Suzume no Tojimari

Pros: 10/10 animation Nice, catchy music Cons: Erratic pacing Convoluted ending Underdeveloped and bloated cast Underdeveloped romance Plot heavily relies on poorly explained magic shenanigans It's a fun movie to watch with a friend at the cinemas but not something I'd ever think about re-watching. Final Scorings: Animation: 10/10 (Some of the best in a Makoto Shinkai movie) Sound: 9/10 (Great soundtrack but not as good as previous Shinkai movie soundtracks) Story: 3/10 (A road trip with messy pacing and poorly explained fantasy elements) Characters: 2/10 (Underdeveloped and plain) Enjoyment: 6/10 (The animation creates a visual spectacle for most of it's runtime but for the times when there isn't there is no longer anything on screen to enjoy) Overall: 5/10 (Average)

Tbh, the animation is the only thing that makes this movie decent. At no point in the story do we get to see the genuine development between the main character and the co-star. They are always put in forced situations to make the plot advance unnaturally, it is not logical to form these supposed relationships with the protagonist in a few minutes with random people she meets and the main problem lies in a mystical cat that by apparent whim to see the world burn, made the protagonist make this senseless journey, and at the end she repented at the last moment as if nothing; I hoped that some plot would change for the better at some point in the story but the truth was that anything that could change the course of the story after 1 hour 45 minutes of film was unjustifiable. The psychological trauma and family relationship problems could have been addressed in so many ways but they chose the worst.

one of the most anticipated movies turned out to be such a huge dissapointment to me , with weak repetitve plot and classic ending proved me that i was right about my thoughts of some trend movies or anime in general , i know its about opinion and taste but the matter of fact not everything is trend it means good , some showes really overrrated and others really underrated so basically the thing here is you have to experience the thing by yourown self and see how it handle , regardless the animation was pretty decent no doubt in that however this movie feels empty and easy to forget , there is nothing such like indentity or huge impact on me except that only OST the movie has which is really noticeable lol , characters with weak build with their forgettable moments and honestly giving me some sad background wont make me get attach to em because all their actions make no sense at the end i wont recommend it to someone have better choices to watch , give it a shot if you bored enough to waste to hour or to enjoy the animation .

Idk, I thought "Your Name" was OK. I also thought it was OK the second time I saw it. These are not timeless tropes. They're stale for me right now. And idk, I'm sure Shinkai doesn't compare himself to Miyazaki, but his commercial success invites the comparison, and... No. Shinkai's semi-annuals about het couples with a quirky scenario aren't that substantial. And they don't look as good. That fucking penis worm twirling up in the sky had nothing to do with anything and the CGI did nothing for me artistically. I liked the throwback songs during the road trip. Pity they Felt The Need to include modern songs to sell CDs, because those clashed something fierce. Another ephebephilia movie on Japan's list. I mean. We stopped counting a long time ago, but it's the principle of the thing. That aside, it's not even a good romance. They're complete blank slates. What was this even about...? To be fair, I am tired as shit and dozed off a little after he became a chair, and my friend poked me when she tried to kiss the chair. So I saw most of it. Don't tell me "The 2011 earthquakes" because I know. Earthquakes come from the curly dick worm in the sky?? Further idk, maybe this movie simply didn't belong in the form of a summer romcom. I can imagine someone really digging into the 3/11 themes without even mentioning this because it was so tacked on for marketing. He restrained himself to one door slide shot and I didn't notice *too much* Foot Content, so maybe Shinkai was taking it easy this time.

