As sometimes happens on Discord, instead of Twitter, these days, I was talking with some friends about Makoto Shinkai, director of smash-hit Your Name.<\/em>, regular-hit Tenki no Ko<\/em>, and not-really-a-hit Suzume<\/em>. It reminded me that I\u2019ve never really set down my thoughts on the three films, nor on Shinkai\u2019s evolution since he made a it big.<\/p>\n And, hey! Suzume<\/em> released this year (2023) in the states so this is still timely! Right?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My personal history with Shinkai is perhaps atypical. The first thing of his I watched was Voices of a Distant Star<\/em>. In a way, I see Voices<\/em> as emblematic of my Shinkai. Here is a guy who began working in the video game industry, who ended up writing, directing, animating, and editing his own little OVA. It\u2019s tangible evidence of his earnest desire to create and tell a story he wants to tell, and even in Suzume<\/em>, his most recent film, this utter lack of pretense remains. It gives the impression of a guy who\u2019s just trying his best.<\/p>\n I like this about Shinkai\u2019s works. I like it a lot. I find the seeming pureness of intent endearing, which might be naive of my part considering I don\u2019t the man and, for all I know, he could be cynically making whatever he things is going to sell. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case. And it\u2019s perhaps why I\u2019m eager to look for deeper meaning in his work.<\/p>\n After Voices<\/em>, I saw\u2026 nothing of Shinkai\u2019s until Your Name.<\/em>, Tenki no Ko<\/em>, and Suzume<\/em> in theaters as they released. This is where the rest of the article begins.<\/p>\n I actually wrote about Your Name<\/em>.<\/a> for Crunchyroll back when the movie was released in the US in 2017. It\u2019s interesting reading that article now, six years and two more Shinkai films on, and remembering what a genuine phenomenon the movie was. It got mainstream coverage, well extending its reach beyond the typical anime crowd. Even NPR covered it! My writing at the time, maybe caught up in the popular excitement about it, focused relatively little on the actual themes and content of the film, describing instead its effects and qualities.<\/p>\n What\u2019s interesting about that, though, is that I came back to try and write about Your Name.<\/em> later in the same year in a still-unfinished blog post drawing parallels between Shinkai\u2019s bombshell and the much, much less mainstream anime Land of the Lustrous<\/em>. Those parallels? The ennui and search for meaning that rest at the heart of each story. Sure, Your Name.<\/em> is superficially all about what\u2019s ungenerously been framed as \u201ctfw no gf\u201d (that is, if you ignore the more-than-half of the film that\u2019s about Mitsuha). But if you can get past that memetic way of talking about Shinkai, I think it\u2019s quite obvious that Taki and Mitsuha\u2019s respective searches for the unidentified \u201csomething, someone\u201d are not entirely about finding romantic love.<\/p>\n Do you remember the opening lines of Your Name<\/em>?<\/p>\n \u201cThe dream I must have had, I can never recall. But the sensation that I\u2019ve lost something lingers for a long time after I wake up. I\u2019m always searching for something, for someone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Like, sure, I guess you could take the final word and make the argument that this is just a more poetic \u201ctfw no gf.\u201d But the palpable sense of longing, of something missing, of just\u2026 what the hell is life?<\/em> I don\u2019t think it really lends itself to such a cheeky, simplistic summary, because who hasn\u2019t woken up in the morning (or laid in bed at night) just wondering what the point is of this existence thing?<\/p>\n This is further reinforced by the pairing of the body swap romance with a comet strike evocative of the Great Tohoku Earthquake. There are few things in life that are so profoundly diminishing to the human soul than nature reminding us that we live at its mercy. There are no explanations for natural disasters. How do you make sense of the motions of an existence so big it contains all humanity? All that remains is the deep pit of realization that each of us is a mere tiny existence with only the merest shade of control over our own destiny. This, by the way, is why the first ending of the film (not the stairs) is so satisfying despite the lack of romantic resolution. The escape of the Itomori citizens from their random, inexplicable fate is perhaps what we all crave\u2014control of the uncontrollable in our inconsequential lives.