Parents' Guide to

Suzume

By Jeremy Looney, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Heartfelt anime film explores love, loss, and adventure.

Movie PG 2023 122 minutes
Suzume movie poster: Suzume, Souta, and Daijin stand together in a doorway that Suzume has opened revealing the ever after, a beautiful and serene field with a starry sky.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

teamwork, friendship, and <a href=https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/"/articles/how-can-i-use-media-to-teach-my-kid-perseverance">perseverance.

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  • Suzume movie: Suzume sits with a friend in the grass eating oranges and talking, behind them is a yellow moped, two bins full of oranges, and a chair.
  • Suzume movie: Daijin the cat sits on the top of a ship at sea, he is looking down on something while the sun shines brightly behind him making his white fur glow.
  • Suzume movie: Souta sweats and looks concerned as he attempts to close a door with swirling black and red tentacles that are spilling out of a portal into the real world.

Community Reviews

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age 9+

Based on 5 parent reviews

Rupert B.
Rupert B. Parent of 9 and 14-year-old
September 1, 2023
age 6+
All good for younguns
Shamma A.
Shamma A. Parent of 9, 10 and 11-year-old
May 1, 2023
age 9+

A great movie!!!!!

what I loved about this movie is that there is not much violence, and it introduces kids and teens to beautiful Japan, it teaches about earthquakes and natural disasters, which my young kid loved a lot. what you should know, is that there is a little bit of drinking that's shown less, and light romance. it also teaches kids how to problem solve, and the stages of thinking critically.
See all 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

SUZUME, from acclaimed writer-director (Makoto Shinkai, Your Name), centers on Suzume Iwato (voiced by Nanoka Hara in the Japanese original and Nichole Sakura in the English dub), a teenage girl who crosses paths with a mysterious young man named Souta (Hokuto Matsumura/JoshKeaton). Through their chance encounter, Suzume learns that she can see supernatural doors to a realm called the "ever after." These doors are opening up all across Japan, causing natural disasters. Determined to help save the country, Suzume teams up with Souta to journey across Japan and close the supernatural doors before it's too late.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (8 ):

This beautiful anime movie explores themes of love, loss, and adventure and asks what happens to the places we used to love that have been abandoned. Suzume is gorgeously animated and delivers a mature and relatable story about dealing with grief and love. Throughout the film, Suzume is forced to revisit the trauma of her mother's passing in a tsunami when she was a child.The film also explores the loss of locations -- places such as an old amusement park that were once full of life but have been abandoned and left to rot. Every time Suzume closes a door in one of these forgotten locations it feels like she's giving it a proper sendoff as one of the only people that can tap into and feel the lingering memories and emotions from a bygone era.

The art and animation in Suzume are stunning, the attention to detail in the environments and the lifelike animation of characters that perfectly captures their emotion is a joy to behold. The music is fantastic, and the voice actors deliver excellent performances that capture the emotions of heartfelt scenes such as an argument between Suzume and her aunt that exposes the strain and struggles of each character's loss following the death of a parent and the frustrations with their situation as a nontraditional family. Overall, Suzume is a winning anime film that is impressive in just about every way, and one that's wonderful for all ages.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about healthy ways of coping with grief and loss, which are major themes in Suzume. Have you ever had to deal with that?

  • One character abandons their responsibilities by leaving an important post, which causes grave consequences. Why is it important to be responsible?

  • How does this movie compare to mainstream Hollywood animated fare? Which do you prefer, and why?

Movie Details

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