Makoto Shinkai has a formula and he stuck to it. Star-crossed lovers encountering a supernatural phenomenon — but gone wrong. Although his works are amazing visual and music wise, and perhaps even the idea of his movies are good, they don’t outweigh the cons. You can tell Shinkai tried to make the movie a heart-felt tear jerker by jamming so many threads. The loss of a mother, the romance sub-plot, the mythical creatures and lore behind the door. None of it was elaborated, leaving the story incoherent and muddling the meaning of anything he tried to convey. The more the film advanced, the more questions flooded my brain. The execution was very awkward and unpredictable in a way that didn’t surprise me, but left me confused. For what was supposed to be a movie with a romance sub-plot, it felt as though that was what the movie was about. I had expected more elaboration about the doors, her mother and her grief from the loss, but none of it was explained thoroughly — at the very least no coherent connection between them. All I could remember from the movie was the constant desperation to save Souta and to see him once more. There’s nothing wrong with romance — if it’s done right, of course. Kimi no na wa is a romance where two people are brought together through a supernatural phenomenon, and throughout the film they help each other develop together as the plot advances. But with Suzume no Tojimari there was little to no development. For a man Suzume just met, she was ready to risk her life for him. In the beginning it already felt forced just from how Suzume acted on her impulses to help him, but no development happened for the romance between Souta and Suzume to make sense. They barely knew each other, and they had barely interacted enough for us to understand their romantic relationship. We don’t know much about Souta as a person either, he left midway film, so we cannot understand just why she felt so strongly for him nor can we reciprocate her desperation to save him. All of this just to shove the romance sub-plot in our faces. In the span of 2-3 days: “I need to hear your voice” “I can’t imagine a world without Souta” It was all very awkward and I’m disappointed just how low Shinkai thinks our standards are by the constant shower of romance. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this movie. I enjoyed the movie, just not how it was executed. I loved the message it was trying to convey, accepting the loss of loved one’s through natural disasters. But the premise of the movie wasn’t fleshed out, nor was it executed well enough to tell the story correctly. I wouldn’t be surprised if people focused on the romance than her trying to reach closure of her dead mother. The film barely focuses on the idea of loss in general, the people she meets aren’t even impactful to the story. Perhaps if they had also lost others due to the same natural disasters, then there would’ve been a connection, a ways for them to matter because of how they relate to the main character and help her overcome loss together. Instead, they act as checkpoints, without doing much to Suzume’s development. The movie focused on the wrong things and you can tell where it put its focus on. What Suzume no Tojimari tries to tell is a story about a girl who lost her mother through a natural disaster. Suzume encounters a supernatural phenomena, a door that unleashes destruction if left unattended. She must stop these doors from opening in order to prevent further disasters from happening — the same disasters that took her mother away. Through her journey, she learns to reach closure to her mother’s death, overcoming the grief of loss by finding the beauty of life and the people she meets in it. In the absence of her voice, she listens to those that live. And if the world is so meaningful, perhaps Suzume saves it so she can save herself. The movie explores self-discovery, acceptance of loss and gaining newfound hope for the future through those she meets. In the end, her revisiting that door she desperately searched her mother in and sealing it to prevent chaos - was symbolism for acceptance. Unfortunately, despite such a heartfelt message, the film fails to encapsulate that emotion. With the constant shower of romance, the films acts as though her closure came from following and saving a man she’s in love with. If it had focused on her grief and the closure of her mother’s absence than her weird attachment toward Souta, perhaps then it would’ve been something great — instead of saving some guy when she should’ve saved herself.

Makato Shinkai has always impressed me with his work and yet again he keeps his GLORY. JUST AMAZING❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 I have no words the emotions are perfect just perfect I know its a sic-fiction but still just fabulous emotions are portrayed the Mains and the supporting cast. Trust me it is worth your time watching it its a 2 hour movie (longest of his works) but still WORTH IT. I cant write must because I cant give spoilers so just watch and see for yourself what this master piece has got for you :D I swear to god the plot is not predictable at ALL. All the animations were perfect and if i have to talk about the characters they have portrayed them in the same way they would have reacted in real life is the situation would have come up (hopefully not💀)I believe no one can dislike this FOR SURE.

Story was lacking quite a bit, many things not explained or poorly explained. Too many Loose ends. Animation 10/10 Can’t really complain, everything was smooth and looked amazing. Characters 6.5/10 Not developed well enough and some things just made no sense Music 9/10 Music and Osts were great Overall the story was unique and had potential, but the lack of explanation and poor character development made it so you didn’t really feel attached to anything. It is definitely a movie worth watching, but you will definitely want more information towards the end. The flow of the movie is great… for a two hour movie, it didn’t feel dragged at all and I wasn’t bored at all.