<\/p>\n I have no evidence to prove it, but I think this aspect of Your Name. <\/em>is one of the reasons why it made such a global impact, instead of the 3.11 parallel only connecting with the Japanese audience. The whole film is archetypal much in the way Nisekoi<\/em> is, a near-perfect execution of its type and genre; but unlike Nisekoi<\/em>, its archetypes aren\u2019t drawn from the hyperspecifics of anime subculture. It\u2019s almost like a fable, Shinkai\u2019s greatest hit\u2014a modern fable that ties star-crossed romance to rural-urban contrasts to our human fear of the fickle Earth. In this one, we as Taki and Mitsuha escape our fate, conquering the dread of an uncontrollable existence. \u201ctfw gf :)\u201d at the end is only the icing.<\/p>\n I accept that Your Name<\/em>. could be classified as \u201ctfw no gf\u201d content, even if I think it\u2019s boring, lazy way of viewing the film. But saying this about Tenki no Ko<\/em> is my personal litmus test of whether someone\u2019s opinions about Shinkai are worth listening to or not. Because, yes, Tenki no Ko<\/em> is a boy-meets-girl story. But the longing at the core of Tenki no Ko<\/em> is completely different than the longing in Your Name<\/em>.<\/p>\n Your Name.<\/em> is pure existentialism. Tenki no Ko<\/em> is about just trying to survive.<\/p>\n When I wrote about Tenki no Ko<\/em><\/a> in 2020, just before COVID hit, I summarized the differences between its predecessor and it as being \u201cbroad\u201d and \u201cnarrow,\u201d respectively. I still believe this binary as being accurate, but perhaps an even better one is to say that the first is \u201cuniversal\u201d where the second is \u201cpersonal.\u201d There is a visceral, almost gritty aspect to Tenki no Ko<\/em> that is nowhere to be found in Your Name<\/em>. Further, the way the main couple are portrayed is jarringly different. Where Taki and Mitsuha are active, intelligent, self-aware teens, Hodaka and Hina are cast as much more innocent, much more vulnerable, and much more desperate.<\/p>\n Who cares whether you have a girlfriend or not when you\u2019re just trying to get through the day? Hodaka and Hina aren\u2019t drawn together by a red string of fate. They grow close because they are trying to get through life with only each other to rely on (or some approximation of that).<\/p>\n Tenki no Ko<\/em> is a very messy film. Its use of a climate change analogue so unsubtle that it\u2019s essentially just climate change with a little more magic, its uneven plot, and the gun make it far feel far less realized than Your Name.<\/em> But even if Your Name.<\/em> is technically the better movie, I think Tenki no Ko<\/em> has way more heart. It\u2019s personal and emotionally charged, and those emotions are grounded deeply in its characters\u2019 situations. In Maslow\u2019s terms, Tenki no Ko<\/em> is at the bottom two sections of the triangle. This is why when Hina is asked to be noble and sacrifice herself, it feels so horrifically unfair. Why should she, someone who is barely getting by, be asked to give up everything?<\/p>\n Just like at the end of Your Name.<\/em>, Tenki no Ko<\/em> offers the possibility of a great escape. (Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> Somehow, I completely forgot one of the big songs from this movie was literally called \u201cGrand Escape<\/a>.\u201d This was not planned when I wrote the article or title.) Except this time, it\u2019s not our archetypal proxies escaping from the universe\u2019s void. It\u2019s a fifteen-year-old girl being given the chance to reject an unjust world that demands she be lost so it can continue on. The inescapable unfairness of life and society has been, for once and for a time, escaped. The personal triumphs. The sunshine girl lives.<\/p>\n Even if Tenki no Ko<\/em> is kind of a mess, I think the first two installations of Shinkai\u2019s disaster films trilogy have pretty clear ideas of what they\u2019re about. Suzume<\/em> is\u2026 different. This is doubtless because Shinkai originally didn\u2019t want it to be what it ended up being (a boy meets girl story), but actually wanted it to be a romance between two girls before being persuaded to change his mind by a producer. From Looper<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cAt first, I wanted to turn this story into a movie about Suzume and another girl journeying. Why I even wanted to go in that direction in the first place is because I personally felt a little bit tired of telling the very traditional romance story,\u201d Makoto Shinkai said. \u201cI felt that in \u2018Your Name,\u2019 I [did] everything that I possibly could in terms of \u2018boy meets girl\u2019 and \u2018will they, won\u2019t they, will they meet.