Review of Suzume

The Intoduction I'd say the introduction for this movie was extremely rushed. Literally in the first like 5 minutes the character that we barely know did something exceptional. Decisions that were questionable on the matter of why. Even those quesions are mostly remain unanswered. Because those actions were impactful, meaningful, and huge, not just for the character, but might as well for the world! We didn't get the proper time to know her, feel her life, connect and relate to her. There's a connection between the introduction and the end, but I don't know why Shinkai took that path and not introducing us in an organicway.

Plotline
The plot was as thick as it can be. The story was being delivered in a simple way that we can understand immidiately and get along with the ship to enjoy this. With the fast pacing it had, they managed to keep entertain us by not giving us a break. Though it might be risky, it's good that they can hold us together in such a fast pacing. However, a little time to catch a break would be nice honestly. Another thing is that I feel like this movie had so much deep interpretation, but due to the rich plot material and little time, many things remain folded. And the plot armor was incredibly as thick as the plotline. It's like everything happened for the plot, not for a reason.

The Stakes
The higher the stakes are, the better it gets. Suzume failed to give us a story with high stakes. No matter how grand the scale of your story, if you failed to balance it with the stakes, it won’t work. This is what happened to Suzume. Unlike his 2 ‘similar’ previous movies, watching this movie will give you a feeling like you can watch something bad happen to the character, but at the same time believing they’re going to be fine. It takes away our worry, our emotion, it detaches us from the character.

Character Exploration
This movie spend all of the duration to explore the main plotline, the main story. The plot was solid, the pacing was incredibly fast, we really can’t catch a break. Sometimes it’s a good thing. But sometimes it can also forget another element of the story. The character felt so alive and it’s true. But we never went deep with the character, we only saw how the character served their role in the story. We never actually "know" who they are. I'm not requesting for flashbacks or things like that. But at least we need a break from the story, that we can use that to know what is actually going through their mind and why.

Character's Motives
The lack of character ecploration resulting in this. A motive is something that extremely important to a story. For me, knowing the "why" on every action is important. It'll give us a better understanding to the story and giving more emotional weight for the character. So we want them to succeed. In this movie, we barely get this. We don't even get the obvious answer of why Suzume invloved in the first place, why her aunt just follow along, why Daijin choose that action in the end. Therefore, the supporting characters felt like they didn't join the story, they were just passengers to the story. It didn't actually bring them into the story.

Visuals
The most outstanding part of this movie was the visuals. There are so many amazing camera movement, camera angle, visual choices, that were rarely seen in anime, also with stunning execution. We got so many amazing POV shots with brilliant animation. We know that making a POV shots aren't easy to animate. The action sequences had jaw-dropping animation and visual. The visualization of all those magical things were also hit the right spot. Even they nailed the CGI!! I have to say, so far, from EVERY Makoto Shinkai movie, this one had the best visual.

Music
I was disappointed. If avoiding the same element from his 2 previous popular movie is what Shinkai's intention, then removing insert song was the worst choice he had ever done. Because "Your Name" (with Sparkle) and "Weathering With You" (with Grand Escape) nailed that part. And that also what made both movie so special. The insert song by RADWIMPS played crucial role for both movies. This movie had so many potential scenes to put an insert song, but it didn't... I was waiting for that the entire time. That also one of the biggest reason I watch this movie. To feel the moment supported by the amazing OST by RADWIMPS.

The Magic
Shinkai’s new craft still hasn’t lost its magic. Indeed this movie felt similar to “Your Name” and “Weathering With You”. But the fact that it still hasn’t lost its charm is amazing. We still can feel the magic that Shinkai brought, the grand scale of the story, the world building, the character. We can still watch it and not complaining “it’s formulatic!”. Despite problems here and there, we can still enjoy the ride every last second of it. The journey was really fun and funny, enjoyable, intense, visually insane, and mesmerizing.