A true love letter to animation, without a doubt an amazing movie that if you enjoy Makoto Shinkai's previous works I highly recommend it. The plot is very good, although it is not so innovative, they handle it in a masterful way. The characters are very good, just as Makoto does, each one has a magnificent background, a well-grounded personality and good but above all organic interactions. The lore of this particular movie is not that difficult to understand and that adds positive points. The animation as always, magnificent; you can practically take any frame from the movie and it could easily be your final wallpaper, the use of cgi is well measured and not excessive. The soundtrack is very good, one of the strong points of the film, Radwimps once again did an amazing job. To conclude, without a doubt a beautiful film with an ending like the ones Makoto has already accustomed us to, for this very reason, at least for me it is an excellent film, which although it has some script conveniences is not fatal or anything like that. . 10/10 PS: I am writing this leaving the cinema, so it is likely that I am still a bit excited and my review is not very objective.

The positives: the art, the animation. It's spectacular. The initial village setting was beautiful. The mids: the music is overused in Instagram and YouTube, otherwise forgettable. The negatives: some of the CGI was awful. We are expected to believe that the white cat was really leading the MCs to the doors. What about that scene where he threatens to destroy tokyo? How did the cat know that the male lead can be used as a keystone substitute? Nonsense. Initially he was supposed to be the keystone, but then we are told it's the black cat. The characters are forgettable. It's the damsel and the hero, but gender swapped. The plot is the same old disaster prevention bull from weathering with you and your name. The romance was shoe horned and awful. The side characters had no roles except as plot devices. The abilities of the cats are nonsense. They can possess and send souls into objects? Okay. The MCs also bump into the white cat in the most contrived and convenient ways imaginable. The white and black cat join the heroes for no reason, despite being portrayed as villains initially. The black cat incites a fight between the MC and her aunt for a forced and pointless reconciliation scene. The doors lead to the afterlife, but when you try to close them to prevent the worm from coming out, somehow the souls of the people who resided in now derelict areas help close it? Makes no sense. Why does the afterlife have a damn worm that causes earthquakes? Why aren't the souls already in the afterlife? Actually the afterlife looked pretty bare, where are all the souls that passed on? Maybe the worm ate them. Pretty terrible afterlife. How is the MC the only Closer around? There's like a million damn doors. The climax had an unnecessary time travel tack on. The MC's mother's fate is never made clear. The narrative is a complete failure and pretty colours don't solve bad writing. The writer also belongs to the violet evergarden school of making people cry by showing people crying, which is a terrible way to invoke emotion. Waste of time.

I’ll admit I’ve largely been indifferent with Makoto Shinkai works with the man’s habit of continuing to rehash the same storytelling premise with his films involving long-distance relationships, many of which involving some sort of paranormal element. It looked like his latest film, Suzume, was an attempt to break out of this habit with the titular character meeting a young man named Souta Munakata trying to prevent a supernatural powered “worm” from entering our world via doorways that open up a parallel world. Suzume and Souta team up to combat this threat, while more about these supernatural elements are explored and Suzume coming to learn of her own connections to them. Before I get into too critical, I guess let’s get the usual out of the way with a Shinkai film in praising Suzume’s visuals. Makoto Shinkai’s films typically offer up beautiful and highly-detailed scenic shots and well-animated movement and sequences that play out. Suzume’s no different in that department with exploring both the normal and parallel worlds that Suzume and Souta find themselves traveling between to deal with the “worm” threat and having its moments of fluid and nicely animated sequences as the two go about their ordeals. As far as the storytelling and themes for the film go, I must admit their execution leaves much to be desired. In essence, it felt like the film was attempting to try to do too much within the limited time of its two hour run. The first hour largely focuses on Suzume and Souta’s travels to different Japanese locales to locate the different doors that the “worm” is attempting to get into our world from. A few of them have Suzume become acquainted with one of the residents in each locale that she befriends. While this narrative could have worked within a TV anime that would have more time to explore a larger story, Suzume lacks this time as we get little time to connect with these new characters to make Suzume’s bonds with them come off genuine. Not to mention there’s little breathing room with Suzume quickly thrust into her present circumstances right within the film’s first several minutes. By the second hour, the film attempts to have emotional drama with its story exploring Suzume’s connections to the parallel world and trying to implement a coming of age moral with it. Unfortunately, this story element felt largely shoehorned into the film by this point with the lack of focus on it in the film’s first hour. The same issues also come into play with the film’s sloppy addition of its romance angle and one character’s inconsistent motives in their interactions with our lead characters. With Suzume’s rather significant flaws with its storytelling focus and having a vision too grand for a two hour film, I’d say it is easily the weakest quality Shinkai film I’ve seen to date. Even with my gripes on Shinkai’s typical storytelling approach with his films, the past ones at least took their time to focus on and explore their characters and story to at least have you give somewhat of a hoot about their developments. But in Suzume’s case, it felt too unfocused and tried doing too much with what it wanted to dabble into.

