I Was A Mess Watching Suzume

[@keravnos2231]

Comfort watch - death, trauma, and natural disasters. Will occasionally have pretty doorways

[@Alcatrazrezz]

As soon as she said comfort watch, I laughed... it is such an amazing movie

[@FanTalks1]

Suzume is my favorite out of all his filmography. Something about how the disasters of the past still having an effect in our world and the way grief was written hit diff for me. Especially that time loop twist

[@jeantrafecanty3225]

Suzume was my first movie by this director and it felt like it healed some part of my inner child. I loved every second of it and cried so much, it’s amazing!

[@DXDragon38]

The opening title drop for Suzume has got to be one of the single best title drops in anime! That song was playing on repeat in my house for months 😅

[@Geiafio]

Literally!! I was on the edge of my seat in the cinema! 🤯

[@DXDragon38]

@@Geiafio Same! I had chills in the theater when the title dropped!

[@notrixamoris3318]

KUDOS FOR THE RADWIMPS!!! This the best ost to date...

[@EternaMe516]

really ? 💁‍♂"YOUR NAME" ??

[@notrixamoris3318]

@EternaMe516 yup I like suzume more it was close but yeah

[@juliankurniawan7555]

The last song was so good.

[@MachetteEX]

Still patiently waiting for reviews of Tatsuki Fujimoto's one-shot ^_^ Look Back anime movie was just recently added to Amazon Prime!

[@divyanshrajouria4759]

I would really suggest checking out 5 centimetres per second by Makoto Shinkai. It's not as refined as the films that you have watched by him but I think that is what makes it so impactful for me. It's a torrent of raw emotions and visuals that takes you on a ride throughout its duration. I think it captures everything that Shinkai's art stands for.

[@theonlyslagathor]

Ahhh I really did love the way the abandoned areas actually had the weight of every emotion he wanted you to feel (the nostalgia, the sadness, the joys that people had when they were there, the every day feelings). It's one of the more emotional ones for me in that sense and I really loved that he outright based it on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and it definitely grounded it for me. I really wish the CGI on the worm was better. It's my major complaint for the movie besides the fact that he got forced to add in a romance and didn't get to do his sisterhood type story he wanted to do. Suzume as a character is my favorite so far I think. I loved her from the moment she ran to help Souta close the door in the abandoned bath house because she wanted to help people like her mom. I'm tearing up again so I guess that's the signal to start humming along to the Suzume song. thanks a lot merphy.

[@jfree672]

Merphy you are a pro by now. you know better than looking at a pretty anime movie and thinking it wont destrroy you emotionally lol

[@Colegial24]

Garden of Words and Five Centimeters per Second are also both Makoto Shinkai's and also both visually stunning. Five Centimeters is probably a bit better, but I enjoyed Garden of Words a bit more. I like Shinkai's journey as a filmmaker, I'd say they are both definitely worth a shot.

[@justinzohner6964]

The themes were there in plain sight, without being in my face. Loved the artistic representation of grief, the weight of expectations, and the how Suzume, in the end helped herself more than anything else.

[@flakjackson3609]

Fun fact: Shinkai-san wanted to have the love interest be a girl because he felt he'd exhausted the potential of the "boy meets girl" formula. His producer shot this down so he made Souta a chair to keep it from becoming "too much of a romance".

[@treebush]

No it was not a girls love, Shinkai wanted a sister relationship story road trip like road of the traveling pants movie genre

[@naomi7918]

He didn't want to make a romance at all. He wanted To make a sister/friendship story, that's why Suzume meets several female characters during the movie.

[@nichescenes]

@@naomi7918 People like to push head canon, just let them be. When one piece ends the amount of people who will refigure luffy's dream will be daunting. It will be how he wanted to join hands with the world like hands to hands and how he's trying to recreate his dream of the perfect feast with his dead ones or something.

[@maurakm13]

