Review of Suzume

The English localized title is atrocious. Look at the original title, Suzume no Tojimari, which roughly translates to “Suzume’s Door Closing.” Immediately it invites questions. What is this door? Why does Suzume have to close it? Is the door literal or is it a metaphor, such as Suzume closing the door on her ex-boyfriend? But then we have the actual title, Suzume. Just SUZUME. Nothing about it invites mystique or gives any clues as to what the movie is about, to the point where you could mistake it for a documentary about some historical figure named Suzume. Fire the translator. As for the actual movie, Suzumeno Tojimari is certainly incredibly ambitious, and I will give that it had the potential to be Shinkai Makoto's deepest work to date. It covers subjects such as adoptive families, loss of love, disaster, etc., while also tackling a fantastical story involving supernatural monsters, while also being a road trip movie along with the various locals of Japan. There's a lot this movie wants to cover.

Which is precisely why this shouldn't have been a movie but instead a full TV anime, or at the very least, gotten another half hour of runtime. The way it is now, it merely dips briefly into or skims over all the subjects mentioned above, and thus the lasting impression is very shallow and by the numbers.

The visuals were nice and the characters I didn't dislike on the most fundamental level. And I'll give that Suzume (the character) could be funny at times with how out of depth she feels on this sudden road trip. But all that is just baseline investment, nothing more, nothing magical that could stick with me long after viewing.

This may be more of a controversial statement, but I never was huge on Shinkai Makoto. Not that I hated his movies, I thought Your Name was enjoyable. But even back when it released I didn't think it was an astounding masterpiece, as it was founded on some rather rushed romance. And with the director taking on more and more ambitious projects, I think the cracks are getting wider, and the Shinkai Makoto magic is wearing off.