So, have you all heard about this guy named Makoto Shinkai? Yeah, me either. But apparently, he’s directed a couple of movies over the last few years and has another one coming out next year.
Ok, I promise that I’m done kidding around because this here is serious business.
On Wednesday, December 15th, Shinkai revealed via press release and conference the details of his latest venture, which will hit Japanese theaters in fall 2022, Suzume no Tojimari. For those of you who are already wondering, an official English title was not revealed at the press conference but NHK says that the title comes from a mix of the lead character, a seventeen-year-old girl named Suzume, and “tojimari” which literally means “closing doors”.
In the movie, which Shinkai describes as a “modern adventure story”, the story follows the previously mentioned Suzume as she goes on a quest after discovering a mysterious door with the aid of a young man. After she opens this initial door, more doors appear all over Japan, which leads to the country experiencing disasters and bad luck. Suzume must find these mysterious doors and close them all.
In an additional report posted to Yahoo! News – Japan, they stated that Shinkai has been hard at work on this movie for the last couple of years, with initial planning and development happening from January to March 2020. They followed this with script development, which happened between April and August 2020, and then storyboarding, which took another fifteen months (September 2020 to December 2021). The actual production of the movie didn’t start until April 2021.
While they have revealed no cast members or promotional videos at the time that this article is being written, we know the primary crew members. Those who have followed Shinkai’s career over the last decade should see some familiar names. As per usual, Shinkai is being credited as the writer, producer, and director of this new movie being produced by CoMix Wave Films. He’ll be working with Masayoshi Tanaka (Your Name, Weather With You) as character designer, Kenichi Tsuchiya (Your Name) as animation director, Takumi Tanji (Your Name, Garden of Words) as art director.
Also not known at the time of writing is when the film will see an international release, but given the success of his last couple of movies, it seems inevitable that an overseas release date will be revealed sooner rather than later.
Much like Hosoda, my experience with Shinkai movies is quite lacking. While I saw some of his earlier works, such as 5cm Per Second, I haven’t followed his more recent works. The plot of this movie sounds like it could be an exciting change of pace, but I’m also more than happy to wait for an official trailer before committing myself to that opinion.
Source: Crunchyroll News
