I personally think Your Name was his best work. I hope that his next film breaks out of the (Person A from Tokyo and Person B from somewhere else meet, get disconnected, and try to reconnect again)

This was the only movie that I went and watched in theaters twice. Even when I went and watched it the second time and KNEW WHAT HAPPENED I still cried. The themes of love while can be seen as romantic I see it as companion love like the one you get from close friends. when she says “I’m going to see the one I love” it felt like she was saying it in a “I’m going to go be with someone I’m close with” even though they hadn't been around each other for long. Kinda like how Greek has many different words for love and who it is for and what strength if it. Also the theme of wanting one’s place in the world while having obligations and wanting to be more hit so hard as a college student with an undecided major. Along with that the music was amazing. Sky over Tokyo never fails to make me shiver when I remember the design of the full worm. to be with Sota caused me to sob because I know the feeling of going “I’m fine to go. I’m ok to die.” Only to have a brush with death and realize no I don’t want to go I want to be selfish I just want to live. And prayer was a beautiful close for how they defeated the worm especially the animation of Suzume flipping herself around to face the worm head on without the fear she had previously. I also loved the different people she met. It reminded me of when I hiked the Appalachian trail and all the different people I met and who helped me. At one point I almost fell down a mountain and rolled my ankle a man who was hiking a bit behind me helped me get to the next hostile practically carrying me at some points I’ll never forget him even tho he didn’t give me his name and kept hiking. And honestly the worms design also works (though the name worm makes me giggle) the red swirling mass that bursts out but at the same time is also oddly beautiful seems like a good reflection for emotion I don’t know which ones but certainly emotions. And Suzume meeting her younger self just destroyed me. I often wish I could talk to my younger self and tell her everything will be ok and that even though things are hard and the world is scary I would be able to grow and take it on. I feel like I was healed a little bit along with Suzume in that scene. I wish I could have taken my mother to see this movie she doesn’t like anime but I know she would have loved this. All in all an amazing movie that broke me and put me back together again. Something I think that also helps me enjoy movies is I don’t go to watch movies to break them down. I go to enjoy them so unless there’s really bad plot, I’m going to enjoy it no matter what after I’m done, I can then break it down into his little pieces and see what made me enjoy it. Sorry for the novel this movie was just amazing to me.

Great video. Ima copy paste my comment from reddit cuz I think it captures pretty well how I felt about the movie in comparison to Shinkai's last two movies. I think Suzume stands head and shoulders with Your Name and WWY, but the thing is that this is not the typical Shinkai film. Where Shinkai films usually deal with love as the central theme, Suzume is clearly more centered around the trauma of disaster, and dealing with it. Your Name’s ending was melancholic because Taki and Mitsuha spent years separated, searching for someone they loved, but couldn’t quite remember. It’s left vague as to whether they’d even remember each other when they met at the end. WWY has Hodaka, and the rest of Japan, pay catastrophic prices for him and Hina to be together. Hodaka must grapple with the consequences of his decision: a flooded city, and the normality of millions of people’s lives being collateral in his mission to save Hina. Suzume is fundamentally different in this regard. The movie does not end with some grand consequence or loss, but it is a personal triumph for Suzume. She finally comes to understand that she has always had herself, and those around her to help her move forward in life. Souta, while the romantic interest in this film, is just one of the people that help move her along her journey. She closes the door on this saga of her life together with him, but Souta is not the object of her journey itself. I don’t want to get too spoilerish, but halfway through the movie there’s a certain line in regards to death, and Suzume’s answer is extremely telling of the way she viewed her own life after the Tohoku Earthquake. Souta’s prayer before they seal the worm show’s Suzume’s shift in perspective afterwards.

For me, Suzume was a little bit better, if you want to compare these two this way.

Love the analysis. Suzume is a great movie. We all seem to be still holding on to Mitsuha & Taki, we need to grow up as well.

I cannot compare both movies, as they present different themes and paces. Love them both :)

His reaction to Souta was like hmm let's pin him he's bold I would have been like ooh 😏 hey there

Being a parent and having lost my mom at 18, seeing the loss and grief Suzume seemingly held deep inside felt so powerful. The underlying message of this movie is what made this movie feel so much more personal to me. Wish I could go watch it again in theatres but I suppose I will need to wait for the full release.

