Kanji すずめの戸締まり
Literal meaning Suzume’s Locking Up
Revised Hepburn Suzume no Tojimari
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Written by Makoto Shinkai
Produced by Kōichirō Itō, Kinue Itō, Wakana Okamura
Starring
Character Cast Japanese English
Suzume Iwato (岩戸 鈴芽, Iwato Suzume) Nanoka Hara Nichole Sakura
Souta Munakata (宗像 草太, Munakata Sōta) Hokuto Matsumura Josh Keaton
Tamaki Iwato (岩戸 環, Iwato Tamaki) Eri Fukatsu Jennifer Sun Bell
Minoru Okabe (岡部 稔, Okabe Minoru) Shota Sometani Roger Craig Smith
Rumi Ninomiya (二ノ宮 ルミ, Ninomiya Rumi) Sairi Ito Amanda C. Miller
Chika Amabe (海部 千果, Amabe Chika) Kotone Hanase Rosalie Chiang
Tsubame Iwato (岩戸 椿芽, Iwato Tsubame) Kana Hanazawa Allegra Clark
Hitsujirō Munakata (宗像 羊朗, Munakata Hitsujirō) Matsumoto Hakuō II Cam Clarke
Tomoya Serizawa (芹澤 朋也, Serizawa Tomoya) Ryunosuke Kamiki Joe Zieja
Daijin (ダイジン) Ann Yamane Lena Josephine Marano
Miki (ミキ) Aimi Mela Lee
Cinematography Ryōsuke Tsuda
Edited by Makoto Shinkai
Music by Radwimps, Kazuma Jinnouchi
Production companies CoMix Wave Films, Story Inc.
Running time 122 minutes
There are times when Netflix can’t seem to get out of their own way. They had an ad for an anime movie on their lead page the other day that went something like this: “A young girl must save the world, accompanied by a three-legged sentient stool and a wise-cracking cat.” Sounds pretty dismal, doesn’t it? Most anime doesn’t survive the first 15 minutes of viewing with me. It’s very easy to spot crap, and this sounded like it didn’t even require 15 minutes of consideration.
But I glanced at the artwork, which showed a girl, a three-legged stool, and a cat. I had seen that style before, and associated it with something good. Then I spotted the director’s name. Makoto Shinkai. He did two of the best, most thoughtful anime features I’ve ever seen: Five Centimetres per Second, and Your Name.
The description, on the face of it, is accurate. Suzume is a high schooler, about 16 or 17 years old. She is intelligent, mature, stable, and for an anime character of her age and role, wearing a dress two feet longer than anime standard, reaching almost to her knees. Refreshingly, while aware of boys, she doesn’t giggle mindlessly at the mere thought, or blush wildly when caught looking at one. Yes, she’s as close to an actual human being as a cartoon character can get.
She notices a large column of reddish smoke on the edge of her town that, curiously, nobody else can see. Curious, she goes to the locale, an abandoned factory, to find a man about twenty years old trying frantically to close a door from which the smoke is emitting. This is her principal co-protagonist, Souta Munakata. The door seems unattached to anything other than its own frame, and a peek through reveals it is transdimensional. They manage to close the door, cutting off the smoke. A moderate earthquake ensures, but we learn the smoke is the cause of quakes, and had it not been sealed off, it would have been catastrophic, on the level of the Fukishima event.
A cat dashes through the door as it is closing. Said feline, Daijin, is actually a god, and, angered by Souto’s interference, turns him into a stool. Said stool is an unremarkable child’s stool, painted yellow, with two scrapings on the back panel that serve as eyes, and, as advertised, missing a leg. It seems a familiar object to Suzume.
A quest ensues, where the two, accompanied by Daijin, seek other doors to prevent more quakes.
Yes, it’s a child’s story, but it is one told on a level to appeal to any adult. The characters, even the gods, are three-dimensional and fully-realized. There is amazing subtlety and depth to not only them, but all the supporting characters. The animation itself is gorgeous, fluid, natural, and the art is breathtaking, photorealistic, the best you’ll find in anime (and the top anime presents an extremely high bar).
It’s a lovely movie, heartfelt and surprisingly human.
Now on Netflix.