Suzume

Embark on an animated adventure with us, Dakota and Anthony, as we navigate the spellbinding narratives of Makoto Shinkai's "Suzume" and dive into its detailed animation artistry. We contrast this film against his prior hits "Your Name" and "Weathering With You," revealing how the supernatural elements intertwine with Japan's seismic history to create a story that resonates with both heart and heritage. Our anime aficionado hearts also beat faster for the latest buzz-worthy titles like "Solo Leveling," and we toss around theories on the upcoming "Kaiju No. 8" adaptation, while revisiting timeless classics such as "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Plus, we slide into a chat about the new "Marvel Rivals" game, speculating on its potential to capture our imaginations just as "Overwatch" once did.

In our gaming time capsule, we're whisked back to the enchanting realms of World of Warcraft and its expansions that have shaped our virtual lives. We share our personal tales from Azeroth and beyond, from the epic adventures in The Burning Crusade to the game-changing moments of Cataclysm. As Anthony gears up for an exciting plunge into the Star Ocean series remasters*, our gaming enthusiasm doesn't end there—we're back at it with Destiny 2 and even delve into the surprise delight that X-Men '97 brings to the table, potentially upstaging its iconic predecessor.

Lastly, the podcast wanders through the shadows of a world where being a 'closer' means confronting your family's legacy. Scenes in "Suzume" like the haunting abandoned amusement park come alive as we dissect the emotional threads that connect characters and underscore powerful messages about love and the triumph over darkness. This isn't just a recommendation—it's an invitation: join us in celebrating "Suzume," engage with us on social media, and become part of the conversation that makes geek culture so incredibly vibrant.


Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA
The Complete MONSTERVERSE Timeline and History - GODZILLA x KONG Recap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BamyXL7Z_n0

Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

Music:
Eric Godlow Beats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpkcYps82PdSo0tK5rEIPA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

From the twisted mind of Makoto Shinkai, director of popular anime your name, weathering With you, and now Worms From the Ground. Actually, no, this is Suzume and it is an awesome anime that is directed by Makoto Shinkai, and we're going to be discussing all about it. We kind of skipped right over Weathering With you, anthony. Why did we do that?

Speaker 2: 0:21

I don't know. I mean, we can always circle back around and cover it's, it's not like these.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Yeah, it's not like you have to watch these in any particular order, although there is some connective tissue between weathering with you and your name. But this one is kind of standalone at least maybe not in themes per se, but the the actual world that it inhabits and the story that it tells is is definitely a standalone story from your name and weathering with you and any of his other canon. But yeah, so welcome back to project geekology. This is episode 75. My name is dakota and, as always, I'm joined with anthony anthony. He was the guy who made us watch suzume, so apologies or you're welcome hey, if you're a makoto shenkai fan, you're gonna like no it's.

Speaker 1: 1:05

It's such a good movie. It's such a good movie. I'm excited to talk about it. I, dude, I was watching it. It was the second time I've watched it now, because I watched it once in theaters last year when it came out and I had seen that in english and I decided to watch it in english again, just to you know, so that I can kind of watch it in the background a little bit, because I had other things I was doing at the time. But I was just sucked in. It is like such a solid movie and I found some really cool things, just like in the background of this movie, that tell a different story, like it tells a bigger story, and I'm really excited to talk about it.

Speaker 2: 1:39

We'll definitely like circle back on that.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Yes, but anyway, without getting too far ahead of myself, anthony, what have you been up to this week and why hasn't it been x-men 97 why hasn't it been x-men 97?

Speaker 2: 1:54

well, you know, watching suzu mei in preparation for this episode and, honestly, catching up on a lot of other anime, like some solo leveling there's another one called Free Run that I started I think I said that right but I try to catch up on some of the anime that have been coming out. Like I don't always watch it like as it's coming out, like the episodes it's. I might do that for some anime and then, like, I'll kind of stop for a little while and then catch up once, like all the episodes are out. But did you see I had sent you that trailer for kaiju number eight?

Speaker 1: 2:31

I knew that that was in your wheelhouse yeah, well, especially nowadays, but I've actually seen that manga before. Uh, so I was. I was always drawn to the ip, even though I haven't actually read or watched any of that and I don't think that it's been an anime before this. Right, this is the first time it's being adapted to anime right right yeah, I watched the trailer for kaiju.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Number eight looks really good. I think we're gonna have to cover that at some point down the line. I'd love to, but we should cover more anime in general. Yeah, I agree the discussion of suzume even though it's a film, it's in that vein and I'm excited to jump into more of that, so that's a nice stepping stone for that.

