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I went to see it! It was so good. From the very first door-closing scene, the sense of adventure was irresistible, and as the theme of confronting the past gradually emerged, my heart was deeply moved. It's wonderful how the promised romance properly connects to the conclusion... So, while sipping on some sake, I'll write down my thoughts on that. The parts from "Earthquake and the Worm" in the table of contents below are my interpretation, but please bear in mind that these are just the creepy ramblings of a total geek. —Addition— I finally watched it a second time on March 12th, so I've added to it.
Table of Contents: The Door-Closing Adventure, Earthquake and the Worm, Memories We No Longer Recall, Suzume, Daijin, and Door-Closing, Affirming the Present and Saving the Past, Points of Interest in the Fine Details (with additions)
Postscript
This was genuinely exciting. Just like with Weathering with You, they're so good at creating stories that tickle your inner teenager. Weathering with You also did this (and I like it for what it is), but recently there seem to be quite a few anti-demon stories that properly involve police organizations, and it was refreshing to see this take a step back from that, and maintain a sense of the extraordinary known only to a select few. I thought the early door-closing scenes had a bit of a Princess Mononoke feel, but as expected, it's still modern fantasy, so the feeling is a bit different. Again, bringing up Weathering with You, I like the elopement aspect, and the world crisis being known only to young boys and girls. Thanks to the power of the visuals (the open-car driving scene felt a bit too CG-heavy, though), it's a work that's entertaining and exciting even if you watch it without thinking too hard.
Before the worm that causes earthquakes appears, an emergency earthquake warning alert always sounds. In the film, this was a signal to evoke the memory of major earthquakes in us viewers who live in Japan, an earthquake-prone country, at the same time as the "worm" appears. I think what makes the worm a symbol of terror is not its ability or its grotesque appearance, but our memories. Sota and Suzume are not saving the world, but fighting the wounds that victims have carried in the past, and the memories of disasters that the majority of people have forgotten. The worm is a negative memory. What seals it is, if I dare say, the positive memories of the people who lived in that land. Ultimately, the structure of this story, in which Japan is saved by positive memories, also saves Suzume personally, who says she is not afraid to die, so it's well done, I think.
Leaving the story for the disaster victims, I wonder if people like me, who are lucky enough not to have been affected by the disaster, were drawn to this. The question for us, who have no memories to avoid, is whether we have stopped remembering the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that occurred in Kobe, and the tragic events of disasters that occurred even further in the past? The places where they fight the worms are forgotten ruins, districts forgotten by disasters. In the beginning, I thought, well, there are a lot of ruins like that, but as I watched, I noticed the common thread of disaster traces, and I was impressed by the sight of happy memories and everyday life collapsing in an instant... But, if it was just a preachy reminder of those bad memories, the back door wouldn't close, so I think there was a device to remind us of something else that had been forgotten. That's nostalgic music. Instead of Suzume, who is too dramatic, Serizawa single-handedly played the role of "turning the audience's eyes to the reality of the past," with this nostalgic music and the used car setting. I wonder why he likes old things so much. And, following the memories of the earthquake and nostalgic music, I think what the Japanese people have forgotten is God, that is, Daijin and Sadaijin. The scene where they saved the two who were trying to stop the worm by becoming keystones at the end also felt like "relying on God in times of trouble." It's understandable that God, who is only remembered in times of trouble by the people of a non-religious country, appears in a work with this theme.
"I couldn't become Suzume's child" is Suzume's answer to Daijin's words "Will you be my child?" at the beginning, but it also applies to Tamaki's words to Suzume, "Let's be my child." Now, from here on, the delusional content becomes even denser. It's about what Daijin was and what the conditions are for becoming a keystone. Daijin is Suzume in a world where Tamaki wasn't there. Of course, not the person herself, but someone who similarly lost her parents in the earthquake and wasn't picked up by anyone, in that sense. And becoming a keystone is for "people who have lost their place to return to." The reason is the contrast of "be my child..." I mentioned earlier, but there are other reasons as well. It may be a bit complicated, but I will list the grounds for this. Sota became a keystone because Sota's only relative is his dying grandfather, and if his grandfather dies, he will be alone and have no place to return to (his parents don't appear, but well, they're dead, right? (Was anything said?)). Daijin wasn't going to become a keystone when he thought he could "become Suzume's child." The vitality that resided in his tattered appearance was because he had gained a place to return to. Also, compared to Sadaijin, Daijin is small and his words and actions are childish, saying "Let's play, let's play." In Japan, the dead become Buddhas, that is, gods (a very misleading way of saying it), but Daijin became a god when he was a young child. That's about as close as Suzume was in the Ever After, I guess. What separated Daijin and Suzume's fate was Tamaki, and the fact that she had a home to return to. In that case, isn't the reason why Sadaijin interfered with Tamaki and made her say terrible things was because he wanted to make Suzume another keystone, to take away her place to return to? (Now that I think about it, Daijin's actions here seem to have been restraining Sadaijin. Daijin likes Suzume.) (Having written this far, what about Daijin, who loses his place to return if he loses Suzume? Well, Sota would have taken Daijin's place at that time, so it's safe.) Having thought this far, I finally understand the meaning of the door-closing, which is the title and the key to the story. Door-closing is something you do to return to that house again. This story is not about people who have lost their place to return to, but about a journey to go out and come back.
