Suzume (2023)
With the simultaneous explosion of global interest in the anime industry and the final features of established legends, there became a natural need for new icons and masters to step up to propel the modern anime industry into its next era. Arguably, the biggest name to take this position was Makoto Shinkai. Building an impressive resume of anime shorts and features, Shinkai proved to have the tenacity and ability to find his place in the anime industry and was rewarded in 2016 when Your Name gained global praise and became one of the highest grossing anime films in history. Shinkai followed this up in 2019 with his magnum opus, Weathering With You. After these hits, all eyes were on Shinkai to see what he would create next with his new feature, Suzume, finally hitting theaters. Following a young girl named Suzume (Nanoka Hara) who develops a crush on a mysterious man named Sōta (Hokuto Matsumura) who turns out to have the unique ability to close doors to the realm after life where a giant worm is trying to escape and destroy the world, Suzume showcases Shinkai at his worst.
Shinkai has always been a filmmaker of gimmicks. Quick to abandon logic and reason, Shinkai often crafts a gimmick and devotes the film to embracing it with usually some deeper thematic weight given to give the film a feeling of purpose. From the sci-fi passing of time in Voices of a Distant Star which highlights emotions of loneliness and love to the body switching of Your Name and the greater message of loss and embracing the little sliver of time individuals are given on Earth, this is a common trait for Shinkai that can lead to frustrating and cheap narratives. Weathering With You displayed a new turn for Shinkai as his gimmick of having Tokyo caught in an endless rainstorm flowed perfectly together with the moral dilemmas the character's faced as they had to decide if they wanted to sacrifice themselves to save Tokyo or allow nature to run its course and save themselves. Suzume returns to the older style of narrative Shinkai embraced with a convoluted and confusing tale. The logic of these doors and a magical cat, played by Ann Yamane, who turns Sōta into a chair are explained under very vague terms. The connection between this story and the deeper emotions within Suzume are also really rough with her connection to the world on the other side of the door feeling very in line with the conclusion of Your Name in how cheaply it attempts to create a moment of poignance only to fall rather short.
The plot of Suzume also quickly becomes one of the most boring in Shinkai's filmography. Quickly establishing a pattern of Suzume and Sōta traveling across Japan to keep up with the magical cat who continues to open doors to unleash the giant worm, this repetition grows old and while the traveling allows for a wide side cast of likable characters to form, the film never is able to properly take a breath to spend time with them in the same way the characters of Weathering With You were. This is because of the stakes within the film. Weathering With You begins as a deeply personal and small story. In Weathering With You, Hodaka meets Hina and learns that she has the power to create brief moments of sunshine the story gives the characters a chance to live life with no larger pressing threat of destruction. The audience and characters have fun meeting people and finding happiness in their lives with this being cut when the stakes raise. In Suzume, the stakes are always raised. If these doors are not closed meer minutes after they open, the worm will escape and Japan will be destroyed. Because of this, the slower more comedic moments of interaction feel out of place as it is hard to fully accept and enjoy the comedy of babysitting for an evening when it is known that the world could be literally destroyed at any minute.
This lack of space also leads to disappointingly little in terms of character development. Suzume and Sōta have nearly no personality as they go on their adventure with each taking only the most basic of attitudes as protagonists of the story. Both show bravery and strength, but neither are given real character or traits. Again, this seems to go back to the stakes and pacing of the film which sets them off on their adventure almost immediately. The actual deeper emotional exploration of grief within Suzume is also quite forgettable as the film never finds anything new or noteworthy to express regarding her emotions with the basic presence of them being the most noteworthy quality of their inclusion.
While Suzume returns to the weaker narratives that has defined most of Shinkai's career, luckily the strong technical elements also return. The animation in Suzume is often stunning with Shinkai's usage of cinematography and real world locations being instantly recognizable. The only negative when it comes to visuals is the film's usage of computer generated art that is noticeably weaker and is used far less cleverly than in Shinkai's other recent works. The score is also more inconsistent than Shinkai's other projects but there are multiple moments where the brilliance of Radwimps shines as they return after their standout work in Your Name and Weathering With You.