Speaker 2: 3:08

I did. What other anime have you been watching? I have been. Well, I told you that I had been also kind of like rewatching some of the older anime. The one that I'm on right now is Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I'm talking about like the older version, not the like netflix changed one, but the remaster, yeah, oh, did you see that other? So I also, as on the day of recording, I sent you another trailer which was for that. Did you see that trailer that I sent you the release? It's called Marvel Rivals.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Yes, and the trailer came out today actually. Yes, yeah. Marvel Rivals. It's a. I was actually going to ask you about that. I wasn't sure if, like you, had seen it or not. Have you seen?

Speaker 2: 3:52

the trailer I did, I did.

Speaker 1: 3:54

How similar to this is it to Overwatch?

Speaker 2: 4:06

So it seems like it's definitely taken some roots from overwatch I noticed that they have destructible environments in this game.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Yeah, okay, yes, that's true, but that's a little different. That's what a lot of people are calling it. They're calling it a marvel version of overwatch, but the thing is is that we honestly don't know much about the game. The game could be. Maybe it might take some influences from overwatch. It could also take influences from games like smite or even like the fallen battleborn. You know there's a lot of influence out there that it could take from, but overwatch is the game that's coming to mind for a lot of people, so it'll be interesting.

Speaker 1: 4:42

It looks like it does it does it looks very similar.

Speaker 2: 4:45

The thing is is that, I don't know, it's probably not going to be first person. It seems like it's going to be third person, so yeah, that'll, that's true that'll be an interesting dynamic.

Speaker 1: 4:55

I just watching the trailer a couple times, I noticed that iron man had a very like pharah feel in terms of you know, staying up high, blasting people from the sky. You had doctor strange creating portals, kind of similar to like symmetra almost. You had the tracer character. You had the tanks with hulk and everything.

Speaker 2: 5:14

So I could definitely see the comparisons and the ice character that was the first thing that came to mind, which I forgot her name. There's the like in the in the marvel. Yeah, there's the the ice. It's's not Iceman, it's like this K-pop. I forgot her name but yeah, she's like a K-pop artist and she has, like these ice powers. Looking at the list Luna Snow.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Yes, luna Snow, I'm surprised. Yeah, they have big name characters and they have smaller name characters, which I'm happy about.

Speaker 2: 5:43

They also have Penny Parker, yes, yes, characters and they have smaller name characters, which I'm happy about. Yeah, I also have penny parker, yes, yes. Which is they're trying to cut really?

Speaker 1: 5:47

random, which is exciting to me because it kind of goes to like marvel has such a huge lineup of characters that they can choose from dude, there's so many characters.

Speaker 2: 5:55

There's a lot of characters out there that you know people didn't even know exist, you know. I mean, there's characters I know a buddy of mine.

Speaker 1: 6:03

A buddy of mine was one of the first people to break the news that marvel was releasing a game called marvel rivals over at the streamer shout out to mo, and he was saying that there's a whole bunch of characters that were in previous builds of the game that weren't even announced yet, like moon knight. So we're definitely getting more characters down the line, in a similar vein to how overwatch releases new characters. Actually, overwatch announced a new character today. Yes, I don't know if you know that yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 6:29

So venture was announced a little bit back during blizzcon. There's venture, and then we have another one that's coming out called space ranger, or at least that's the placement name for that character. But venture is like we've known. They've shown a lot of adventure already. We haven't seen anything about space ranger yet, but, yes, we got a look at the kit for venture. This character is going to be interesting because there's a lot of fighting in the sky, but this character brings it underground. You know, and yeah, so I'm. It's a different dynamic, right, right. So I'm wondering how much that's gonna shift some of the meta and how this person is going to fit into the mold of overwatch. I think that there is going to be a trial for that character tomorrow, so I'm gonna go and check out that character.

Speaker 1: 7:23

It almost seems like it'll be kind of like a Sombra type, sneak attack type person. You know, like you could probably tell when the Venture character is like creeping up on you because you can see the ground moving underneath you, but for the most part it'll probably be in your peripherals, you know. So that's how I assume the gameplay for other people is going to be. We got to talk a little bit about Overwatch because, because they had some big news this week, they just dropped the pv altogether yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:50

Well, the thing is is that it's almost like it's not really news, like we, we all kind of guess it. Well, I mean a long, a long time ago. They had announced a while back that they're not gonna that the campaign. It was done, you know, like they weren't gonna do the campaign. Honestly, to tell you the truth, the sorriest excuse for me that they had said for it was that, oh, you know, it was too ambitious, that they wanted it to lead up to an mmo. I'm like, okay, that's not what we're asking for. We just want to be able to expand on the lore. And you know that it's just I don't know like. I just felt like, and you know it's just, I don't know Like.