I loved the movie! Even though the relationship between Suzume and Sota feels like a Your Name 3... they can't be compared. It's the dreadful feeling of "this really happened" when you get to the end that makes this film stand out so much. When the characters drove around the coast road I saw the cranes and the wall being built, I was like "oh shoot, that's it" . I got to ask myself why I can't see the ocean when they are reaching their destination even though we have been able to see it during all the film. I understood it before Suzume picks her diary. It was a powerful imagery for me because they were still happily singing pop songs in the car.

Loved this film.😊

I personally liked the movie for the world building details, great characters, relatability, theme, visuals, realistic humane animation, one of the most beautiful artstyle n landscapes, story, humour, emotions n surprisingly good character arcs n the message of it. Suzume felt to be more likable n relatable characters at least for me, compared to Mitsuha or Amano. But emotionally it's not at the level of your name, but that's ok as this really felt like a very different movie then both the previous 2 Shinkai movies. Only the artstyle is similar with a very few superficial tropes carried over. And the message is what made it feel meaningful... Coming to the age difference, it did make the relationship between them more nuanced n spiritual and not romantic per se. She got connected with him because she has already met him in her childhood in the otherworld. Coming to her age, technically legal age for girls in Japan is 16 so there's nothing wrong shown in context... But shouldn't be seen with the Western lens. Also, imo 18 or 17 yrs is just a number and doesn't matter, both r same as both r immature and i feel 21 yrs is more appropriate age of consent... IMO. The Western mindset is the problem here. See it with the Japanese context n it'll be fine. There is nothing problematic about it.

just watched it. it was very good. the end was rough emotionally. the door stuff was just plot for her closing the door on ... well i wont spoil it. one fun ghibli reference.

Are we going to ignore the in game sonic music 😂 nice taste

i loved this movie, i saw it the day it released and im going again this weekend! But Your name stands out the best after suzume!

I enjoyed Suzume more than YN.

Your Name still the king but i put Suzume number 2 and Weathering number 3 hahahaha

Your name is really good, but for some reason I enjoyed this a bit more than YN, dont know why

I watched the movie and I didn't feel anything for Souta. I felt like he was pretty useless as a character. Edit: every time he needs help to do anything, he had books full of information and yet his approch to getting turned back into a human is: catch the cat and ask it to turn you back... Suzume does all the heavy lifting in this movie and Souta fells like a wasted character. Why did they try to build him up as this specialist with books and long hair when he couldn't do anything and was so dumb to think he could. If it were anyone else but Suzume left this wreckless idiot Souta to do what he asked her to(let him go get the cat), he would have ended up as firewood in 2 days... Also, pretty funny that Suzume loved that chair so much from her mother but that only came into importance at the end of the movie. It couldn't have ben at the beginning when Souta wanted to run away with it and Suzume could have said: "Hold on, Woody, this is my very important chair to me. If you think I'm gonna let you walk away with it, then your brain was always made out of wood."

Suzume is 17 and the chair guy is a college student, so like 18-22? Is a three year gap an issue nowadays?..

I only have one thing to comment. Souta is HAWT.

Nope. For me YN is still a masterpiece. Suzume was all right to me. With me Suzume saving Souta to possibly throw his sacrifice away and doom millions of people had me flashing back to WWY and that same selfish action. They manage to do both but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. In YN he acts to save Mitsua and the whole town. Much more of a worthy goal. Suzume was a nice love letter to Miyazaki in the Spirited Away storyline. I did like seeing her travel across Japan and thought if there were any romantic undertone between characters it's with his guy friend, but he might have as much as a crush on Souta like Suzume does... I'm sure someone has a yaoi story in the works.

NO! When it comes to Makoto Shinkai's movies, It does NOT get any better than "Your Name" The movie does however make up for the weak plot of "Weathering with you"

I don't see how weathering with you is better than Suzume

Suzuki is better than Your Name in my opinion. That is due to liking the adventure portion of the movie than the romance of your name

Spoilers I thought all the earthquake and Fukushima stuff was a bit insensitive. My birthday is also 3/11 so I recognized just enough to find it odd, but I didn't recognize the imagery at the opening. With the diary reveal it all clicked for me and I gasped. I cant imagine what it was like for Japanese audiences.