Suzume Isn't 'Different'

Hopefully Makoto Shinkai includes more McDonald's next time.

MUSIC:
Serani Poji - 夜の喫茶店
Revolutionary Girl Utena OST - PASSIONATE (Apasionada)
Revolutionary Girl Utena OST - Temptation
Serani Poji - 地球人のカラダ
Maimi Tanaka - Miracle Shopping

Clarifications for the trauma bit because I have been getting a lot of comments about it:

I am aware of the cultural impact that this has had with Japanese viewers and others who may have experienced repercussions from the 2011 tsunami. In no way am I trying to disrespect or negate those feelings. This is an extremely subjective movie but at the end of the day I personally still view it as a movie. What I was criticizing was how the trauma plotline itself felt extremely forced and out of the blue, specifically during the scene where her aunt is being controlled by that stupid cat. I couldn't show it because the trailers don't have the footage so I can see how people misinterpreted it, but I was referring solely to that scene. The trauma could've still been implemented and given weight without the aunt spelling it all out for us. I honestly would have found it more impactful if we were given some more room to imagine what Suzume was feeling. This falls in line with the rest of my points about how the film tried to juggle too many different themes and ultimately fell flat (for me) in every respect because it couldn't decide what to focus the most on. I didn't dislike this movie for trying to incorporate trauma, I just wish it did it a little better and didn't feel somewhat forced in. I'm happy for everyone who was able to get more out of this than I was.

[KitaniRairakku]

It's so wild to hear Shinkai himself say he wanted this movie to be about two girls instead, because I vividly remember people mocking this movie when the first teasers dropped because of the obvious joke "they'll write a love story between a girl and a chair before they write a love story between two girls".

[ade]

I liked the travel aspect of Suzume. The moments where she was riding around in the car with her aunt and Souta's friend were very refreshing. Yeah, the main plot may have benefitted from cutting out some of the fat, but it was a pretty feel good movie with all of the people Suzume bonded with along the way.

[TheUnknownOtaku]

It's different because they never had a relationship with a chair before

[jkattack]

The way i describe it is that if shinkai's usual movies are "mildly paranormal disaster romance movie" then suzume is a "mildy romantic paranormal disaster movie"

[nil_o]

I really feel like Suzume is definitely more of a Japanese culture film than anything else. The main message in the end is literally just the consistant phrases of goodbye and im off, as well as just focusing on the importance of home, but from a Japanese lense

[jeremyharrison]

I mostly enjoyed it cause the guy was a chair for most the movie. I haven’t seen any chair protagonists before, so I think it’s neat they’re finally getting some anime representation.

[andheregoesmyname]

I went to see it on the cinema with my family and there's two things I loved.
First, there is the ending of the "I'm looking for my mom" story line. It felt real, not magical, just real. Sometimes, people get lost and are never found, and the ones that remember them never get closure, or the last goodbye.
And second. The noise. I live in a country that has a lot of earthquakes and they NAILED the sound. Made me look around for the emergency exit a few times. The songs were good, but the actual sound of the incoming earthquake and the silence before, perfect.

[goodpol]

I love how the entire apocalypse plot of the movie was just caused by Suzume seeing a hot dude on the street and simping her way into unleashing a god 😅

[deenoberry]

i think the beauty of suzume is in the natural disasters. the lost and pain from losing real people in the 2011 tohuku earthquakes. i dont think american or younger audiences understand it very well. it was a big hit with my parents since they remember the effects the earthquake had on worldwide news. look into the disasters and give the movie another shot! i only really appreciated it when i read up on the history!

[the]

I genuinely really enjoyed this movie, yeah it wasn't the most groundbreaking work that he's created, but I thought overall it was a really great film both in context of his other works and just in a more broad sense. I enjoyed the score, I enjoyed the story, the animation was gorgeous, the travel aspect was something that I thought was very cool, and overall I just liked Suzume as a character. My only real problems were Daijin's motivations and character changes didn't really feel consistent and felt really rushed, and certain emotional moments felt a little bit too rushed. I do wish this movie had a bit more time to breathe at points, but overall I still genuinely would rate it like an 8.5 out of 10. A genuinely really beautiful movie, a heartwarming ending, likable characters, and a really interesting and fun travel aspect that made it feel almost like a bunch of connected shorts which frankly I really enjoyed

[livixxxhimym]

Me and my friend who both have uni degrees in Japanese and lived in Japan for a year both came out of it feeling like the movie was incredible. I think having a very deep understanding of Japan is definitely more important in appreciating this movie in full, where his other films have been a bit more universal. I especially loved the criticism and unease of abandoned places. The second I saw them drive past the "exclusion zone" my heart sunk to my stomach with realisation and this was really effective for the last act, with each subtle hint to the Fukushima tsunami hitting me. I don't think it was a perfect movie by any means, but there was so much I adored about it

[maybeitsyou]

Honestly, from my point of view Suzume isn't even a romance movie in the first place. It's more of Suzume coping with forgetting half of the traumatic event of what happened in her past and the whole meeting Sota incident helped her to finally build up the courage to remember and to tell herself/her younger self she will be the one to make her own tommorow possible

[Ventace]

Honestly I had a serious problem with the plot being the exact same as Your Name and Weathering with You. There's some magical phenomena the main character and a forced love interest get caught up in, halfway through the main character "loses" that love interest and needs to travel through Japan to reach the place where they can trigger that phenomena and reunite with them.