Now, finally, it was Suzume herself who saved Suzume in the Ever After. This is finally the story of Suzume's salvation that I touched on at the beginning. This work is not a work for forgetting painful pasts, but rather a work for remembering them. What heals that painful past is not forgetting the past, but affirming this moment, having spent 12 years with her aunt and falling in love with Sota. The reason Suzume said she wasn't afraid to die was because of the despair of suddenly losing her parents in the earthquake. Living or dying is just a matter of luck, it was just a pretense to accept the death of her parents who died unfairly. It warms my heart to think that what changed Suzume so much that she could get rid of that pretense was love, and that even the romance prepared as entertainment has meaning. Of course, Tamaki's love too, but the story ends with Sota, who was once a keystone, being told "Welcome home" was beautiful after all.
There's not much substance, but I'll write it anyway since I took the trouble to do so.
I've forgotten the specifics, but it was written, right? When I found out that the setting was Miyazaki, I panicked and thought, "Huh? Is Morioka in a different place than I remember?" I was watching it thinking that Morioka would be consistent with the warnings about earthquakes and tsunami alerts that had been announced in advance... Well, it was recovered in the end, so that's good.
When going to the back door in Miyazaki, she jumped over it the first time, but avoided it altogether the second time. I remembered it because I was curious when I was watching, but it was simply a foreshadowing that Sota was coming. Nothing special.
It was a little interesting to use that screen that I usually see in my daily life to show the characters' travel routes, which I often see in war chronicles. Besides this, I think they picked up on the everyday things and showed them beautifully.
The inn and the bar were deserted, but originally they prospered as soon as Suzume came. Is it because the god was there? Is it because Daijin came? It may not be Suzume or Daijin, but because of Sota, who was about to become a keystone.
The moon was drawn behind Suzume as she jumped into the Ever After. The moon is sometimes depicted as a symbol of death, so this was a depiction emphasizing that this world is connected to the afterlife. They said that closing the back door is about the feelings of the people who lived there, but if I were to say it without mincing words, it's about the people who died in the disaster, right?
Why? It seems like there's something going on, but I really don't understand this. I painfully realize my lack of knowledge and deductive ability. And, this is just a side note, but is Daijin's name related to big earthquakes? →Addition: Daijin seems to be named after the Minister who plays an important role, and also includes the meaning of Great God. From the official Kinro X.
Suzume, who goes to see Sota who has become a keystone, takes a shower in Sota's room. In terms of the story, it's to wash away the dirty body, but I realized that it was necessary to purify the body in ablutions in order to meet the keystone (god). It is a necessary process because you must not be disrespectful to the gods who are depicted as being forgotten.
The scene where Suzume leaves the house chasing Daijin, and the scene where Sota and Suzume leave Sota's house to stop the worm in Tokyo. There was no depiction of locking the door in either scene. In other scenes, the depiction of locking the door was always inserted in one cut, so I think it was intentional. Sota became a keystone right after this, so the meaning of losing the "house to return to" seems strong.
In the flow of "Give me back my life," her mouth is once zoomed in on, and there, nasolabial folds that are not drawn in other scenes are visible, making it a scene that emphasizes that she looks young, but is already in her late thirties. I realized once again that it was a thrilling production.
There were a lot of scenes where butterflies were flying. To be honest, I didn't even pay attention to it... Butterflies seem to be symbols of the souls of the dead and ancestors, and in the last scene, two butterflies were flying near the two Suzumes. Is this her parents? I cried even more when I thought about this. It seems that the official X also mentioned that they are the souls of the dead, so this is definitely the case.
No matter how good a movie you watch, the wounds of the disaster victims will not heal. Only the person who has lived from the earthquake until now can heal them. That's why it was not her parents, Tamaki, or Sota who rescued Suzume from the Ever After, but Suzume herself. The words she said when she rescued her were words that only Suzume could say. Some people may think that it is wrong to make entertainment out of the earthquake and make money from it, but I feel that the director is not an arrogant hypocrite who says, "I will save you with this movie," but has been working on the production with a sincere attitude, thinking, "All I can do is not forget the earthquake and affirm the life after the disaster." Well, there's no point in me, who hasn't experienced the earthquake, giving shallow impressions, so I'll end this article with the postscript more or less. It's been a while since I've wanted to write a long review of an anime. I've written this in a hurry, so please forgive me if there are any flaws, and I'll see you in the next article. See you again.