Since then, she’s been looked after by her aunt Tamaki.

The film explores Suzume struggling with her emotional demons after surviving an earthquake as a child that took the life of her mother. And, as an animator and director, I thought: ‘How do we put this and organize our thoughts in the context and backdrop of entertainment?'” “Suzume” Courtesy of CrunchyrollĪlthough Shinkai flirted with processing the disaster in the body-switching romance “Your Name” and the climate change romance “Weathering With You,” he wasn’t ready to tackle it head-on until “Suzume,” which is more concerned with traumatic coming-of-age than romance. And that really got me thinking: Why did it not happen to me? What made us so different? filled with this sort of anxiety or helplessness.

Even after 12 years, I think none of their lives have returned back to what they would consider normal. And the same, of course, can’t be said for everyone in the Tōhoku region. “And towards the end of March, when the cherry blossoms began to bloom, somewhat of a normal life returned to Tokyo residents. How Apple TV+’s Animated ‘Frog and Toad’ Series Retains and Expands the Original Books’ Charms I remember just going home, holding my wife, my daughter, and just wondering: What’s gonna happen next that evening? I was fortunately close enough to be able to walk home. “Even in Tokyo, the ground shook quite a bit, so everyone was evacuated to a nearby gymnasium at an elementary school. “With that earthquake, that peaceful daily life ended suddenly, and it made me realize that we live side by side with something very phenomenal,” Shinkai told IndieWire through an interpreter. It’s about the titular teenager attempting to close supernatural doors throughout Japan to stop a chain of earthquakes from spreading. That’s because “ Suzume” was more directly inspired by the massive earthquake that hit the Tōhoku region of Japan in 2011, causing a nuclear meltdown. Although anime master Makoto Shinkai has been consumed by cataclysmic disasters in his last three Japanese blockbusters - “Your Name,” “Weathering With You,” and “Suzume” (opening April 14 domestically through Crunchyroll) - the latest marks his most personal and ambitious film to date.

She and her cat makoto shinkai