Suzume is a Japanese animated movie distributed by Toho. I was drawn to this movie as it is written and directed by Makoto Shinkai whose 2016, Your Name is one of my favorite animated movies of the last decade. While I do not think that Suzume quite reaches that level, this is still a fantastic animated movie and one that is well worth taking the time to watch.
How to Download Suzume
It is possible that at some point you will be able to download or stream the film from Crunchyroll. Click on the Download button at the end of this review to confirm the current availability. Check out also other anime films that were distributed by Toho, for example, Belle, My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, or Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village.
The Movie Review
I actually just watched this recently as I was waiting for the English dub to come out. One of the things that I got a real kick out of was the voice of Suzume the lead character. It was one of those situations where the whole time I was watching the movie I was like “I know that voice” and then I realized it was Nichole Sakura who plays Cheyenne in the awesome sitcom Superstore as well as one of the characters in the game, Until Dawn.
The story here is just fantastic stuff and it grips you right from the start. Our main character Suzume is a 17-year-old girl living in Japan who meets this rather strange man called, Sota. Sota is traveling around Japan trying to close these “magical” doors that are popping up all over the place.
These doors are being opened by a supernatural worm-like creature that causes massive earthquakes and devastation if they are not closed. It is a very interesting premise and what I liked about it was that it could have been shallow, but we get a lot of character development and actually care about both Suzume and Sota.
Now, they need to track down a key. This is no normal “key” and there are not going to be any spoilers here, but tracking down a key that is pretty much alive to lock these doors is about as difficult as you would imagine. It makes for a very fast-paced movie where our heroes are always on the go and disaster is never too far away.
Suzume is one of the best-looking animated movies of the last year. This is just pure eye candy, even something as pedestrian as the little town Suzume is from looks amazing. However, there is this scene (no spoilers) where they step through one of these doors and it is just jaw-dropping stuff it is so well done and imaginative that it shows that Japanese animation is still arguably the greatest in the world.
I mentioned before about Nichole Sakura playing the lead role of Suzume, but the entire English voice cast does an incredible job here. Josh Keaton who I loved as Spider-Man in the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series plays Sota. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog himself, Roger Craig Smith is in the movie, although to be fair, he is pretty much in every animated movie or video game these days!
I cannot say enough good things about, Suzume and while Your Name is my favorite movie that Makoto Shinkai has done, Suzume could not be any closer. What sounds like a rather simple fantasy-style plot has a ton of depth and it really does grab you and make you care about what is going on. If you want to watch a movie with a story that will really captivate you, Suzume is one that will certainly do that.
