Makoto Shinkai is a modern anime genius known for his tear-jerking anime films such as Your Name, Weathering With You, and The Garden of Words. Most of his films have a bizarre phenomenon that draws two lovers or friends together. Many people, however, are perplexed as to why his anime films appear more realistic than most mainstream anime. The secret lies in the team behind its creation, who went over and above to include scenarios from various locations around Japan.
Makoto Shinkai, hailed "The New Miyazaki," is returning with another remarkable film, Suzume no Tojimari, which was announced in 2020. While Shinkai directed and penned the script for the film, CoMix Wave Films produced and animated it, as it did for all his previous films. As usual, Radwimps, who provided outstanding music for Your Name and Weathering With You, contributed to the film's popularity.
Suzume no Tojimari, a film with stunning visuals and an intriguing premise, has been one of the most anticipated films of 2022, and it recently released a trailer. So, here's a breakdown of Suzume no Tojimari's official trailer to get a better understanding of its storyline.
The Door of Destruction
The trailer opens with a schoolgirl, Suzume, riding her bicycle and crossing paths with a young man, Souta, as the anime's main theme song, "Suzume," plays in the background. She wonders what the man is talking about when he calls her and asks whether there's a door around here, and in the following scene, she comes across a mysterious door in the midst of an open area with no wall to support it. It resembles the shrine Hina passed through in Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You, and when Suzume opens it curiously, she discovers nothing out of the norm.
Suzume realizes what she has done when she goes about her normal life as a disaster strikes the town. Although it was not shown at the beginning of the trailer, the door Souta described is most likely the trigger for the destruction of the town they are in. As she hurries back to where she had previously opened the door, she finds Souta attempting to shut the doorway, which seems to be flooding the town. Then he proceeds to reveal the mystery behind the doors, saying, "The Gates will open in lonely areas people have forgotten. The opened gates will bring disaster!"
A Supernatural Cat and an Ill-Fated Bond
Suzume and Souta feel at ease at her place as they stop the catastrophe that almost destroyed the town. However, an unnatural appearance of a speaking cat stuns them both, and it says, "Suzume, I love you, and you're in the way," as it glances at Souta and turns him into a chair. We may assume from this scenario that the cat is a supernatural entity that entered through the door Suzume had opened, and the proposal signifies the cat loves Suzume for letting it out.
After transforming Souta into a chair, the cat flees the house, finally gaining freedom. Suzume pursues him, while Souta pursues the cat in the hopes of reverting to his human form. The subsequent scenes develop the relationship between the two characters as they overcome various crises, and she ultimately arrives in Kyushu town, a long way from her hometown. While everything is already in disarray, the supernatural cat blows a figurative bombshell by declaring, "A lot of people are about to die."
After hearing the frightening words of this supernatural being, Suzume realizes what she did by opening the door, which she shouldn't have done. There is, however, a way to end everything: she must lock the door. The following scenario puts us in a tough spot, as the confrontation between Cat and Souta results in him freezing to death, leaving everything in Suzume's hands.
A Desperate Attempt to Set Things Right
Following the incident in which the supernatural entity freezes Souta, Suzume pays a visit to his family, who looks to be an older man who is also aware of the bizarre occurrence, and he discovers that Souta has failed. When he asks whether she is afraid of continuing what Souta has begun, she says, "I'm afraid of a world where Souta doesn't exist." She then embarks on a new journey to find the solution, determined to save him no matter what.
The trailer then cuts to a series of scenes in which she meets new friends, including a man who presumably knows about Souta, a beautiful woman who motivates her, and a little girl who looks after the Chair, which now appears to be ordinary since Souta has vanished. All these characters add to the significance of the film by guiding Suzume in her attempt to save the one she loves. The trailer concludes with Souta and Suzume inserting keys from opposite sides of the door, implying that they are in different worlds.
While the trailer summarizes the entire story in two minutes, there is a lot we have yet to experience on the big screen, such as the love story buildup between the lead characters, the mystery behind the doors that nearly destroyed the town, and the role of the supernatural cat throughout the film.
Suzume no Tojimari is scheduled for release in international cinemas in early 2023. Once it is out, we will be able to see this beautifully written and aesthetically stunning film and resolve all the questions raised by the trailer.