‘Suzume’: When Somebody Loved Me, Everything Was Beautiful (1/3)

There are critiques that Suzume Iwato, the heroine of Suzume (2022), is a lovestruck teenager: She has such a strong crush on the hero Souta Munataka at first sight that in only 5 days, Suzume has become willing to sacrifice her life for Souta.

What else could it be if not out of being a hopeless romantic?

It's quite understandable Suzume has received such comments. However, if the commenters would like to take a humble step further to see what Suzume (2022) really is expressing, it will probably not leave them with the impression of a lovestruck teenager popcorn animation.

As a great animation film director, Makoto Shinkai tends to express himself with magnificent visuals and Japanese animation production methods. However, beneath the splendid visual appearance hides the cruel core. His works reflect the relationship between natural disasters and the affected people and serve as a kind of spiritual comfort to those impacted. Moreover, they are full of intricate clues of Japanese cultural history, as shown in Shinkai’s disaster trilogy (not 'love' trilogy, just so you know), Your Name. (2016), Weathering with You (2019), and Suzume.

Therefore, to fully unveil what's beneath the romantic relationship in Suzume (2022), it requires some efforts to research related cultural background, as will be reflected in the analysis below of the relationship between the two leads.

Before going any further, I would like to draw a conclusion in the first place: The relationship between Suzume and Souta is solidly based on intricate plots. It is full of dramatic conflicts of fate, symbolizing oriental "causal reincarnation" and fatalism.

Now, I will specifically analyze the film from three aspects:

1 Is Suzume a lovestruck teenager?

2 The complete storyline of Suzume.

3 The clue of Suzume’s father.

1 Is Suzume a lovestruck teenager?

The heroine, Suzume

Many audiences may have overlooked Suzume's soliloquy in the ruins of the hot spring town in Kyushu, where she murmured, she seemed to have seen Souta somewhere. This expression is too similar to those frequently appearing in a typical idol drama to attract the audience's attention. In the later plots, there is no recurrence of the words.

But is there a possibility that they really have met each other before?

⚠️🔽Severe Spoiler Alert🔽⚠️

We know that the woman little Suzume saw in afterlife was not her mother, but her future self. She was wearing a white wind coat, which belongs to Souta. In other words, when little Suzume saw the Suzume from what for us is the present time, Souta was there too.

When little Suzume walked out of the abandoned door and looked back, she actually saw two silhouettes, one was Suzume and the other was Souta.

Below is an official poster. It draws the three of them together, walking towards the abandoned door hand in hand. Did Souta say anything to little Suzume? We have no clue, but we can be sure she did meet Souta in afterlife, which turns out to be a memorable moment in Suzume’s life.

Suzume poster for the exhibition

Although with the passage of time, the memory has been fading, the childhood scenes still linger in Suzume's mind in the form of dreams. Although she has forgotten Souta, the impression of this person and this event remains preserved in her memories.

In addition, there is no mention of Suzume's father in the film, but in the novel of the same name, it is said that Suzume has never met her father. Her father's role has always been absent in her life, leaving little Suzume growing up without a complete home. What’s worse, she lost her mother after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Now let's take a look back at the official poster. Doesn’t it remind you of a whole family? Even if the roles do not really fit in with the identities of father, mother, and daughter, it is more than enough to satisfy little Suzume's fantasy of home.

So, with so many clues given above, how do you think Souta would be perceived in little Suzume's heart?

Suzume (present), little Suzume, and Souta

If it were you, how would you react if the person you often dreamed of suddenly appeared in front of you in reality? Especially if that dream was based on what really had happened.

That explains why I don't think Suzume is hopeless romantic, nor her feelings for Souta are simply love. There is excitement for meeting the person in dreams, family affection for Souta projected as a father, and gratitude to Souta for giving her the power of rebirth.