Suzume (Nanoka Hara) is a normal 16-year-old girl who follows a cute stranger (Hokuto Matsumura) into the abandoned ruins outside of town. Like you do. There, she finds a door that seems to lead to another world and a kitten named Daijin (Ann Yamane). The door unfortunately releases an ancient monster that causes earthquakes and the cute boy, Souta, is part of a secret organization that finds and locks these doors all over Japan. Daijin, who is actually a god, turns Souta into a chair and merrily skips away, leading Suzume all over Japan to try and reverse this curse.
This was a very cute travelogue anime. It was very reminiscent of Spirited Away in its mix of contemporary and mythological. I think it telegraphs its intentions a little too hard but that's not a crime. The animation is beautiful, very crisp, especially the depictions of the food. I know that's a big thing for anime fans.
This is from the same director who did Your Name and the style is very similar. I thought it was over at the halfway point so the second half felt kind of slow, like "why is this still going?" but it built to a more cathartic ending. It's extremely wholesome. The director apparently wanted to keep the story completely platonic but was forced to add a romance sub-plot by the studio. So it's there but it's kept to a bare minimum.
If you liked Your Name or Spirited Away, this would be a good follow-up. It's currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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