The Suzume no Tojimari Rant (It Was Heat)

[@LMMSDeadDuck]

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake really puts the film into context as it was the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan at ~9.1. Not only did it last for a whopping 6 minutes, but it also triggered tsunamis that devastated a lot of the coast. [SPOILER below] What really hit me hard was, in contrast of memories of other locations like schools and amusement parks, the memories at her hometown was of people saying "Good morning" and "Have a nice day" as they left for school/work/etc. These memories are of the last things people said to each other before the disaster that afternoon.

[@nepasawa6306]

Damn that's a pretty interesting correlation for sure :) The film did a great job at bringing the effects of those kinds of events to light and overall, it was beautifully done. I think it's interesting how so many people are attributing the movie to the Tohoku earthquake as I hadn't really heard about it until now. Just another example of how anime can just hit those deep topics and make you feel something out of it :D

[@LMMSDeadDuck]

@@nepasawa6306 Absolutely! And I had forgotten to write in my initial comment that I appreciated your video. Keep it up!

[@nepasawa6306]

@@LMMSDeadDuck Thank you very much! I'll try my best to keep things rolling with all I got :D

[@simonm1233]

Yea this movie felt like a love letter to Japan and its forgotten places

[@nepasawa6306]

It was so damn beautiful ong🙏🙏

[@simonm1233]

@@nepasawa6306 it made we want to visit Japan more than I already do!

[@nepasawa6306]

@@simonm1233 Fr, Makoto Shinkai really knows how to reel people into the Japan hype XD The quality of his works are just amazing!

[@simonm1233]

@@nepasawa6306 for sure! But i feel like this one more than his others works really highlights the magic of Japan. Much like with the Japanese people in general, a lot of the out of the way areas, that are truly stunning, are getting forgoten. I feel like sometimes people forget Japan is more than its big cities. Even as a kid the out of the way areas of Japan have always interested me more.

[@nepasawa6306]

@@simonm1233 They definitely have a different air to them. The more abandoned areas of Japan almost have a more enchanting sort of vibe to them, so I can definitely agree with you there :) Not only are they just so foreign to anything we've experienced, but they also hold a history that was once flourishing with life and is unknown to most people that I'd argue even live within the country, which is always a very interesting thing to think about as you witness whats left behind in those areas :D

[@clashonyt24]

Your interpretation was correct...if you watch his interviews regarding the movie...he clearly mentioned there were two inspirations behind this movie: One is the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011 (same date was mentioned in younger Suzume's dairy) And the second is abandoned places in Japan (due to lack of resources or natural disasters) And Suzume is intended to portray the sense of "hope" after these disasters. Knowing the motive behind the movie really made me love it even more...! ❤ Shinkai did it again 👏

[@nepasawa6306]

Dude has a talent for symbolism, no one can deny him of that :D Knowing the context behind Suzume's diary entry of that day, especially now since I've gone back and viewed some of the videos people took of the tsunami when it hit, just makes the movie all the more sentimental. I can't imagine how powerful the movie must have been to a Japanese audience who shoulder that disaster as a part of a tragic history. Shinkai really doesn't miss with his portrayal for this kind of stuff and that talent no doubt showed in his work🙏🙏

[@lance6164]

The idea of makoto shinkai is about 311 Japan earthquake. As he mentioned in interviews, the earthquake hurts people not only in body and both mental, a lot of people lost their family ( like suzume). there was a scence that suzume open her diary, and it was totaly back out in the date of 3 11. makoto shinkai wants to hide this sad topic under the hood, cause he does not want everyone feel heavy while watching this movie, especailly for some of japanese audience who experienced 311. Additionly, runis are made by earthquake, if you watch cafrefully, you will see a lot cracks on the ground. but yea i like your point about decreasing birth rate in japan. keep it up.

[@nepasawa6306]

Thanks m8, and thank you for the insight as well :D I actually never heard of the 3 11 earthquake, but I could no doubt see him trying to symbolically represent the effects it left behind. A lot of Makoto Shinkai's work have some very beautiful sentimental messages tied to them, making it no surprise that his works do so well when paired with the god like animation. That is very interesting though, to think that he was referencing a real life event outside of the one I had mentioned. Just goes to show that movies can represent so many things at once when you really look :D

[@nalu3430]

@@nepasawa6306 It was one of the strongest earthquakes that has even been registered, 9.1 in Richter scale and it lasted over 6 minutes. But the truly devastating event was the tsunami that came after, which swiped away entire towns and killed thousands, like Suzume's family. If you didn't knew of event before seeing the movie you may have not noticed, but, In the movie, as they approach Suzume's first home they go down this road where you can see the big wall that was built after that event to restrain sea levels. As someone who has lived through big earthquakes before this movie hits hard. I think this movie talks about natural disasters in a beautiful way, not being all over your face, understanding them in a deeper and humane level. Congratulations to master Shinkai!!

[@nepasawa6306]

@@nalu3430 Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about this earthquake and even went to do some digging on the tsunami that came afterward. Unfortunately, the response to this video was actually my first time hearing about this particular disaster, as I was only about 10 years old when the earthquake and tsunami first hit (I wasn't a very in the loop kid lol). After seeing some of the videos people in Japan took of the tsunami though, I can definitely see why it's as well known as it is. I mean the earthquake was kind of a hit or miss depending on the area that you lived in at the time, but the tsunami was just terrifying all around. I honestly couldn't believe how powerful it was as it just kept sweeping away buildings and cars, just honestly everything. That said, now that I know the context, I think Shinkai did an amazing job portraying emotion of the event and as always, had some beautiful animation to accompany his work :)

[@TheGeneralGrievous19]

I live in Poland and I was 12 years old in back then, but I vividly remebered the reperts of the earthquake, tsunami and the desctruction of Fukushima power plant in 2011. We did not have major natural catastrophes in Poland besides floods but the memory of the huge destruction during WW2 still lingers here and depopulation is also a big problem, especially in small towns and villages, so it hit close to home. An interesting thing for me is that in my home city in 1989, 10 years before I was born, there was a derailment of a train transporting chlorine from Soviet Union. Miracously contamination did not happen. Maybe someone closed a door that day.