These three films (Your Name, Weathering With You, and Suzume) deliver a deeply moving perspective on living with environmental catastrophe. I view them collectively as a meditation on belonging to a land that is vulnerable to destructive potential beyond our ability to control or circumvent. Delving sensitively into living through trauma and its aftermath, Suzume makes reference to both the 1923 Kanto earthquake and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the latter of which was also a source of inspiration for Your Name's comet, while Weathering With You speculates on the radical adaptation necessary to exist in a place transformed by climate change. The films are so good at depicting the preciousness of what is lost when disaster strikes, on a human level -- the unspeakable sorrow of left-behind loved ones, vanished homes, dashed dreams -- and the beauty of enduring through it. Each of the films, but perhaps Suzume most explicitly, understands these challenges as both legacy issues -- faced again and again across generations -- and urgent, coming perils. What strikes me strongly is that all three, as they interrogate how a people can brace this kind of loss, turn to fantasy. Can the land be appeased? If not through religious ritual or cultural observances, what about through sunshine girls or keystone cats? Fantasy allows us to consider that an individual can deliver a solution to these catastrophes. Strive, self-sacrifice, pray enough, love hard enough, and you can unwrite time and save the people of Itomori, or stop the rain, or suppress the next earthquake. In one sense, the fantasy rings true because the ability to cope with loss and change will always depend on individual perseverance, hope, and healing. But the fantasy is distancing even as it is empowering; it embeds our desire of all that we would like to be and do in a place that we cannot reach. The films feel this distance, and for me, it makes their outcomes, even where hopeful, indelibly and impeccably sad. I feel I've only scraped the surface of why these movies resonate so deeply with me thematically, and there is much to love in each of them beyond these elements, but the ways the films conceive of the intersection between human resilience and environmental tragedy are what make them especially important works, in my view. As I grapple with my own climate anxieties, Shinkai's films and their appreciation for the scope and nuance of ecological narrative deliver much-needed catharsis. Your Name remains my favorite of the three, but Suzume was an excellent capstone to coalesce and build upon the work of the previous two. Its depictions of sacrifice and ruined places touched me unexpectedly profoundly through their rawness and immediacy, as did its dignifying imagination of letting those lives and homes lost contribute toward securing a safer future. It would be a nicer world if Daijin really could have become Suzume's cat. “I know that life is fleeting. We live side-by-side with death. Even then… once more.. even for just one moment more, we wish to live!”

[@slashermaster28]

I remember watching this in the theater, I was taken aback when the theme song to Kiki's Delivery Service started playing.

[@MrKangorilla]

Movie went mostly over my head when i initially watched it, and because i couldn't file it under a specific feel, tone, or message folder in my head after watching, a lot of the specifics of the film floated away in the time since, except that it was animated beautifully. Watching how much you took away from in with an hour of seeing it kind of challenges the way I engage with movies, and compels me to let the movie take me on the journey instead of trying to comprehensively understand every morsel given to me in real time. I think i couldn't see the wood for the trees on this one so I came away liking weathering with you more

[@yesyeah1877]

Love that shirt

[@nochannel5210]

Her calcium canons look glorious don’t they

[@yesyeah1877]

@@nochannel5210 Can't stop staring!

[@colibri224]

I remember watching this movie, I remember liking this movie, I remember some scenes from the movie, but I cannot remember the full story. The story is not complicated to follow but A LOT happens in it. I need to re-watch it.

[@ratiuvictor9533]

Please watch Grave of the Fireflies and In this corner of the world.

[@EternaMe516]

❌ NO THANKS

[@geogeo3733]

are you trying to traumatize her? 🤣

[@desiash9994]

In this corner of the world. Would be a little better for mental health.

[@serinries5471]

Saw it in theaters and it was beautiful. Still think "Your Name" edges past it as my favorite but still loved it.

[@AKEOYN]

I wanna see Merphy's review on Sonny Boy. I was convinced to watch it because I listened to the soundtrack of that anime

[@christianmatthew]

The soundtrack is amazing. The song that caught my ear was "Time for Two" because it reminded me of "Date" from Your Name.

[@Nasser851000]

0:04 Merphy always knows how to cheer herself up 😅

[@crylorenzo]

You've convinced me to see it as soon as possible. I loved Your Name but was nervous when I heard that Weathering With You wasn't as good. Also, Radwimps is an incredible music group - I've followed them since the summer of 2007. Beautiful music.

[@anuragsrivastav5470]

Any updates on goodbye eri and look back review

[@Yoruislife]

I’m assuming she was waiting for it to go on streaming, Look Back just got put on Amazon yesterday

[@nichescenes]

@@Yoruislife I hope she tries chainsawman too. People overlook how much is hidden behind the action. Same with alot of shonen. Part 2 makes it more apparent and alot of people bounced off. I think ever popular shonen has stuff to notice and people kinda just overlook it if their are fights :( Even john wick has a story but you'd have to pry teeth to tell someone that.