Makoto Shinkai’s pictures are still very good-looking. I don’t particularly like the soundtrack but it’s also top-notch. However, the plot and character design of Suzuya’s Journey are really bad. I couldn’t empathize with the characters from the beginning to the end, but I don’t regret deliberately I spent two hours sitting in the movie theater, because for me, Makoto Shinkai’s name carries weight, and if I don’t watch it, I always feel that something is missing and I feel uneasy. Before watching the movie, I read the comments on Douban, which let me know the slots of some movies in advance, and watching the movie turned into confirming them. I didn't feel Xin Haicheng's transcendence of the past, or actually felt a regression. From the beginning to the end, I didn't achieve empathy with any character. The emotional line is really weird. The one between the hero and heroine, the one between the minister and Lingya, and the one before the aunt and Lingya are full of realism, but... Perhaps the heroine is the one I don't like the most, she is not as good-looking as Sanye. Can't understand her behavior: not afraid of death, willing to die for the hero who has known him for a few days... The third master and Taki have exchanged bodies for at least a long time, and their feelings are natural. But this work is difficult to understand. Accepting the past self should be the main theme of Lingya's journey, and it is a very good theme, but the explanation is not enough, the weight is too small, and the depth is slightly shallow. 新海诚的画面依然十分好看，配乐我并不特别喜欢但也是一流，但铃芽之旅的剧情、人设实在不行，从头到尾我都没能与角色达成共情，但我并不后悔特意花两个小时坐在电影院，因为对我来说，新海诚的名字是有分量的，不看总感觉差了点什么、心里不安。 看电影之前在豆瓣看了评论，让我提前知道了部分电影的槽点，看电影变成了印证它们。 我没有感受到新海诚对对过去的任何超越，或者说其实感受到了退步。 从头到尾我没有实现与任何角色的共情，感情线是真的怪异，男女主人公之间的、大臣与铃芽之间的，姨妈和铃芽之前的虽然真实感满满，但…… 或许最不讨我喜的是女主，还没有三叶好看。理解不了她的行为：不怕死、甘愿为了认识几天的男主去死……三爷和泷至少交换身体了很久，他们的感情是自然的。而本作的则难以理解。 接受过去的自己应该是铃芽之旅的主旨，是很好的主旨，但交代的不够，份量太少，深度略浅。

Where do i even begin with this anime. The animations is beautiful but the story... what the hell is even that? I was hoping for a better story but again this is a movie so lets cut them some slack. The movie gets a 7 from me and that the highest i go i am not gonna go any higher. So apparently there is a requirement on how much info you provide, personally this needed more it felt like it was lazy writing. The story was predictable you could simply tell what is happening etc. I tru ly don't know how much detail i need to providde but it looks like there is a limit on the detail i need to provide

Great visuals, abysmal writing, adorable cat. Honestly the cat is so adorable that I would recommend watching it just for that. The greatest weak point is the lost potential that is apparent. If the story could have been focused on one thing for a longer period, it could've been fantastic. Shinkai should just stop touching the romance genre forever after this film. story 4/10 art 10/10 characters 3/10 cat 10/10 voice acting 5/10 cat voice acting 10/10 This might be enjoyable if one isn't paying much attention, but for people looking for a well-rounded, fleshed-out plot and believable characters, this is not for you.

