Review of Suzume

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW Makoto Shinkai surely has left his mark on the anime industry over the last 20 years. After his breakout in 1999 with „Voices of a distant Star“, he and his studio, ComixWaveFilms, have been on a ride, producing some of the most popular anime movies ever. Especially his latest three films, “Your Name”, ”Weathering with you” and the focus of this review, “Suzume” share a lot of similarities. I was moderately hyped before entering the cinema after a lot of reviews said the movie was uneventful, boring and was reusing ideas from the previous films. Story – 7/10 The story is maybe thebiggest concern I had with the film. I don´t really think it was reusing ideas, but the patterns he used before can also be displayed on this movie. Like it´s two predecessors, he focuses on natural disasters as the main threat. We get a boy-meets-girl story, supernatural elements and a lot of montages. His style is very recognizable which is normally a good thing, but I also understand why a lot of people are tired of it.
Saying that, I still found the concept of the story itself interesting enough. Sure, there are massive plot holes and the movie does not explain all of it´s concepts directly, but his movies never did that, even the ones before “Your Name”. It was always about the cinematic experience rather than a well structured plot. If you are looking for that, watch a Satoshi Kon-movie instead.
I think the main problem with the movie is the pacing. I think this movie moves a bit to fast considering the profound story it tries to tell. There are a lot of very subtle hints to historical events which are solely aimed to resonate with the Japanese audience (or someone who knows the history’’). But the movie doesn´t really elaborate on any of them, instead opting to constantly switch the setting.
By far the most unique aspect of the movie is the comedy. I genuinely thought this was the funniest anime movie since “Konosuba: Kurenai Densetsu” in 2018. The dialogue is witty and clever written, which helps a lot with the build-up of certain characters. But with the increase of comedy, this movie lacks the emotional punch of his predecessor. There are some very emotional themes especially in the final stretch of the film. But the different topics being tackled, like trauma, loss and death are overshadowed by the humour.
The story is by no means bad, but it is not as emotional as “5 Centimeters per second” or as focused as “Your Name”.

Art – 10/10

Another Makoto Shinkai movie, a new standard for animation. This movie managed to outmatch his previous works in almost every regard. The backgrounds are insanely detailed and well drawn. Like many modern anime, this movie also uses CGI for wide crowd shots, cars, etc but here I didn´t really think it hurt the movie in any way.
A lot of people on this site wrote that in their opinion, the whole directing is the same as before and that they want a change, but I think that´s the wrong way to look at it. For example, the dynamic camera angles on rails that were used here have appeared in “Your Name” yes, but only in certain scenes. Here, there are fluently being added into the movie without any cut. There is also the use of detailed effects animation, which is a first for Shinkai. The lighting also improved.
Studios like Kyoto Animation have also used the same art style for almost all of their works since 2009, to a point where in my opinion, their consistent art style became their biggest strength. Same with Shinkai.

Sound – 8/10

The BGM of this movie was great like always. I especially liked the implementation of classic japanese musicians in the last third of the movie. “RADWIMPS” are also back with some new bangers. The sound-design deserves extra recognition. Every little sound is clear and detailed. A lot of anime think of sound-design as second after animation, but I think there is not a single anime that wouldn´t benefit from a rework on the sound production.
The only gripe I have with this OST is that there is no real standout song. Every one of his previous movies had memorable moments with complementing vocal tracks, but Suzume doesn´t really offer something similar in that regard.

Characters – 7/10

Characters were never a strong suit for Shinkai. He always focuses on his big overarching plot, to the point where the characters get put on the backburner a bit. I get the message he tries to portray, but a little variety on the characters wouldn´t hurt. We get another pair of protagonists. Both of them retain their personality throughout the film. I think the biggest thing hindering their development, besides the fast pacing, was that I didn´t think they had any big obstacles to overcome for most of the first hour of the movie. Remember that in “Weathering with you”, Hodaka had to flee from the Japanese police to reach his goal. Here, everything feels a bit to easy, so the characters are kinda just going along with the flow. The side characters are all funny and really likeable, but not very memorable, feeling more like checkpoints on the way. I also think that the final piece of character development our main heroine got was a little bit rushed in.

Enjoyment – 8/10

With all the criticism, I still thought that this was a highly entertaining movie. The comedy made the whole cinema laugh out loud and there was not a single boring minute. For everyone that liked “Your Name” and “Weathering with you”, this is a must-watch. If you already disliked Shinkai´s previous works, this one will not change your mind.

- Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE – 8/10