[@toponeroc]

She has great set of glasses 😂

[@BrandyTheGuy]

2 great big pairs... of hands

[@LuffyKaizoku-O]

Watch "The garden of words" please , its from the same director and is only 45 mins long , i bet you will love it for sure, please please watch it

[@WhoIsGoLDENRaTi0]

Brilliant review. I watched in when it released and was impacted fairly deeply but it's been years since release and I've forgotten most of the story. Your script brought me right back to the emotions I felt after watching it. I'm long overdue for a rewatch

[@Tirlex]

Should also watch look back! That's gonna traumatize you

[@TreezWonderland]

yeah i also once wanted to travel to a comfy place with a lot of sunshine and a nice mountainview and ended up in tchernobyl

[@Dublin.655]

I wanted to watch this movie due to the soundtrack, but seeing this review also go up pushed me over the edge to finally sit down and watch it. Just finished it about half an hour before posting this comment. Wow what a movie! Absolutely fantastic. I did catch on pretty early that the cat was being helpful, but I wasn't sure what the resolution there would be until the end. I also resonated with what you said about the emotional moments in this movie. I found myself on a few occasions getting hit in the feels pretty hard in the small moments...like "this scene shouldn't be emotional right? It's just them traveling, but why is it getting me so hard right now?" Something about this movie is so well written that it sneaks up on you at unexpected times.

[@invisibleBDK]

Yeah this is the third in Shinkai's disaster trilogy (a trilogy so far anyways: comet, flood, earthquake), and I felt the same as you about the ranking, though Your Name doesn't quite hit as hard in subsequent viewings now that I know the twist. His previous films are a bit different, but I did really like 5 Centimeters per Second. It's a slow burn but beautiful in its melancholy reflections. The rest of his films got sort of mixed reviews.

[@TexasBlade]

Oh! I need to go back to that Your Name video. Love that movie so much!

[@minibluemonkey]

Are you still planning on covering look back and goodbye eri, or did you not enjoy them enough for a vid

[@rafathshadab3569]

Check out Violet Evergarden; you will love it and definitely cry. I am not sure if it has a manga or not, but it is based on a light novel.

[@colibri224]

I think you should watch Pompoko. I know you got fascinated by Yokai during the Wano and Egghead arc and I believe you'll love a certain scene from this movie.

[@rekl8438]

Next watch Look Back, its by the mangaka of chainsaw man and is kinda about his life, and it hits you right in the feels

[@김재-d1t]

she is reading it, was open to watch it in cinemas but non close by air it

[@AM17titan]

@@김재-d1tI think she dropped it or didn’t had interest She told before she will make a video last month on 28th if it was good interest otherwise it would have been different video

[@neppc5612]

Did the cat really inhabit the aunt or did it just amplify their emotions 👀

[@thomasfalcon5234]

yay! this was such a fun movie, and I was lucky to see it in theaters twice with friends. honestly, i think i appreciated this movie more the second time seeing it. even beyond the story and messaging of the film, it really is such a treat to the eyes and ears with how it builds up to these really cinematic and impactful moments on the screen. glad to see you talk about it!

[@JoeK93]

Outstanding movie in every sense. Visuals, story and especially the soundtrack!

[@einhasad7]

This is the first time that you have watched something that I haven't seen before. I gotta watch this now, if it is worth a Merphy video then I should watch it!

[@jamesarmstrong2669]

Ah tricked into heart break by a soundtrack too huh. Despite the heart ache I understand what you mean, this film is so breathtakingly moving

[@김재-d1t]

say what you will about weathering with you but I love the part where they're running away during the rain it's one of my favorite moments of the entire "trilogy"

[@414pseudo8]

I saw a goofy reel about this movie, so I expected something equally as goofy going into the movie. I was incredibly wrong, and you could not get me to look away from the screen with this movie. I really enjoyed it. I saved some other movies to the watch list but haven't gotten around to them. Sounds like there's a movie I need to watch.

[@iceslayer1567]

I’ve actually been meaning to watch this movie ever since I saw a teaser or the actual trailer but I’ve put it off for so long til I saw you made a video to it 😭

[@BooksRebound]

I love this movie so much and its wild how good that song is. Also I was in that 3/11 earthquake. I got to japan the day before. It was WILD. The ground shook constantly for weeks with all the aftershocks

[@neondemon5137]

I love this guys movies, they always hit so hard.

[@ghuff4694]

Was lucky enough to watch in an empty theater and by the time the first door open and the music kicks up i was already getting chills

[@kadachi16]

All of the locations where they stop Earthquakes were places where some previous extraordinarily larger earthquakes happened in history. While the 3.11 earthquake was felt in Tokyo with some damage and casualties. The most damage came further north in Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefecture added on by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear reactor failing. I really teared up with the closing of the doors and the last unknowing goodbyes of all of the people who were implied perished at those locations to their loved ones. People say I’ll be back, goodbye, or I’m off all the time, but for the spirits there, it was their last time saying it, most likely unknowing that it would be the final goodbye. Really made it quite the sad thought along with all of the forgotten places. People have healed over time from each major earthquake that leaves behind loved ones, moving on from each and moving forward is a great message. I did not need the love relationship, but it was okay. The main point of the movie could do without it and still be really great.

