Director Makoto Shinkai who brought us films, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters per Second, Your Name, and Weathering with You now brings us Suzume. The film is about a girl named Suzume who lost her mother at a young age in a natural disaster in Japan, now 17 years old, she meets a young man who travels around Japan closing magical doors. If they are not closed, they will release natural disasters all over Japan. Suzume joins him on his journey and finds answers along the way to questions and feelings she has been hiding. No spoilers ahead, so keep reading.

This film, just like all of Makoto Shinkai’s works, is pleasing to the eye. They take time to make the smallest flower pop out in the film and the color palette is amazing. If you have seen his last previous films, Your Name, and Weathering with You, then this film will give you that familiar feeling that you have seen this world before. The cast is kept to a minimum and you can focus on only a few major characters as the film develops you begin to discover what makes each person tick. Some are dealing with changes, regrets, and guilt. You will get to feel close to them and even relate to their own situations. However, that is not the only thing that this film showcases, it makes viewers revisit the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami or the great Sendai earthquake.

For Japanese people and also people from around the world, this natural disaster left a big impression on their lives. Some lost people they knew or were impacted in other ways, but most had strong emotions that were sparked in them, feelings of fear, sadness, and guilt, along with others. In the film, we learn about Suzume’s mother dying in this disaster when she was small and how she at that time dealt with it, and how that shaped her presently. By all means, this movie doesn’t show scenes of the disaster, but how people in Japan live while right beneath them is a power that can shake the very ground they have come to call home and in a few seconds, destroy it along with lives.

The anime scenery along with the music score makes this film pack a punch similar to when you have boss battles in video games with epic soundtracks so does Suzume there are action sequences where you have no dialogue, but the images on the screen along with the music that plays seems like it is narrating to viewers what is going on and triggers certain emotions. Besides the score, there are actual songs in the film and those are performed by Radwimps for fans of Makoto Shinkai, or Radwimps they know that this is not the first time they have collaborated. There are also insert songs as the characters are taking a road trip through Japan and what is a road trip without a playlist? That is where you hear Yumi Matsutoya singing Rouge no Dengon, Yuki Saito singing Graduation, Sayuri Kokusho singing Valentine Kiss and even Sweet Memories. To many fans of Japanese culture, they will recognize at least one of these songs.

The film follows Suzume as she deals with her emotions from the day she lost her mother in the March 11 disaster and grows to resolve her own issues or demons she has to live with. The supporting characters also have their own issues to deal with, but together they go on to protect others without them even knowing they are in danger. This is the same idea of living with a sleeping giant that one never knows when it might wake up, let alone what it can cause, but I believe the film doesn’t want to scare people, but yet let them know that even if your future is not certain, you can’t let that stop you from living or fighting for a future you want to live. It is not a secret that the director in his last few works has had the theme of natural disasters in Your Name, a comet, in Weathering with You climate change but the way he mixes these themes with beautiful imagery yet his message remains strong throughout his films is just another testament that the medium of Anime is more than just simple kid cartoons.

Suzume is out in theaters on April 14th in North America and the UK, please check your local listing for show times. The film is both Subbed and Dubbed for your preferred choice. Notable Japanese voice talent includes Nanoka Hara as Suzume, Hokuto Matsumura as Souta, Trunosuke Kamiki as Serizawa, Eri Fukatsu as Tamaki, and Kana Hanazawa as Suzume’s mother. Notable English voice talent Nicole Sakura as Suzume, Josh Keaton as Souta, Jennifer Sun Bell as Tamaki, Rosalie Chiang as Chika, and Allegra Clark as Suzume’s mother.

Review Copy Courtesy of Crunchyroll