Review of Suzume

Makoto Shinkai's newest work, "Suzume", is the one where he yet again excels at what he is renowned for, and more than that, tries to improve upon his well-known areas of expertise and his areas of shortfalls, with mostly success, and a few setbacks. For anyone in the anime-sphere, Shinkai's works need no further introduction, and personally, "Your Name" is still a movie I keep very close to my heart as it was one of the first anime movies that I watched. As such, I had good expectations going in, and I was overall very happy with my experience. Summary:- The movie follows the adventure ofSuzume Iwato, a junior high school girl, whom finds herself suddenly sucked into an adventure to save Japan from disasters by closing certain doors, with talking kids chair as her sole comrade on this life-changing journey, and a cat hell-bent on chaos as the nemesis. We see her adventure play out through-out the film, going from one point of Japan to another, during which, we see her find new friends, develops new relationships and confront her past.

Characters(8/10):- It is nice to see the characters find each other through circumstance organically, and develop relationships which feel genuine, and this aspect of the film is a success. But this is where an avenue of my critique of this film shall open, regarding how the characters are handled. I feel, apart from the main duo, the other characters aren't nearly as fleshed out as they should've been, and this becomes more evident in the second part of the film with the introduction of a certain side-character. This resulted me in liking the side-characters, and they certainly are memorable and fun, but at the same time, feel rather under-utilized in retrospect, however luckily this is not something which completely ruined the film experience, and the story remains on the foot throughout its length.

Story(7/10):- As for the story, at its core, it is a simple coming-of-age tale and has themes of dealing with grief, the past, abandonment of the various places important to us, and the traditional Makoto Shinkai themes of love, and its power to overcome boundaries. In short, the story is simple and entertaining, and takes you on a journey of visual spectacle across Japan, although those who do not like Shinkai-style of stories will not be too pleased given the similar story beats it has to his previous works, but for the fans of his work and the general audience, it is enjoyable throughout its runtime. There were a few plot twists and serious character moments which were particularly well-handled and memorable, and the film in general had a more serious and emotional tone, but was filled with fun and cute romantic moments which kept the film from being too dark. It is nearly not as romance-oriented as Your Name was, and in an interview that Shinkai gave, he stated that is tired of boy-meets-girl stories but was advised by the producer to have it included in the film. As such, the movie dwells more on the friendship over the romantic aspect of the lead duo, something that I am happy with and was a nice change, albeit the romance does feel a bit shoe-horned at the end, but it is not dwelled upon and nothing really to be offended over.

Animation and Audio(10/10):- The movie utilizes the excellent mix of traditional animation and CG, to deliver a visual spectacle only a few anime can deliver. The cinematography was something I was particularly impressed by. The dynamic shots, screen composition, coupled with beautiful backgrounds and smooth animation, made watching this in IMAX felt like that I was genuinely inside the film at times. The audio work was also top-notch and added a lot to the immersion. The soundtrack complimented to the movie well, and certainly was memorable and Radwimps hit it out with yet another good song to boot. Mr. Shinkai and his team deserve a round of applause for the visual, audio and technical aspect of this film. Genuinely no complaints here, I was blown away.

Overall, to sum it up, I would recommend this movie. A fun adventure filled with action, adventure, comedy, sadness, nostalgia and relationships with the people we find, Suzume will manage to entertain. This is a must watch if you can get a hold of it to watch it in cinemas/IMAX, and even people who are not the biggest Shinkai fans will be entertained overall. A solid 8/10, and I await what Mr. Shinkai and his team will put together for us in the future.