**Suzume Spoiler Warning!!!**
-don’t read if you haven’t watched it!
I love going into Makoto Shinkai movies kind of blind. Like I know the general concept, but I don't want to know more than that, I just want to watch it unfold. For example Suzume, I knew there were doors appearing all over Japan and something probably was coming out of them that shouldn't then hot mysterious guy related to doors steps in, stuff happens, probably.
What I didn't know was that hot mysterious guy was going to TURN INTO A WALKING, TALKING CHAIR that she was going to carry around with her all over Japan to close said doors.
Then this nonsense turns into something literally magical. That something seemingly so weird and random, turns into a beautiful allegory of not abandoning yourself and your inner child.
Hot guy chair ends in self reflection and inner child acceptance.
What creative demon did he make a deal with?!
That's the beauty of these movies.
Here's my take (if you care to read)
Suzume was called to these incidents by being able to see things others couldn't and wanted to help. She thought it was initially because of Souta (hot chair guy), but it was really because she needed to find herself and actually process the loss of her mother. Daijin (talking cat) was so affected by her words and thoughts because he was a part of her, acting as her ego, and guiding her. Which would make sense why he switched places with Souta, not wanting him to be a distraction for her, so he turned him into a chair so she could really focus on what she needed to do. I think it's always why he was turned into something so precious to her. Just the existence of the chair made it so she couldn't forget what happened and had to confront it with every new person she met along the way.
It felt more like Daijin had a larger part to play when everytime Souta pinned him down he would say "you know why I can't" when he would ask for him to be the pillar again and turn him back. Suzume hadn't realized what she needed to do, she needed motivation. When she got mad at Daijin and visibly looked ill after that and was less talkative it's because she wasn't listening to her inner world, she was physically pushing him away and not asking questions as to why. She thought she knew what she needed to do but she wasn't being open to the world around her, she wasn't being curious. The same way she shut out her Aunt, thinking she knew what was best instead of talking to her and letting her in.
She wanted to save Souta but it wasn't just about him, she needed to save her inner child as well. When she went back to her house and saw the blacked out pages and the realized she had no memory of the time after her mom died (psst repressed trauma).
Having both cats being a yin and yang to one another, one being the small supportive and mischievous white one to the other bigger black cat that brought out shadow emotions, the ones we would rather hide but are often taking up a much larger space inside us than we realize. They both worked together to get her where she needed to be.
What I thought was even more beautiful is when she found the door she entered as a child when she first went to the ever after, she hopped through the door telling her aunt "I’m going to save the person I love" she was talking about both herself and Souta. She couldn't save him without saving herself, she had to go back and confront what happened after her mom passed, once Daijin saw her resolve to fix things he she was in the right place and was then ok becoming a pillar again to make things stable enough for her to complete what she came there for.
I also really appreciated that Souta went and did the things in his life that he needed to and it wasn't an instant love story, in fact their story is what we think it is and thats the start of something beautiful.
That's what I mean about going in blind, had no idea that a hot guy turned into a chair with talking cats was going to end in me crying over an inner child metaphor.
Also big shout out to Serizawa for being the best bro and literal most unbothered dude ever. Tapping his car door back on after driving 2 distressed strangers to hopefully go help his friend out. That's a real hero.