"Suzume" was added to Crunchyroll on November 16th, 2023. After hearing positive things about it, I decided to give it a watch, and I was thoroughly blown away. Suzume is a coming-of-age story about a small-town girl named Suzume (Take a shot every time I say Suzume in this review), a mysterious young man named Souta, and their adventure traveling Japan, closing mysterious doors that are causing strange earthquakes. Known as "gates", closing them is the main goal of our heroes. The main character, Suzume, is such an amazing character. Her interactions with the rest of the cast are just so charming. Her development over the course of the film and her resolve were such a joy to watch. I feel like everyone can relate to her on some level. She's just so "human", for lack of a better term. Honestly, she's one of the best anime protagonists I've ever seen. And one I connected with on a deep level. Souta as well is great (and attractive as hell). He's mysterious and intriguing, and he too was incredibly charming throughout the film. As were the side characters. There weren't many; the story mostly focused on Suzume and Souta, but they were also very charming. Charming is a fitting word to describe this film in all. A charming story about life, progress, and growth. Every time Suzume closes a gate, she grows as a person and gets closer to coming to terms with her childhood trauma. It's a beautiful journey and a beautiful film. Speaking of beautiful, the animation in this film is next level. I'm not sure I've ever seen an anime that looks so amazing. It genuinely stunned me in this area. Everything about it, from the landscape to the "Ever After," was absolutely beautiful. 11/10 in this regard. In conclusion, Suzume is a film that absolutely stuck the landing in all regards. I wish I had seen it in theaters. It moved me in a way that I haven't been moved in a long time. I was smiling like an idiot the entire time, and I was crying like a child at the end. It's honestly hard to try to fit all my thoughts into a review, let alone a spoiler-free one. Suzume is easily one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time. Maybe ever. 10/10.

My wife and I saw this in theaters last night. The fact that she and I were among just nine total people there for that movie on the second night it's available for viewing really speaks to how far anime movies, and anime as a whole, still has to go here in the United States, but that's a discussion for another day. If you take a peek at my profile, specifically the favorites section, you'll find a Shinkai movie among my all time favorites, several others rated highly on my list and Shinkai himself listed among my favorite anime-associated characters and people. Plainly, I'm a genuine fan, and I've had nothing but positive experiences with his movies up to this point. This was, while certainly not a crappy movie by any objective measure, far from his best work. Shinkai has been, and continues to be, the absolute gold standard for visual presentation. He's simply the best in the business at what he does. It would be very difficult for this movie to look or sound better. The presentation is simply exceptional, the best of the best, the gold standard. Sky high production values, extreme attention to detail and extreme care put into every single shot summarizes the entirety of this film. Reserving the tiniest of nitpicks for the use of CGI, which some people will hate no matter how well it's done, the presentation here is as close to perfect as perfect can get with the technology available in 2023. When you get beyond how stunningly good the film looks and sounds, however, the rest of what you're left with is average and forgettable in almost every way. This film is fully, utterly, entirely carried by its presentation. The plot and characters have a lot of problems. The plot itself is formulaic, predictable and not unlike other works we've seen before. ALL characters, very much including the leads, are underdeveloped, with the male lead in particular having few lines, little depth and little backstory and the romance between the leads does not feel organic whatsoever. They've known each other for all of a week when our female lead has fallen unquestioningly, unwaveringly in love with the male lead and she will stop at nothing to save him! The relationship between these two characters fell very flat for me. This film somehow manages to feel simultaneously very much like and very much unlike previous Shinkai works, and unfortunately it's in a bad way in both cases. On one hand this feels unoriginal in that it looks and feels like a lot of what we've seen before from this creator with recurring themes such as time travel and some form of magic/supernatural ability to prevent natural disaster (this is the THIRD FILM IN A ROW this is applicable to and it's frankly a bit stale at this point), romantic relationships with significant age gaps and a forced message of hope, appreciation and moving forward regardless of what has happened to you. Also, female lead Suzume and Your Name's female lead Mitsuha look very visually similar to me and probably could have swapped movies without me noticing. On the other hand, where Shinkai's strengths in the past in films such as The Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters Per Second have been believable, realistic interpersonal relationships on a smaller scale- relationships with no magical element that could actually happen in the real world- Shinkai makes the puzzling choice this time around to stray significantly further away from intimate and interpersonal and lean far more heavily into fantasy and spectacle, a decision that cuts off his greatest strength as a writer and did him absolutely no favors in this film, perhaps exposing a weakness of his as a writer. I feel strongly that this film, if you were to strip away the production values and make it look like any other average anime in 2023, would land as a 6 at very best. It's a generic fantasy romp with forced plot elements, underdeveloped and forgettable characters and a pretty neat and convenient ending, and that's to say nothing of how convenient it is that seemingly no one in the world witnessing the various events of the film, such as a cat literally talking to them, seems to think very much of it and is able to brush it off without further questioning. I don't know about you, but if I came home from work one of these days and my cat walked up to me and said "Hey man, how was your day?" my reaction probably wouldn't be mildly surprised for a few moments, don't ask or think about it any further and carry on from there as I would on any other night. At the end of the day I can understand why the scores for this film are as high as they are. It's shiny and new, there's a lot of Shinkai fans out there (absolutely including myself) and if you saw this in theaters it's very easy to get swept up in the immersive, cinematic experience this is very clearly intended to be. However, bells and whistles removed, this is a disappointing effort, and too similar to his two most recent works, from a creator frequently mentioned in the greatest of all time discussion. My sincere hope is Shinkai avoids natural disasters being prevented through the power of love and time travel in his next outing and gives us something fresher and less samey. Keep up how good it looks, but put more effort into character development and writing. If this didn't look so damn good, I'd be utterly disappointed as opposed to where I am now, which is somewhere in the vicinity of lukewarm. OBJECTIVE RATING- 7-8 PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7.5

