Review of Suzume

*SPOILER FREE REVIEW* Makoto Shinkai comes in once again with another of his beautiful invigorating pieces of art, Suzume no Tojmari. However as a fervent enjoyer of Shinkai's works, I feel as though this film while still enjoyable and well made, is closer to weathering with you than the masterpiece your name, and arguably the weakest in the last 3 films. Animation: 10 Starting off with the animation, this is one place where I am never disappointed when watching these films. The animation looked really nice crisp with attention to detail, fire effects and just overall really alluring and amazing as always, captivating from start to finish. Story:7

The concept of the main plot of the film is actually really interesting in my opinion, the doors and everything and while I think that aspect is cool, I feel as though the plot was not executed as well as it could have been. The whole film felt as though it was slightly rushed in the 2hrs that it played and I understand that you can only fit so much stuff, at the end there were definitely questions to be asked and plotholes however with that being said the story definitely did have some very cool scenes, overall it wasn’t that bad in the sense that it had a solid beginning, end and even though some questions could be asked as I said after watching the film, the journey, adventure and struggle of the mc, was fun to watch which left a lot of enjoyable and touching moments throughout the film.

Soundtrack: 8

RADWIMPS as usual went crazy with banger and powerful soundtracks that really fit the moment and every scene was enhanced because of it, but I have a major problem with the way the soundtrack was in this film compared to tenki no ko and your name and that is the lack of songs with vocals, the 2 songs with vocals were both played after the film was basically over and I feel like they could have played them throughout the film on some emotional and action packed scenes. This film didn’t have that big ‘sparkle’ or ‘grand escape’ moment either which kinda disappointed me as I was looking forward to it.

Overall RADWIMPS did a good job however I personally feel like the lack of vocal songs and the lack of the songs that they had not played on various scenes made me not give the usual 10 for soundtrack which was present in the last 2 films, the soundtrack is vital in envoking emotion, helping the viewer empathise with the characters and set the tone, which is why soundtrack is such a big thing for me and while no doubt it was really good in other scenes, it wasn’t perfect like I thought it was in your name so Im giving it a fair 8.

Characters / Romance: 6

I feel like these are the 2 categories poorly executed in this film, I wont go into too much detail as not to spoil but I feel like the portrayal of romance between the main 2 characters was bland, awkward, and just not well done, and of course the romance wasn’t the main point of this movie but it was still pretty disappointing as the connection between the 2 mcs of your name and weathering with you was way more impactful for me as a viewer watching and it felt like the relationship between the 2 characters in this film wasn’t established and forged well enough as it felt rushed.

The characters also weren’t that good and there was not really much depth and character development, and Suzume just felt like a bland and watered down version of mitsuha from your name, and she did a lot of things which made no sense to me, but overall wasn’t an unbearable character and it she did have some touching moments and cool moments so I wouldn’t say her character is bad just kinda rushed imo like some aspects of the film.

Conclusion:

Suzume no Tojimari was definitely a great watch, with its cool fantasy vibe, extravagant animation, wallpaper worthy frames and spellbinding visuals and a cool storyline, despite some of its downsides it was still a very enjoyable film, it might be a bit less consumable compared to something like your name because of its slow pacing and while not being as impactful for me as the last 2 films by Makoto Shinkai, it was still an entertaining theater watch and hopefully in the future the next banger by Shinkai uses a different formula for the plot and fill all the gaps that his previous movies have.

Overall: 8