While Suzume is far from being a disaster, the film is also a clear step down for Makoto Shinkai compared to his other recent projects. With a convoluted and ultimately empty story that fails to be poignant or entertaining, it is hard to find many reasons why one should seek the film out when there are multiple better alternatives out there, even from Shinkai's own filmography.
Shinkai has always been a filmmaker of gimmicks. Quick to abandon logic and reason, Shinkai often crafts a gimmick and devotes the film to embracing it with usually some deeper thematic weight given to give the film a feeling of purpose. From the sci-fi passing of time in Voices of a Distant Star which highlights emotions of loneliness and love to the body switching of Your Name and the greater message of loss and embracing the little sliver of time individuals are given on Earth, this is a common trait for Shinkai that can lead to frustrating and cheap narratives. Weathering With You displayed a new turn for Shinkai as his gimmick of having Tokyo caught in an endless rainstorm flowed perfectly together with the moral dilemmas the character's faced as they had to decide if they wanted to sacrifice themselves to save Tokyo or allow nature to run its course and save themselves. Suzume returns to the older style of narrative Shinkai embraced with a convoluted and confusing tale. The logic of these doors and a magical cat, played by Ann Yamane, who turns Sōta into a chair are explained under very vague terms. The connection between this story and the deeper emotions within Suzume are also really rough with her connection to the world on the other side of the door feeling very in line with the conclusion of Your Name in how cheaply it attempts to create a moment of poignance only to fall rather short.
The plot of Suzume also quickly becomes one of the most boring in Shinkai's filmography. Quickly establishing a pattern of Suzume and Sōta traveling across Japan to keep up with the magical cat who continues to open doors to unleash the giant worm, this repetition grows old and while the traveling allows for a wide side cast of likable characters to form, the film never is able to properly take a breath to spend time with them in the same way the characters of Weathering With You were. This is because of the stakes within the film. Weathering With You begins as a deeply personal and small story. In Weathering With You, Hodaka meets Hina and learns that she has the power to create brief moments of sunshine the story gives the characters a chance to live life with no larger pressing threat of destruction. The audience and characters have fun meeting people and finding happiness in their lives with this being cut when the stakes raise. In Suzume, the stakes are always raised. If these doors are not closed meer minutes after they open, the worm will escape and Japan will be destroyed. Because of this, the slower more comedic moments of interaction feel out of place as it is hard to fully accept and enjoy the comedy of babysitting for an evening when it is known that the world could be literally destroyed at any minute.
This lack of space also leads to disappointingly little in terms of character development. Suzume and Sōta have nearly no personality as they go on their adventure with each taking only the most basic of attitudes as protagonists of the story. Both show bravery and strength, but neither are given real character or traits. Again, this seems to go back to the stakes and pacing of the film which sets them off on their adventure almost immediately. The actual deeper emotional exploration of grief within Suzume is also quite forgettable as the film never finds anything new or noteworthy to express regarding her emotions with the basic presence of them being the most noteworthy quality of their inclusion.
While Suzume returns to the weaker narratives that has defined most of Shinkai's career, luckily the strong technical elements also return. The animation in Suzume is often stunning with Shinkai's usage of cinematography and real world locations being instantly recognizable. The only negative when it comes to visuals is the film's usage of computer generated art that is noticeably weaker and is used far less cleverly than in Shinkai's other recent works. The score is also more inconsistent than Shinkai's other projects but there are multiple moments where the brilliance of Radwimps shines as they return after their standout work in Your Name and Weathering With You.
While Suzume is far from being a disaster, the film is also a clear step down for Makoto Shinkai compared to his other recent projects. With a convoluted and ultimately empty story that fails to be poignant or entertaining, it is hard to find many reasons why one should seek the film out when there are multiple better alternatives out there, even from Shinkai's own filmography.