As some people would call it, the Anime movie of the year. And yeah I can accept it because I felt this movie was made with the same attitude as Koe no Katachi and Kimi no na Ha. As it tried to show something deeper story in a fantasy surface like the other two mentioned. And besides, it came with an Audio-visual AAA and left a bit more than an average Anime movie. For me, at least the biggest positive is the fact, that Suzume had a soul. Let me elaborate. For the first Suzume has no prologue like the other two. It starts in medias res. Suzume meets a guy, opens a door, let out something, becomes gifted and sees something supernatural. They close a door and go to the next adventure. In this aspect as an adventure it was great. I am currently traveling through Japan, and they been even places where I did also. I loved the scenes of Shikoku and then Kobe also. Was the buildup part of the main story, but I felt this part would show the deeper and more emotional story. At this point, I have to mention I think the Suzume no Tojimari storyline is a bit too much in the sense of Fantasy, and because of this, these scenes are very hardly intertwinable with the emotional depth. And it is true Vica versa. Because there was not too much time to elaborate on Suzumes trauma it had no real impact on the release. I would say the same to the mystery part because we can guess at the end, what are exactly these doors for Suzume and others. So in one sentence, basically doors are just metaphors. And progress is the Real treasure. But I have to say, (even though, it could be better in sense of transition of fantasy and the topic,)I appreciate and love this kind of enjoyable and not so dark, but the light style of a real-world setup fantasy. Besides some not so good looking CGI (only like 3-4 in the whole movie) this movie is an audio-visual orgasm. Sadly THAT song did not come only twice but others were awesome and obviously contributed to the doors and world through the doors. Characters were also the main focus. I think it is not a huge story, but Suzume as the main protagonist was the best among some of them. All in all, I don't think it is a 10/10 Anime, more like a 7-8 but absolutely recommend watching it.

