The following contains spoilers for Suzume, now showing in select theaters across North America.
In Makoto Shinkai's emotional new film Suzume, the titular young girl goes on a trek across Japan to close mysterious doors. These are gateways a monstrous entity called the "worm" is trying to escape from, so she joins her crush, Souta, in trying to stop a potential disaster for the country. Given she accidentally opened the first gateway and lost a keystone, Suzume does feel responsible.
Interestingly, when the first keystone, a white cat, turns Souta into a chair, Suzume's quest becomes more complicated. While her love for Souta grows as she realizes how selfless he is, their romance feels quite run-of-the-mill. Instead, Suzume should have stuck to the initial vision where it was supposed to be a love story with two female leads, which would have fit the narrative's essence better.
Suzume Forged a Warm Bond With Chika
As Suzume and chair-Souta track the cat, she meets Chika and stays with her fellow teen for a bit, working at Chika's family restaurant. They often seem like kindred spirits, with Chika disliking how boys mistreated her. It feels like a more family-friendly Blue Is the Warmest Color, with the girls really connecting.
This stint reminds Suzume of what she lost, as her mom died during a snowstorm. She's also not had the best relationship with her aunt and caretaker, Tamaki, so she's re-learning about love while Souta is (no pun intended) background furniture. Sadly, Suzume and Souta depart quickly, but as the film proceeds, the two of them lack that special spark. It all feels forced and predictable, when signs are there that the hug Chika offered meant so much more to Suzume.
Pairing them up would have worked because Suzume's always been an outsider, evidenced by how she got lost through a door when she was a kid. This concept of 'the other' -- and Suzume having magical visions of the world behind the veil -- would have synced up perfectly with her not conforming and exploring her own identity. Having Chika temper her, healing her pain, with Suzume showing Chika the world's an ethereal place would have stitched together a truly unique romance. Given their chemistry, it feels like a missed opportunity, one they could have easily had with Souta as their guide to undoing Suzume's mess.
Suzume Missed the Chance to Be Groundbreaking
Coincidentally, Shinkai admitted to Looper that he intended Suzume to be a lesbian romance, but studio execs nixed the idea. "In terms of the LGBTQ commentary, it's not something that I'm actively trying to write or not write or [is] a conscious decision. But with this film, Suzume as the main character, it works. But I think it would also work had she been a boy or had she been non-binary."
Shinkai also stated it'd be risky in the Asian market. Suzume has thus far grossed over $300 million worldwide and become the fourth highest-grossing anime film ever, so there's evidence to state the right business decision was made. Still, this goes against progressive storytelling, diversity and equality -- which may be why Shinkai reached a cheeky compromise and made Souta a chair. It also undercuts Suzume's defiant, rebellious nature, where she went against the grain and abandoned Tamaki for this mission and proved she's different from everyone else.
Suzume Ends Up Playing It Safe & Straight
Notably, Shinkai's past anime work, Your Name, became one of the bestselling anime films of all time, nearly topping Hayao Miyazaki's famed classic, Spirited Away. Another Shinkai boy-meets-girl romance, Weathering With You, made nearly $200 million. Interestingly, Suzume was the biggest international release of 2023 so far in China, doubling the intake of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
So, it must be noted that the decision from a business standpoint seems to factor in a Chinese market where LGBT depictions in TV and film require either censoring of the content or the movie not being released at all. Given anime movies suffer a bit in the West, the Asian market just can't be alienated. That said, Japan has displayed an increasingly open approach to queer films, such as Kakera: A Piece of Our Life and the schoolgirl romance in Kalanchoe no Hana.
Admittedly, they're more indie films than mainstream movies, targeting film festivals and the awards circuit over the global box office. Still, Suzume is a missed opportunity to test the waters, repeating what the likes of Boruto is doing by teasing and then pulling back on a queer romance with Boruto and the non-binary Mitsuki. In Suzume's case, the foundation was right there and organic to the plot, with more-than-subtle hints a special queer relationship was capable of forming.