\u2019 That element of romance is very relatable to the masses, which is why it was a subject matter that resonated with a large audience.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n First off, I want to note that Shinkai specifically cites Your Name. <\/em>as a \u201cboy meets girl\u201d film\u2014suggesting he views Tenki no Ko<\/em> the same way I do, a completely different kind of film. Secondly, knowing this I can\u2019t help but feel kind of sad thinking about my experience watching Suzume<\/em>. As funny as some of the chair stuff is (and make no doubt that this is the funniest of the trio of films), it feels like what it is: an excuse for Shinkai to not have to do the thing he said he didn\u2019t want to do again, even though he\u2019s been told to do it again. I wish I could have seen the Suzume<\/em> he really wanted to make.<\/p>\n That said, I do still think there is a heart to Suzume<\/em>. It\u2019s not really there throughout most of the film\u2019s scattered road trip narrative, but it does<\/em> come through cleanly at the very end in Souta\u2019s earnest prayer to the gods and Suzume\u2019s words of comfort to her younger (cross-dimensional?) self.<\/p>\n In his prayer, Souta does two things. First, he echoes the refrain he and Suzume have been using throughout the film, \u201creturning\u201d the land itself to the gods. Second, he makes a plea that, despite the fleeting nature of life and the nearness of death to humanity, \u201cwe wish to live!\u201d Perhaps it\u2019s my Catholic background talking, but I found his desperate prayer compelling. The giving up of control and the begging for survival feel like a profound acknowledgement of his own\u2014and, by extension, humanity\u2019s\u2014inability to preserve itself. Faced with inescapable destruction (a worm this time instead of a comet), what can we do but beg? \u201cGive to Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s;\u201d only the gods can control the land. The disaster is averted by the prayer.<\/p>\n Then, we come to Suzume\u2019s conversation with her younger self. At the end of a meandering movie, I didn\u2019t expect to find myself tearing up, but the tears came. Why? Because in elder-Suzume\u2019s words I felt I heard Shinkai himself trying to speak to all those who have stood in the place of young-Suzume (and perhaps even to himself). Despite the cliche-laden script, the intent comes through. \u201cAh,\u201d I thought. \u201cHe wants to offer comfort to all those who have seen the endless night and wait for the morning to come. He wants to give them hope.\u201d It\u2019s not graceful and it\u2019s not well-crafted into the film as a whole, but it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n What\u2019s really fascinating, though, about these two endings to Suzume<\/em> is that they seem to come from an entirely different place that the endings to the two prior films. Where Taki and Mitsuha use space-time magic to help Itomori\u2019s people escape the comet strike on their own, control in Suzume<\/em> is ceded to the gods by Souta\u2019s prayers. Where Hina and Hodaka have a choice reject the world\u2019s unfairness so they can live, Souta can only beg and enact a ritual that still doesn\u2019t end his duty to seal. The damage has already been done; Suzume\u2019s mother has already been dead for years. There is no great escape this time.<\/p>\n Shinkai can write up as much magical realism as he wants, but he can\u2019t make reality go away. In real life, the fantasy of escape\u2014from our uncontrollable lives, from the unfairness of the world, from the longing in our hearts\u2014is just that: Fantasy. And so I wonder if that is why Shinkai, having witnessed yet another great disaster visited upon humanity as he worked on this film, ends up at the simple act of offering comfort. For him, perhaps, the final escape is not an escape from the things the haunt our existence, but the escape that comes from accepting them and looking to the future.<\/p>\n![\"Suzume\"](\"https:\/\/mageinabarrel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/suzume-7.png\")
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