Speaker 2: 8:25

I just felt like it was almost like a cop out just to throw something out there, and we should have known, honestly, to tell you the truth, I feel like the writing was on the wall when they released the PvP, like right off the rip. First they were like oh yeah, you know, we're just going to release the PvP now and then sometime next year which was supposed to be last year they were going to release the campaign stuff and Don't release things that aren't finished.

Speaker 2: 8:51

Guys, right, it was really their way of saying like hey, you know, we're just going to give you something for now, until we can figure out how to break the news that we're not going to do this, you know yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Anyway, I was disappointed, but I wasn't surprised. Like you said, it was nothing surprising. Blizzard seems to have turned a blind eye to Overwatch, it seems, in recent years. It just doesn't feel like it's been getting the funding that it should, because for a while it was a powerhouse for Blizzard, which is sad because it's like you know it really should be receiving it because it's a live service game.

Speaker 2: 9:23

You know there's only really like, what do they have outside of that? I mean they have wow, but you know, for a lot of people they feel like they're trying to like really milk wow, and I feel like when they come out with new expansions there's like more negative reception than anything and so, like now they're trying to rehash it with all of this classic. You know, wow, classic stuff. And I'm just like dude, at what point do you stop releasing on the classic? Because then it's not going to be classic anymore, you know it's going to be like, oh, modern era. And that's where, like, I'm a little bit on on the fence about cataclysm classic, because that's where I feel like the game really shook up and yeah, that's where it changed.

Speaker 1: 10:02

That's where it changed.

Speaker 2: 10:03

That's where it changed and that's where I feel like the modern version of the game is like, from that point and on.

Speaker 1: 10:09

So when they introduced the Burning Crusade expansion, and then the next one went into Northrend, it really felt like the world kept expanding, but with Cataclysm it felt like it was contracting. You know, like they changed the locations that you already knew and the entire story shifted to something kind of different. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the same, and I think the real power of the first three iterations of wow, you know, you have your basic classic wow, you have your burning crusade, you have frozen throne was that the third one?

Speaker 2: 10:44

wrath of the lich king wrath of lich king.

Speaker 1: 10:46

I'm thinking of frozen three or uh, yeah, yeah, warcraft three. Yeah, it's called the frozen throne. Yeah, you're right, I mean, you're close, I mean close enough.

Speaker 2: 10:53

It has to deal with the lich king.

Speaker 1: 10:54

So yeah, when it when it comes to those three, it felt like that that is classic, wow, you know. And then you get into the later stuff with Pandaria and all that.

Speaker 2: 11:05

But anyway, I don't want to get too deep into that.

Speaker 1: 11:07

But yeah, anything else you've been up to gaming-wise, or news that you want to cover or whatnot.

Speaker 2: 11:13

Honestly? No, not really. I mean, I had told you that I was playing games like Helldivers. I've started messing around with Destiny 2 again. I don't think I'm going to take a deep dive like I did. I'm going to play it a little bit more on the passive side. But there is a game series that I kind of want to go back and play. I knew it existed, but I kind of glossed over it.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Persona yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Like I'm talking about the first two Persona games. No, the Star Ocean series.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, okay, cool. Have you gone into that or that's something that you plan to do?

Speaker 2: 11:51

well, I got the first two that I've got the I think it's called first departure. Yeah, first departure r, which is like a remake of the first one, and then there's second story, which is a remake of the second game. So I got those two. I'm gonna obviously play through the first one and the second one. I don't think that you have to. You could safely hop into the second game because they just released the second game remake and so, like, I think it's safe that you can hop into that one without playing the first. But I don't know, I kind of want to play the first one. Nice, nice, cool.

Speaker 2: 12:27

So yeah, not too much, man. You know I'm in the process of building myself a new rig. You know I'm just waiting for my case to come in the cases on back order. But once that comes in in a couple of months, then I'll be able to really press forward on that. And I'm pretty excited and pretty stoked and the time being I'm trying to upgrade some of my peripherals. I told you I've upgraded one of my monitors, so I'm pretty stoked about that. But yeah, no other than that, nothing too crazy. How about yourself, man? What have you been up to?

