About

Makoto Shinkai’s anime feature Suzume 2022 emphasises the ever-present risk that environmental disasters pose to communities across Japan by anthropomorphising the threat itself, by portraying it as a giant interdimensional ‘worm’ that can only be kept at bay by sealing door-shaped portals.

Set in an alternate vision of the Japanese island Kyushu, a young girl named Suzume meets an enigmatic stranger who inadvertently leads her to a mysterious floating door, setting her on an urgent quest to prevent a series of impending disasters. Referring to actual past events, specifically the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, this futuristic ‘Pandora’s Box’ tale serves as a powerful metaphor for the unrelenting presence of natural disasters across the Japanese archipelago.

PG | Mild fantasy themes and coarse language