[@pukkandan]

While Shinkai got famous with "Your Name", a lot of his previous works are also really good. You should check them out if possible.

[@charismacaster2429]

My mom passed away when I was 12 years old, and watching this movie shortly after the anniversary of her death made it hit me like a train. I remember the earthquake in Japan and how devastating it was, but only from the perspective of an American who was a child at the time, barely older than Suzume herself. There's something so profoundly beautiful about a film that is a love letter not just to the people lost, but to the places they left behind. This film is about forgotten liminal spaces at its very core, and I have never seen another film quite like it. For me, that profound intersection of loss and longing is indeed comforting, and more than that, cathartic. It feels familiar, even if painful. Like a gentle whisper or caress that reassures you things will be alright, even in the face of tragedy.

[@christina_1313]

Watched this recently and I cried so hard! 😢

[@latima123ify]

My favorite shinkai flim , like this one hit me hard. Just to add my favorite part of the film is the part where they show a whole bunch of people saying bye as they leave their homes. It just hit me , because there was so many different people with their own stories and their own loved ones. Like this is life , this is what Suzume and Souta are fighting for.

[@pukkandan]

Yeah, that scene was heartbreaking. But the moment that hit me the most is the date reveal for some reason.

[@Shaomander]

You gotta watch his other movies. His first movie, Voices of a Distant Star, was made entirely by himself. Thats how he got his name out there, and the rest was history. 5 Centimeters Per Second is my favorite movie of his for me.

[@katiehyde5292]

I would 100% recommend the violet evergarden series for visuals and overall storytelling.

[@Riokaii]

I'm not sure if its 5 centimeters or Garden of Words that you have left to watch but Garden of Words is one of my favorites as a comfort movie even though it also deals with some... somewhat strange subject matter.

[@allblue1695]

Easily my favorite original anime movie director. Garden of Words was how I got introduced to him and his visual style. I highly suggest it if you’ve enjoyed these films.

[@Olphas]

I saw it in the theater and it hit me so hard. And because I like suffering I went to see it again a few days later.

[@Punkandcannonballer]

Shinkai movies always hit pretty hard and are the most beautiful anime you'll ever see. My intro to his work was a double feature of Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters per Second, which both had me feeling a profoundly familiar sense of melancholy. Ever since I was hooked. 😅 The only film of his I didn't quite like was Weathering With You, though I do appreciate how off the rails it got.

[@jaimecardona92]

I loved this movie, it was such a good theater experience.

[@ratiuvictor9533]

Will you be at the Reverie hosted by Volume One?

[@christopherschmidt8343]

If you are into watching anime now I really recommend Millenium Actress. It is my favorite movie of all-time. Satoshi Kon was a master and the world is worse without him. The movie always makes me cry.

[@LightStrife94]

Yesss! Clicked on this one so fast !

[@alexandravladmets]

Ok, adding to my Netfixlist🙂

[@josesanchez-rr6rn]

Loved this movie man. It was a trip

[@gameralaae4839]

Those movies are pieces of art

[@jacobhernandez4089]

I know you get a thousand requests but PLEASE watch code Geass. It’s only 50 episodes peak anime

[@shannonhoenig873]

I feel like you would like your lie in April too a short series

[@nightlydata2181]

I'm not a huge Makoto Shinkai fan but this movie was good & my 2nd fav of his works. I think the thing that really gets me is the way it speaks to the issues Japan have faced over the years & how to move forward like wit the events that happened in 2011. It wasn't JUS an earthquake. It was also a big tsunami that was caused by said earthquake, which also caused a big nuclear incident that also caused tons of issues & many more deaths beyond it. It's even got a couple of names for it based on the fact that those 3 big things happened in such succession of each other & their government was harshly criticized for how poorly the ppl thought the whole thing was handled especially iirc they were warned a possible nuclear problem could occur. There's a lot more that this movie speaks to & diff ways it does so like wit the cats Daijin & Sadaijin. Overall I though it did all this pretty well & that was surprisin to me cus again I'm not a big makoto shinkai person even tho I've watched almost all his stuff. This is the 2nd work of his to connect pretty strongly to me

[@Artist_ash-is5os]

I used to work in a movie theater when this came out, idk if you have a P.O. box but if so i can send you the poster whe had hanging in the theater if you're interested

[@riduanaqil1452]

I keep forgetting that i want to watch this thing. Thank you for reminding me 😂

[@yepyupsup2286]

Ma'am please read Kingdom and World Trigger. Thank you! Also Suzume was amazing. Great movie.

