It’s one of the best anime films not created by Hayao Miyazaki. The 2022 international hit Suzume is wondrous, magical, and fantastical–the story of a teenager that meets a stranger as she’s biking to school, a young man hiking through town in search of a nearby ghost town. In a quick moment of decision she skips school to follow him. There they discover a door that releases a giant beast over Japan that only few can see, and along with it a string of earthquakes and impending tsunami. Derived from the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami, it’s a heart-pounding tale of long-trapped spirits from the past and those who give everything to keep darkness from the world.
The town she lives in is idyllic, a mirror image of Astoria, Oregon (if you haven’t been there, you’ve seen it in The Goonies). The visuals, from beautiful vistas to detailed street cracks, to brick walled streets, to every day objects, to individual blades of grass and water that will have you forgetting you’re watching an animated movie, serve as an incredible travelogue for Japan, from small-town life to Tokyo. From writer-director Makoto Shinkai, whose similarly stunning earlier work Weathering with You we reviewed in November 2022 here at borg, Suzume is now streaming on Netflix.
Suzume is a 17-year-old who lost her mother in a town’s infamous natural disaster when she is young, so she is raised by her aunt. She’s a modern girl who adapts quickly when her world begins to come apart. It begins when she follows the boy Souta into the old town, dilapitated and forgotten like so many suburban towns across the world. Within it is an old public bath, a swimming area from the past that looks like ancient Roman baths. In the middle is an old door. Suzume approaches it and opens it–at first she sees the other side of the pool, but then another world emerges that she can’t get into.
Suzume finds a stone idol of a catlike creature, which turns into a real cat as she is holding it. Suzume runs back to school where she later sees a plume of smoke from the area she had been. Upon returning she finds the young man using all his power to close the door. She helps, and the job is done. Later as she is discussing the strange occurrence with Souta, the cat returns, and suddenly professes its love for her and finds Souta unnecessary–so the cat transforms his spirit into Suzume’s nearby broken chair. The history of the chair has significance later in the story.
Humor ensues as Suzume and Souta in the form of a three-legged wooden chair chase the cat across the metropolitan area, across traffic, and through commuter trains. Thankfully he can still speak, and he tells her of a secret past in Japan, his role as a “Closer,” and his duty (much like the grail knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) to lock the doors to keep the giant Kaiju spirit creatures from being released and destroying everything. It also turns out the cat was a keystone that must be found and returned. The cat, being videotaped across the city, gains instant fame, named Daijin. And this is only the beginning of the story as Suzume and Souta commence a journey to find Daijin.
Along the way a coming of age story emerges, and a romance develops. Souta is trying to avoid the repeat of a real-life earthquake that hit in 1923. He hails from a family who knows these secrets. Despite that portal to another world, this is little like The Chronicles of Narnia. The roots are more historical and the stakes are dire and real. Stranger Things has the Upside Down, but here we learn Japan has the Ever-After, which only few can see. Souta gives his life to save Japan, which leaves Suzume imagining her life with this man she fell in love with. She decides to learn more, visiting Souta’s grandfather, and ultimately returns to her own home town–where she lost her mother and remembers fantastical events from her own youth. Watch for the great use of birds throughout.
Makoto Shinkai’s story is perfect beginning to end. It’s fun, it’s dramatic, and it’s curiously easy to get lost in–it’s believable despite its extraordinary elements. Suzume is one of those rare major anime movies without a recognizable English voice cast. Watch either version, but the sub-titled version is probably better.
The film comes from CoMix Wave Films. At times the music from the band Radwimps and Kazuma Jinnouchi is programmatic, other times it is nostalgic, and then in action scenes it leans into American jazz like that in Cowboy Bebop. But it’s Ryōsuke Tsuda’s cinematography, Kenichi Tsuchiya’s animation and Takumi Tanji’s art direction that will leave this film imprinted on your memory.
A must-see for anime fans and anyone who loves fantasy tales, Suzume is now streaming on Netflix.
