by the earthquake and tsunami.

About the people who didn't come home after they left their home in the morning...

I was living in Tokyo back then so I'm not in the position to talk about it much but This movie is special for us I think.

I don't know if I can watch this movie again after knowing what's this about now because it's a lot for me.

For the animation and story, I would rate it 8-9 but for the people who became stars above on that day and people who lost loved ones, I rated 10.

Oh btw my husband who is an American said it was a great movie so it's for everyone :)

To the people planning a trip to Japan, I recommend looking up about what you all should do if an earthquake happens in Japan juuuuust in case. Hope it helps you and have a wonderful time there! :))

(Sorry for my poor English and thank you for reading.)

1 Comparison with past works

Suzume is completely different from Your name and Weathering with you.

This film does not have plot twists that Your name has.

Additionally, this film may not contain the willpower portrayed in Weathering with you.

However, this film may contain something necessary to live in this world.

2 Contents

This film evokes memories of a serious incident in Japan for the present generation, and also allows future generations to inherit those memories.

This film may teach us something necessary to overcome that incident.

In my opinion, this film may be comparable to Your name.