Speaker 1: 13:03

You just dropped your massive Kong or Godzilla X Kong or Godzilla Kong video. Yeah, I mean, the X is really confusing to most people, but I'm really excited. I finally got my big MonsterVerse timeline out after three grueling months of work. I mean, I really enjoy making stuff like that, so it's hard work. I don't want to say that, but it's not a pain to work on it. It does get to be a pain when the time period that I want to release it in keeps that. It does get to be a pain when the time period that I want to release it in keeps that window keeps closing and I keep pushing it back and back because I'm not necessarily finished with what I need to do. Like, originally I wanted to have this out in January. It's almost the end of March, guys, so it turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected, but I'm really happy with the way it came out and it's not getting insane views or anything, but right now it's performing better than the last 10 videos that I've done.

Speaker 2: 13:48

So I'm really happy, oh nice.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And it's a longer video, so the actual viewer time is up by quite a bit. Like. The average view time for some of my videos is probably like seven to 10 minutes. This one's closer, like 17 to 20 minutes, and I'm happy about that because that means people are watching more, more ads are going to play and you know I'll get a little kickback, and I don't think I'm gonna it's not gonna pay my rent unless something crazy happens and like like really decides to push this video. But I guess we'll see. It's not impossible that YouTube would do that like after a couple days. Because that's what. That's actually what happened with my avatar timeline video. It kind of like started with like a middling result and then, like after the avatar movie came out, like after a week of it, it just like blew up on youtube. Nice, so hoping something like that happens. Guys, go check it out. It's already in the show notes, so just do it after this.

Speaker 1: 14:41

But anyway, now that I've like gotten that out of the way, I can finally go back to my normal life of enjoying my regularly scheduled content. Like I told you, I was able to start diving back into the One Piece manga. I'm able to watch a couple of shows that I've put off. The one I want to talk about right now is X-Men 97. The third episode just dropped and, anthony, I know you're not gonna believe this, but I I actually believe that this show is better than the original. Oh, really, not only is it a faithful legacy sequel, the dialogue, the writing is superior to the original because it's not geared towards like it's a direct follow-up to the events of, you know, what happened in the first five seasons of the animated series so do you think that it just grew with the audience?

Speaker 1: 15:31

that's kind of what it feels like. Even though it feels like nothing's changed, it's evolved. It's like a next step. It's hd now.

Speaker 2: 15:39

It's like it looks crispy, like the artwork is the same but yeah, I think we were talking about this like the artwork looks the same, but it looks it's crispy. You know it's crisp yeah, it looks sharp it looks really good and you gotta thank hd for that.

Speaker 1: 15:55

We didn't have hd back in the 90s, you know I am so surprised with the level of quality that they exhibit on this show. Third episode blew my mind dude. It's like a 10 out of 10 animated episode, just for anything. I'm really astounded by what they are capable of accomplishing in that medium and I hope marvel does more like it, because there's definitely like plenty to mine there. You know, and actually like brad winderbaum, one of the producers in marvel was talking about how like this could open up the doors to other animated universes, kind of like they had the Spider-Man show, the Fantastic Four, there was an Iron man show, there was a Silver Surfer show. I don't think necessarily all of those or any of those are going to happen, but the doors open and this is definitely the right step in that direction and I'm so happy about it.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Nice, that's cool. Yeah, I need to. I need to hop onto that. It's man.

Speaker 1: 16:49

I kind of want to re-watch the old one I don't know if you went back to re-watch it I re-watched it right before multiverse of madness like I binged because I knew that professor x was going to be in Multiverse of Madness and I knew that he would be using like the yellow chair that he had in the X-Men animated series.

Speaker 1: 17:10

Okay so in my mind I was thinking, oh, this is a live action version of that character from that show, even though he spoiler alert dies in that show. It turned out it was just a variant, just a variant of, you know, professor charles xavier. But yeah, so I had. I had rewatched pretty much the entire thing right before multiverse of madness came out, just in case I needed to put that show on the mcu timeline when that came out nice, nice dedication to the craft sounds promising man, I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 17:39

No, it's, it's really good. You definitely gotta check it out, even just like listen to that theme song again. It's so good, it's classic. It is classic. Should we jump into suzume?