[@katrinslavin]

MERPHY. Please watch Wolf Children.

[@ZethisVA]

9:11 When you just sing "Ru Ru Rururu" and people start crying, you know the soundtrack is amazing.

[@ayushvishwakarma5795]

0:12 Something about death and truma. Grave of fireflies - I have entry pass. Let me enter.

[@TexasBlade]

Ok. Back from the Your Name video. Agree 100% that this is almost as good as YN and that Weathering With You was good, but not as much and these. I really want to do a rewatch of all three some time soon but I haven’t been able to get any friends interested yet and it seems like almost a waste to watch them solo….

[@brendaparkinson2730]

If you've never see it I highly recommend Summer Wars

[@jimiafolabi6998]

I just watched 5 centimeters by second 2 days ago. It’s by the same director and I highly recommend it

[@eddiekim6910]

Merphy, I'd like to see what you think of show "Violet Evergrarden"

[@tabo51]

I don't want to sound nit-picky but the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated Japan on 3/11 took place in the Tohoku (Northeastern) region of Japan. It was so big that it did damage in and around Tokyo as well, but most of the casualties were from the Tohoku region which is also where Suzume was living at the time. I understand that Tohoku and Tokyo look similar and it doesn't help that Suzume moved from Miyagi prefecture (in the northeast) to Miyazaki prefecture (in the southwest) but I just wanted chime in and clarify things.

[@melon3109]

I watched this movie on a flight where we hit rough turbulence during the final action scene. Unexpected immersive viewing.

[@jandib4541]

Can't recommend Maquia enough. I was a bawling mess at the end

[@Phlookem]

Another movie I have to add to watch list

[@SakthidharPV-o9g]

"Your Name" is your favourite Mokoto Shinkai movie? Or favourite anime movie of all the ones you have seen so far?

[@justinzohner6964]

I lost it when she sat in the chair. My gosh, the spiciest G-rated scene ever!

[@Nielz99]

This was the first Shinkai's movie i didn't like

[@jesse8924]

My ranking of Shinkai's movies: 1. 5 Centimeters Per Second 2. Your Name 3. Suzume

[@HidayatMariadi]

suzume no tojimori?? i'm here as fast as I saw that notification pop up!

[@Wierdo_g]

Yep very interesting BTW do you have a boyfriend??

[@housekinokuni903]

I hope Merphy binges all Ghibli movies at some point

[@Neofilmcritic]

Will you be covering the be Vinland saga chapters? Its ending in a couple

[@notrixamoris3318]

Oh my the chair...

[@kamole1000]

Hey Merphy! Have you watched the adaptation of A Silent Voice by director Naoko Yamada?

[@Lynn-CA]

Yes she has, and read the manga

[@Pasuhdina]

Watch look back.

[@FelixVorspier]

easily my last place shinkai movie. at times it's edited like a music video or a commercial for a better film. the constant recycling of the same tropes and plot beats feels really monotonous. definitely a skip unless you're a filmography completionist.

[@FelixVorspier]

forgot about Weathering with You. that one is also not great

[@Lynn-CA]

*snorts* Your opening 😂

[@Montie-Adkins]

@GrandSol , you, like me, see how Merph reacts to animated features like this and know how she feels about Annihilation and "bio-stuff". and we tell her about Scavenger's Reign, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!

[@JaketheMovieGeek]

Watch “Orange”

[@treebush]

Please I hope some showed her the Suzume aot meme

[@dimidrum7683]

Tbh I really love Shinkai but in comparison with his latest works Suzume is not so good… story have some interesting concepts but the implementation suffers. And what is more importantly, is publicly known that originally this should be a completely different movie. It shouldn’t be another romance but story about friendship and sisterhood, but producers thought that it would not be received well by the audience and that is better stick to the formula of romance for which Shinkai is so famous. As a result, in the final product romance has no sense, a “love interest” is deliberately removed from the picture and transformed into a stool. And the entire plot can be summarised as “the race for saving the world”, noted, “the race” not even a “journey”. So I personally preferred waaaaay more “your name”, “garden of words”, “weathering with you” & “5cm per second”.

[@FushigiNoRoxas]

Soo-zoo-meeh is the pronunciation. Literally my only issue in this video, such good insights otherwise.