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Suzume, or Suzume No Tojimari, is Makoto's thirteenth film as a director. Makoto Niitsu, aka Makoto Shinkai, is known for his diverse work and critically acclaimed films such as Children Who Chase Lost Voice, 5 Centimetres per Second, The Garden of Words, Your Name, and Weathering with You, finally released the much-awaited Suzume in 2022.
It tells the tale of a high school girl who sets out to protect Japan from a mysterious worm that causes natural disasters with the assistance of Souta Munakata. However, with the release of Suzume, there is considerable confusion about the film's connection to Shinaki's previous works, such as Your Name and Weathering With You.
He has previously written the script and directed Your Name and Weathering With You, which fans enjoyed as they got to see a tense relationship drama between two teenagers with a supernatural element, as well as the two films sharing the same universe. However, can fans expect the same thing from Suzume?
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Makoto Shinkai's Suzume has taken a different turn than in Your Name and Weathering with You
When the Suzume trailer first debuted, fans anticipated that there would be another dramatic relationship that would feature a magical imbued romance just like the previous two movies. And if not, they thought that the cast of Your Name or Weathering with You would make a cameo in Suzume, just like how Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu did in Weathering with You. However, nothing of the sort occurred for Suzume.
Instead, the director took a different approach to directing with the latest film. Although Shinkai has used expansive scenery and emphasises nature and spirituality to portray the bonds between characters, along with showing tackling environmental issues, this time he stressed more on the protagonist's character development.
Not only that but, like You Name and Weathering with You, Suzume also focuses on two young people who become entangled in a supernatural journey. However, unlike the previous two films, which depicted a romance between the two characters, the director has focused on the development of the protagonist's relationships with the other characters.
For instance, the director delved into Tamaki and Suzume's relationship. The film depicts the former as a person who at first adores Suzume. However, by the end of the film, when she began to worry about Suzume and stopped doing what her aunt told her, Tamaki shared about her burden and the sacrifices she made to raise her niece since childhood.
Furthermore, the director of the film showed Suzume's willingness to follow Souta, an unidentified man. However, even if she followed him, the protagonist also had her character development that now how she is able to communicate with others more effectively.
Though it was initially unclear why she followed him, as the story progressed, it became evident that she was motivated by the traumatic events she witnessed as a young child during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Additionally, the film attempted to show how she dealt with the trauma of her mother's passing, further showing some degree of control over these terrible natural disasters as they were somehow connected to her personally.
Final thoughts
Shinkai's new hit is unrelated to the previous two films, even though the director addressed nature, the spiritual world, environmental concerns, and a tale of a girl and boy who came from a small town and city, respectively.
Furthermore, character development and the fact that each character had a meaningful story to tell propelled the new Shinkai movie. Apart from that, the new film is about finding meaning in a traumatic experience. This is unlike Your Name, where the supernatural connection between the two lovers was severed at the end, and Weathering With You, in which the protagonists chose to stay together rather than save the dying world.
Stay tuned for more anime and manga updates as 2023 progresses.
