"Suzume no Tojimari" Opens the Door to Greatness
Makoto Shinkai’s newest anime movie reaches the high standards set by several of his previous works.
By Saya Fujii
Makoto Shinkai’s newest anime movie reaches the high standards set by several of his previous works.
By Saya Fujii
After Makoto Shinkai’s “Kimi no Na wa” (“Your Name”) and “Tenki no Ko” (“Weathering With You”), I was waiting for the day I could watch a Shinkai masterpiece in theaters for the first time. Unsurprisingly, his newest addition, which came out on April 14, met those high expectations and was definitely worth the big screen experience.
“Suzume no Tojimari” (“Suzume”) centers on the titular high school girl (Nanoka Hara), who gets wrapped up in a magical catastrophe when she accidentally opens a door that could lead to disasters across the country. She is accompanied by a young man named Souta (Hokuto Matsumura) who is a “Closer,” tasked with closing the magic doors before chaos ensues.
My standard was set pretty high going into the movie, particularly for the animation and music, and I was not let down for the most part.
One reason for this was that Shinkai clearly had made an effort to make this story different from his past movies in terms of the typical romance plot. He had planned to center the story around two female characters because he felt tired of writing the same “traditional romance story” of a boy meeting a girl. Unfortunately, his producer discouraged the idea and it never was brought to the screen. However, it is clear that Shinkai still was able to focus the plot less on romance compared to his previous movies. There was more emphasis on the plot and adventure aspect, as well as Suzume herself as the ending clearly showed. This was partly due to the fact that Suzume is older than the characters in “Your Name” and “Weathering With You,” giving her more independence. I really would have liked to see what Shinkai could come up with had he been given more freedom.
As expected of a Shinkai film, the animation is beautiful and also features some Radwimps songs. There were some stunning scenes that were great to watch in theaters, and a couple of them were paired with a song from the band. The combination of the animation and Radwimps is what makes a Shinkai film what it is, so I really would have liked to see more of both. In “Your Name.” and “Weathering With You,” there were a lot of scenes with nearly mind-blowing animation accompanied by a Radwimps song, and those were definitely some of the best parts of the movies. In “Suzume,” however, there were slightly less of those scenes and I would have appreciated some more, but it isn’t a major complaint at all.
One concern I had heading into the movie was that it would have a mediocre plot and rely just on being visually pleasing. Anime movies tend to do that a little too often, and a couple of Shinkai’s movies are no stranger to that. However, it became clear that he and his writing staff cared a lot about the storyline and put lots of effort into it. They made sure to have a creative story focusing on an interesting magical world instead of simply letting animation make the money, which they easily could have done.
The story also introduced a unique theme focusing on Japan’s disasters and the value of human life. It was a much more subtle theme, but it’s an important one throughout the film which adds to Suzume’s character development and her determination to save the world. I really loved the scenes where she meets good people who are willing to go out of their way to help her because it makes it clear just how many valuable lives could be taken when a disaster hits. This also most likely alludes to some of Japan’s major disasters, such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which took countless lives.
The beauty of anime truly shines through in Shinkai’s best works, among which “Suzume” should surely be included.
“Suzume” is still playing in theaters.
“Suzume no Tojimari” (“Suzume”) centers on the titular high school girl (Nanoka Hara), who gets wrapped up in a magical catastrophe when she accidentally opens a door that could lead to disasters across the country. She is accompanied by a young man named Souta (Hokuto Matsumura) who is a “Closer,” tasked with closing the magic doors before chaos ensues.
My standard was set pretty high going into the movie, particularly for the animation and music, and I was not let down for the most part.
One reason for this was that Shinkai clearly had made an effort to make this story different from his past movies in terms of the typical romance plot. He had planned to center the story around two female characters because he felt tired of writing the same “traditional romance story” of a boy meeting a girl. Unfortunately, his producer discouraged the idea and it never was brought to the screen. However, it is clear that Shinkai still was able to focus the plot less on romance compared to his previous movies. There was more emphasis on the plot and adventure aspect, as well as Suzume herself as the ending clearly showed. This was partly due to the fact that Suzume is older than the characters in “Your Name” and “Weathering With You,” giving her more independence. I really would have liked to see what Shinkai could come up with had he been given more freedom.
As expected of a Shinkai film, the animation is beautiful and also features some Radwimps songs. There were some stunning scenes that were great to watch in theaters, and a couple of them were paired with a song from the band. The combination of the animation and Radwimps is what makes a Shinkai film what it is, so I really would have liked to see more of both. In “Your Name.” and “Weathering With You,” there were a lot of scenes with nearly mind-blowing animation accompanied by a Radwimps song, and those were definitely some of the best parts of the movies. In “Suzume,” however, there were slightly less of those scenes and I would have appreciated some more, but it isn’t a major complaint at all.
One concern I had heading into the movie was that it would have a mediocre plot and rely just on being visually pleasing. Anime movies tend to do that a little too often, and a couple of Shinkai’s movies are no stranger to that. However, it became clear that he and his writing staff cared a lot about the storyline and put lots of effort into it. They made sure to have a creative story focusing on an interesting magical world instead of simply letting animation make the money, which they easily could have done.
The story also introduced a unique theme focusing on Japan’s disasters and the value of human life. It was a much more subtle theme, but it’s an important one throughout the film which adds to Suzume’s character development and her determination to save the world. I really loved the scenes where she meets good people who are willing to go out of their way to help her because it makes it clear just how many valuable lives could be taken when a disaster hits. This also most likely alludes to some of Japan’s major disasters, such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which took countless lives.
The beauty of anime truly shines through in Shinkai’s best works, among which “Suzume” should surely be included.
“Suzume” is still playing in theaters.