‘Suzume’: When Somebody Loved Me, Everything Was Beautiful (2/3)

The previous article focuses on the reason why Suzume develops a deep relationship with Sōta in just 5 days and points out the following 5 important facts:

1 Suzume has never met her father since she was a child.

2 What’s worse, Suzume lost her mother in 2011 After the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

3 Suzume has a strong desire for home and belonging.

4 Suzume often feels that for some reason, she once saw this charming young man, Sōta Munataka, who passed her by.

5 The truth is that Suzume did meet Sōta as a child.

Based on the above points and the plot of the original novel, let's complete the storyline of Suzume—

2 The complete storyline of Suzume

Suzume lived with her mother in Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan.

On little Suzume’s birthday, her mother made a small yellow chair as birthday present for little Suzume， which she cherishes very much. At the time, this yellow chair had four legs.

When little Suzume was four years old, a major earthquake occurred in Japan, that is, the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

The above film still is a depiction of a real scene. It’s obvious that the reality is much crueller. Makoto Shinkai beautified the real scene in his work, as he didn’t want the audience to be reminded of the disaster when watching the film. Instead, he aimed to provide solace and comfort through his art.

The earthquake was so severe that it shook almost half of Eastern Japan.

Little Suzume was in daycare and her mother worked in a hospital when the earthquake struck. Little Suzume was taken by teachers to a nearby elementary school, where she stayed for about ten days. Other children were picked up by their parents, but little Suzume's mother never showed up. The yellow chair was also lost in the tsunami. Days past until Suzume's aunt-Tamaki Iwato came from Kyushu to adopt her.

Little Suzume ran away from home alone and wanted to find her mother in ruins, where she accidentally opened a door and saw a vast land with a starry sky inside. Little Suzume walked in, without knowing the place she stepped into was where the dead goes to —the afterlife.

In the afterlife, little Suzume mistook the woman she saw for her mother, who turns out to be Suzume from the present time. Little Suzume also met Sōta there.

Suzume from the present time gave little Suzume the yellow chair with only three legs. She told little Suzume:

“Don't be afraid of your future

In the future, you will have someone you like, you will also meet someone who likes you. You may feel that it is dark now, but the dawn will eventually come.

You will grow up in the sun because that's what it is meant to be.”

A picture with director Makoto Shinkai’s autograph

Little Suzume returned to the normal world from the afterlife, holding the three-leg-yellow chair. But after she came back, as time passed, her memory gradually went off. The only thing she remembered is seeing a woman who looked like her mother in a white coat.

Sometime later, little Suzume left his hometown with Aunt Tamaki, they went to Kyushu and settled down there.

As she grew up, the gradually blurred memory made Suzume think that the experience of entering the abandoned door was just a dream, and the woman in the dream was her mother.

12 years after the accidental visit to the afterlife, Suzume has grown up to be a teenager.

As a sophomore in high school, Suzume goes to school by bicycle as usual, but on the way, she encounters a young man, Sōta Munakata. Suzume suddenly has mixed feelings at first sight, including a crush on him.

Some blurred memory hidden deep in her mind starts to surface when she learns Sōta is looking for ruins. Following Sōta to the ruin, a door attracted her attention and it occurred to her that she seemed to have walked through a similar strange door when she was little.

Stepping close to the door, Suzume pulls out a stone unintentionally and something supernatural happened— the stone transferred into a white cat, Daijin. Later we know the stone is called a keystone, which is used to seal the giant worm, and the door is called an abandoned door.

The abandoned door in the ruin

Then comes the crisis: a giant worm emerges from the abandoned door. Sōta rushed over to try to close the door but failed as he got injured. Feeling that Sōta is doing something important, although she didn't know what exactly it is for, she helps Sōta close the abandoned door.

Later, we can learn that Sōta has a special identity and mission. He travels around the country to close abandoned doors that may release giant worm.

Suzume brings Sōta home to bind up his wounds when Daijin, the white cat appears. Suzume feeds Daijin some fish and wants to keep it as a pet. Perceiving Suzume’s treatment as love, Daijin instantly becomes lively and cute. All of a sudden, Daijin makes a cast on Sōta, merging his soul onto the three-leg-yellow chair...

~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~🚪~

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

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

-TBC-