It was also weird how the love seems to come out of nowhere in Suzume (much less time, conversation, and experiences to develop a relationship aside from closing doors), the main character is designed like a side character, and people of Japan are just portrayed as overly nice that they'd give you a place to stay or an 8 hour car ride if you just ask.

[RandomGuy-bxwv]

I had no idea people were saying Suzume was "different" from Shinkai's other work. I went to the theatre, saw the movie, and walked out thinking "yup that was exactly the same movie as all of Shinkai's other movies". I still liked it though. The comedic moments were on point for me.

[toritenchi]

This was the only movie that I went and watched in theaters twice. Even when I went and watched it the second time and KNEW WHAT HAPPENED I still cried. The themes of love while can be seen as romantic I see it as companion love like the one you get from close friends. when she says “I’m going to see the one I love” it felt like she was saying it in a “I’m going to go be with someone I’m close with” even though they hadn't been around each other for long. Kinda like how Greek has many different words for love and who it is for and what strength if it. Also the theme of wanting one’s place in the world while having obligations and wanting to be more hit so hard as a college student with an undecided major. Along with that the music was amazing. Sky over Tokyo never fails to make me shiver when I remember the design of the full worm. to be with Sota caused me to sob because I know the feeling of going “I’m fine to go. I’m ok to die.” Only to have a brush with death and realize no I don’t want to go I want to be selfish I just want to live. And prayer was a beautiful close for how they defeated the worm especially the animation of Suzume flipping herself around to face the worm head on without the fear she had previously. I also loved the different people she met. It reminded me of when I hiked the Appalachian trail and all the different people I met and who helped me. At one point I almost fell down a mountain and rolled my ankle a man who was hiking a bit behind me helped me get to the next hostile practically carrying me at some points I’ll never forget him even tho he didn’t give me his name and kept hiking. And honestly the worms design also works (though the name worm makes me giggle) the red swirling mass that bursts out but at the same time is also oddly beautiful seems like a good reflection for emotion I don’t know which ones but certainly emotions. And Suzume meeting her younger self just destroyed me. I often wish I could talk to my younger self and tell her everything will be ok and that even though things are hard and the world is scary I would be able to grow and take it on. I feel like I was healed a little bit along with Suzume in that scene. I wish I could have taken my mother to see this movie she doesn’t like anime but I know she would have loved this. All in all an amazing movie that broke me and put me back together again.
Also about daijin something that should be considered whenever people say he just changed really quickly I think that he just wanted to be loved. When suzume treated him nicely he interpreted that as love and saw sota as in the way. From that action he realized he could be with suzume and get rid of sota all in one. When suzume told him that she hated him for what he did it kinda clicked for him that love is not just one thing for one person and the fact that she hated him cause him a lot of pain. Another moment is when she is freeing sota and said “I’ll become the keystone” fully ready to sacrifice herself. Daijins eyes in that moment go wide before he jumps down to help her. I feel that in that moment he realized just how much Sota meant to her. He also realized that he would be remembered and loved even as the keystone. He just wanted love. He definitely added to the story for me and it’s crazy how I could go from hating a cat to bawling over it.
Something I think that also helps me enjoy movies is I don’t go to watch movies to break them down. I go to enjoy them so unless there’s really bad plot, I’m going to enjoy it no matter what m. after I’m done, I can then break it down into his little pieces and see what made me enjoy it.
For me it didn’t matter if this movie was meant to be “different” as I haven’t seen any of his other films and because of that I went in expecting nothing and getting an amazing a truly impactful film.
Sorry for the novel this movie was just amazing to me.

[manmohanchoudhury]

As someone who hasnt watched suzume i completely agree

[RGC_animation]

Shinkai's movies are always "boy and girl meet", "boy and girl does supernatural stuff and share chemistry", "boy and girl gets separated by supernatural forces and final act of the movie is about one of them trying to find the other", throw in some breathtaking visual and amazing soundtrack and you've got yourself a Shinkai movie!

[nicoalbert]

The Trauma with the mother was mentioned from the beginning and it is also quit obvious that she is only masking and have not actually resolved her mothers death. Also, i do not if you know, but her mother died by the tsunami of the fukushima incident. This gives the plot way more drive and changes the relevance in japan of the movie and many of its plot points. As example, many people said that after tsunami they have seen ghost helping and interacting, later on finding out, this person was allready dead at the moment. This makes a deeper conection with this representation of the spirit world. It also gives more relvance to the earthquake locations and especially to hearing the voices before closing the doors. To be a bit picky, she was wearing the scarf because she wandered out of winter into the ever after.

[vicity]

I love how the animation focus each time on suzume locking smh it's really satisfying

[SiriProject]

It technically has a character sitting on someone's face, so that's new