[@nepasawa6306]

🙀 thats a pretty interesting correlation. Always interesting to look back on those events from an adult understanding. I had no idea Poland faced a few of the same issues as japan in regards to the population. Thats wild

[@olive4naito]

You brought up an interesting point about the abandoned dead zones in Japan. The reason for most of these areas I'm assuming is because the younger generation moving from the country villages to more populated big cities for better job/career prospects. Population decline in those areas and subsequently local businesses having to shut down as more people started moving away resulted in dead zones. Most elderly had to go to old age homes eventually or moved to be closer to be with their grandkids. (There are a small handful of places that started to redevelop when some people started moving back to those areas. One such village built a mountain biking trail b/c the young adults that moved in loved mountain biking .) In the case of Suzume it was the earthquake disaster destroying people's homes. I think the film was meant to console the victims and that's why they didn't go too much into the grief. Apparently Makoto Shinkai had an entirely different plot prepared for the film but plans were changed last minute. I personally felt the magical aspects of the film didn't really mesh well with the more serious themes of the plot but that's not going to be a very popular opinion, lol!

[@nepasawa6306]

Lol for sure and to each their own in that regard :D I personally thought the magical sort of feeling you described paired pretty well with the movie, especially in regards to the doors being a sort of "portal" to a forgotten and lost land that is very clearly illustrated to be these different abandoned structures that have been taken by nature and time. I think it was especially powerful because these places can often feel so distant from reality. Though I've never really seen one in person, I've been able to catch a glimpse of how disconnected these places feel from reality through various youtuber and videos I've seen. Something about that disconnect between a world where people tend to focus on the bustling, more populated regions of an area and "the other side" so to speak, where the memories and remanence of an area now lost to time just feels so magical for me (probably because those two realities are so distant if that makes sense lol). I appreciate the kind comment m8 :D and I'm glad you enjoyed the vid

[@T._.liu.]

Something I think that really stood out even during my first watch was at the abandoned school--the classrooms are the same and there's a few pairs of shoes that have been left behind. It kinda forces you to think about the people who potentially died during that landslide in a very "for sale: baby shoes, never worn" type of way and the image has just stuck with me ever since

[@nepasawa6306]

I can for sure see where you pull that kind of feeling. Its pretty crazy how heavy the atmosphere of the anime can be, especially with knowing the context behind the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. It genuinely was a time of many unfortunate deaths and tragedies and as a result, some people were unfairly robbed of their lives and way of living.

[@GreenTeaViewer]

Yes many areas, in fact probably most areas, of Japan are depressing and melancholy places due to the disappearing population. Everyone crowds in a few cities to avoid this feeling. It's eerie to go to a shopping mall built at the height of the bubble that has not been altered since then. It's definitely due to the falling birth rate. I would do my best to help by siring a multitude of babies to the local women, but I am but one man 😞

[@nepasawa6306]

Oh how our limitations hold us back my friend. For how can only one man find it within himself to quell the woes of the Japanese populace without losing our ability to fight in the process T^T Go forth brother and sire what you can lmao But really, it can be pretty depressing to witness even through little more than the lens of a camera (much more in real life). I don't know if I was able to accurately convey this in my video (As I'm not really good with formulating things right off the top of my head) but these abandoned areas just each individually hold certain memories, feelings and a history that people have come to cherish them for. And with people leaving those places for good, it's just sad to think that the generation that comes after them will never get a chance to share that same feeling of appreciation. It really is a sad issue and is one I thought the movie sort of spoke to :)

[@deathofcows]

Not sure if this was a rant? (Aren't they normally angry - unsure!) But I Did enjoy your freestyled thoughts and specific focus in this video! Thanks

[@nepasawa6306]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I guess I just refer to it as a rant because of the sort of rawness in thought lol When I think of rants, I generally think of someone just like spitting an argument right off the dome which I found out was definitely not an easy thing to do first try XD That and a lot of other creators generally refer to these types of videos as rants so I guess I was also tryna fit this content into a category I was familiar with. Thank you once again for the compliment, I was actually worried this video wouldn't do as well just because I'm so new to the style :D

[@Harsh1650]

It was 311 incident which inspired him, and Japan has this problem of people living in city and leaving unoccupied zone behind, it is one of the reason why house in some area are very cheap.

[@nepasawa6306]

Truee, it really strikes you as a sad phenomenon, especially considering that Japan is pretty prone to some of the worst natural disasters I could personally think of. It's a shame to think that the country has to constantly handle those types of disasters on an almost regular basis and that in that scenario, certain areas are traded in by the locals for better safety or accessibility. It really is a shame when considering just how beautiful some of the abandoned zones can be.

[@TheCanniestbadge]

hmmmmmmmmm

[@thal08emd97]

the way the film touched on the aspect of grief might have hit close to home for anyone who lost loved ones (whether in a natural disaster or not)

[@nepasawa6306]

I could see that honestly. I think all around, the team behind the film did a really good job at making the audience feel something. The VA work was pretty damn good, the quality of the art speaks for itself and the direction was of course just amazing, all culminating into an immersive anime experience :)