A Personal Review of Suzume There was a time when I felt completely disconnected—from my family, my work, and the people around me. Today was one of those days. After an argument with my parents and my brother, I took my motorcycle and ran away from home, riding far until I reached a bridge. I stood there, looking at the water, the city lights, and the vast night sky. For a brief moment, I thought about everything—about how distant I felt from my own life. On my way back, I saw a man standing by the railway. I asked if he wanted to talk, and he refused. In that moment, I realized—he must have thought I was trying to scam him. And then it hit me. Oh, so he thinks I’m a scammer too. It made me feel even more disconnected, as if no matter what I did, people would only ever assume the worst. When I got home, I ignored my brother’s words, shut myself in my room, turned off the lights, and watched Suzume. Watching this film felt like looking into a mirror. Suzume ran away, not out of anger, but out of longing—for answers, for something missing. Like me, she encountered kindness, but only when it was convenient for others. In her most desperate moments, when she was barefoot and in tattered clothes, no one stopped to help. But she kept going. She ignored the world and followed her heart, sometimes selfishly, sometimes for love, but always with a determination that I admired. The past few weeks had been overwhelming. I work as a banker, and even when I ask people to open an account with zero cost, they look at me as if I’m a scammer. My parents and my brother fought while trying to help me, reminding me of my childhood—when arguments were the background noise of my life, when I was bullied, ashamed of myself, and desperately seeking someone who would care. I got through it, but now, between my internship, exams, deadlines, and the betrayals I faced—from a co-worker, from a customer I tried to trust, from my own university that took away my scholarship because of a teacher’s mistake—it felt like everything was caving in again. I cried twice in the past two weeks. The first time was when my senior colleague scammed me. The next day, a customer I trusted did the same. Watching Suzume made me realize that life doesn’t offer easy answers. People won’t always care—not because they’re heartless, but because it’s normal to look out for yourself first. Suzume’s journey wasn’t easy. She found kindness, but she also faced loneliness. She made mistakes, but she didn’t stop moving forward. And in the end, she found what she had been looking for—not just answers, but peace. I won’t say this movie "fixed" me. Real life isn’t a story where everything ties up neatly. But it gave me hope. Hope that I can keep going, that I can find my own answers, and that even in the darkest moments, there’s still a reason to move forward. And maybe, for someone else out there feeling the same way I did tonight, Suzume can offer you that hope too.

The fantasy adventure parts were enjoyable but the road trip and the quiet parts were a chore to get through. I was seriously bored at times (pretty much the whole middle part). I wish they focused more on the adventure and fantasy elements. So many unnecessary characters too, they just stall the adventure. Although, because of all that fooling around Suzume really feels like a fleshed out character. Beautiful score and even more beautiful animation. The cat was cool. The chair was unnecessary but memorable. Way too long. The sheer thought of the real life catastrophe had me shed a tear but it was completely unrelated to the story, more the song that played at the end.

Like every Makoto Shinkai, the movie is beautifully animated, the music is good, same with the voice acting and ambiance. But story-wise, this is easily the weakest of his movies. It's pretty much Tenki No Ko/ Weathering with You but with the gender of the protagonists reversed and less obstacles for the main character to reach their objective. Nothing ever actually attempt to stop Suzume in her quest, not even her Aunt once she reach her, while Hodaka in the previous one had both to deal with the supernatural obstacles, and very real ones in the adults and police. So the story end up being nothing more than a road trip for Suzume trying to help Souta, and doing it without any sense of sacrifice to reach said goal beyond remembering (not even having to confront) her past. And at least, while supernatural in nature, there was an attempt at explaining the events of Tenki no Ko. Here things happen without reason and lot of important plot elements like Daijin goal or what actually is the Worm and how they defeat it for good are never explained. Because of all these reasons, I can't recommend to go watch this movie if you already seen other Shinkai movies. If it's your first, go watch it, but then go watch you Name and Tenki no Ko because it will then be gradually better between the movies

Bad things happen, things appear to bear no meaning, yet we dance, and we love. I admit I didn't like this movie much; it took a very long time to really come together, and most of the characters along the way weren't believable. They were a little TOO nice and cooperative to Suzume, which didn't make for a great time imo. Things just happened, and they kept chasing the cat for over an hour. It felt like an endless setup for something that never came, up until those final few minutes... Although I admit they would've hit harder had what came before been a little better, it still hit me very hard; The message is the best part of this movie, not the movie itself, which I think is not a great takeaway, but some things were good enough to keep me interested all the way, like the animation/colors and overall vibes. I cannot recommend it, though. If you want a movie that has a good story and a similar message, I recommend Godzilla Minus One. In here, the story felt like an afterthought.