Japan has a thriving animation industry. At a guess, I’d say it is much larger and more successful than American animation. Yet in the States, Japan’s output is mostly a cult phenomenon. That does seem to be changing. The comic book section at my local Barnes & Noble has almost been overcome by Mangas, and streaming services like Crunchyroll, which specializes in Japanese animation have become very popular. My daughter is a big fan.
I mostly know Japanese animation from Studio Ghibli. Oh, I’ve watched the odd film or series with my daughter, and I have fond memories of watching Robotech: The Macross Saga as a kid, but I’ve not really dug deep into the Anime waters.
I’m trying to change that and Suzume was a good start. Like a lot of Japanese animation (I think, again I haven’t seen that much) Suzume mixes intimate human drama with the fantastic.
In a small Japanese town, Suzume (voiced by Nanoka Hara in Japanese and Nichole Sakura in English) a 17-year-old girl lives a quiet life with her aunt. Her mother passed away when she was quite young.
On her way to school, she crosses paths with Souta (voiced by Hokuto Matsumura in Japanese, and Josh Keaton in English) a handsome young man who asks her if she knows of any abandoned towns nearby. He’s looking for a door, he says. She points him in the direction of a small spa resort that was destroyed in bad weather.
He thanks her and she continues on her way to school. But when a friend notices her face is flush from the encounter, she thinks twice and runs to that abandoned resort, hoping to find him. Instead, she finds a strange door standing all by itself. She opens it and sees a field full of stars. But when she passes through the door nothing happens. That magical land is seemingly off-limits to her. On one of her passings, she notices a stone cat statue on the ground. When she picks it up it turns into a real cat and runs away.
With nothing more to see she goes back to school. Later that day she noticed a huge column of smoke emanating from where the resort was. Strangely, none of her classmates can see it.
Once again she runs to the resort to find the smoke billowing out of that door. This time Souta is there and is desperately trying to close the door. With her help he does and with a magical key, he locks it.
He tells her that he is a Closer, and his job is to find these magical doors scattered across Japan in abandoned places and keep them shut. That black smoke he calls a worm and if it escapes it will cause massive Earthquakes.
That cat is a Keystone and they must get it to return to one of the doors to keep the worm in place forever. But the cat is mischievous and is enjoying its newfound freedom. It sets to scurrying around Japan. Also, it turns Souta into a three-legged chair.
Suzume and Souta then spend the rest of the film chasing after the cat and closing all the doors before the worm can cause too much damage.
The basics of that plot do nothing to explain just how wonderful this film is. The animation is simply gorgeous. The backgrounds reminded me of the less fantastical Ghibli films in that it is detailed and layered with just enough artistic flourishes to make them fantastical. The characters are drawn realistically and well. There are some wonderful shots where the camera pulls back to show the scope of the worm and the cities it is about to destroy that are just awesome. And the magical world beyond the doors is exquisite.
There is a lightness to its execution and a playfulness. When Souta becomes a chair it is joyful and very funny. But there is a soulfulness too. I believed in their developments, and in their plight.
It is perhaps just slightly too long, and there are a few moments that drag just a little bit. But mostly this is a wonderful film.
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