Speaker 2: 17:48

suzume. Let's do it, man. So it was about time that we got some coverage on another makoto shinkai movie. Honestly, to tell you the truth, I think I I had heard his name, but I don't think I'd really seen his movies until I saw your name some years back, and that movie blew me away so much so when they announced suzume, I was like dude when, when we covered your name on the podcast, was that your introduction to your name or had you seen the no?

Speaker 1: 18:19

no, remember I hadn't seen it oh, so that.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Yeah, that was a first for me and for that movie, yeah, but yeah. So when Suzume was announced and I saw that it was a movie by Makoto Shinkai, I was like, yeah, like I need to go and see this movie in theaters, and to me it just didn't disappoint. That's a movie that I would not have wanted to miss in the theaters.

Speaker 1: 18:41

That's yeah, I also saw it in theaters. I also saw weathering with you in theaters, the pseudo sequel to your name, but I have only ever seen weathering with you once, and this would be the second time I had seen suzume after seeing it in theaters. But yeah, this it was awesome seeing it at theaters, when I think it's so special, when we get anime releases in america, you know, yes, I mean miyazaki films are kind of the exception where they'll play, for I think it's so special when we get anime releases in.

Speaker 1: 19:06

America, you know, I mean Miyazaki films are kind of the exception where they'll play for several weeks, but like Susan May wasn't going to play for several weeks, it was going to play for like a weekend, you know, like you had to see it or you'd miss it, basically. So, yeah, I mean we, you, you saw the boy in the hair, right, I right, I did. Yeah, I saw it. We gotta, we gotta talk about that soon. We actually promised you guys a podcast of boy in the hair in a couple months back, but like that movie kind of needs to be seen multiple times.

Speaker 2: 19:35

I agree, I need to see, to like discuss it. Yeah, I need to see it again before we cover it, because there's a lot going on in that movie and yeah, I'm actually glad that I got to see because there was, you know, stuff that I remember from Suzume. But it's also one of those films that you want to see a couple times before you cover it, because this one kind of has a lot going on too.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Yeah. So we start our movie with just this young girl. She's going to school. She's in high school, suzume Iwato and she's driving down a hill and she sees this cute guy who turns out to be a little older than her, who asks her for directions to some ruins you know, are there any ruins nearby? And that kind of sets her off on this whole adventure, even though she doesn't even realize it at the time. She doesn't understand why she's got this bug.

Speaker 2: 20:26

Know follow and check out these ruins for herself. Right, she's drawn to him.

Speaker 1: 20:27

She feels like they've met before yes, and that kind of turns out to be something that's really important obviously in the film. Should we mention I don't know, we don't have to go like scene by scene right, of course.

Speaker 1: 20:39

We haven't done that in a while but I I think it's important to mention. Like there's the beautiful introduction of Susan May as a child, like in the beginning of the movie, and she's like wandering through what we now know is the ever after. It's like where dead people go to live on, basically past their mortal bodies, and it's a place that's timeless, according to certain characters that you know, like it's past, present, future. It's all happening all at once in the ever after. So we don't really understand what's happening in that opening scene. But it's such a beautiful entrance to the movie because it does hearken back to your name, you know, especially with the bright purples and deep blues in the skies that instantly draws you in like oh, this is a makoto shinkai film. It looks kind of like the comet that fell in your name he loves that color combo.

Speaker 2: 21:31

Like you, kind of get that a little bit and also in weathering with you yes, for sure 100.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Yeah, he likes certain color combinations and they look good, you know, and it's it's kind of become a staple of his I. I don't think that he should necessarily continue that for every movie, because but how we're gonna know it's his movie I don't know we'll have to read the cast we'll have to read what the director.

Speaker 2: 21:53

Dude, really are you telling me I have to read the director's name?

Speaker 1: 21:57

oh, gross, but but yeah, susan may goes to this ruin and somehow she gets there before. The other guy who ends up Soto or Sota is the other character who basically she sends directions to Right.

Speaker 2: 22:11

Well, I figured that he's in that place, but he's not, like he's wandering somewhere else in the ruins.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Yeah, I mean ruins are like. Ruins are usually more than just one complex, so it's understandable that he didn't find it necessarily first right, it was like an old water park. Yeah, and susan may finds it and she opens up this door that she can immediately see the ever after, and but she's not able to cross into it, for whatever, reason right, she tries to, but when she steps through it she just ends up on the other side of the door yeah it.

Speaker 1: 22:43

It's a really cool effect actually, Just like the animation there. I love that scene so much. But anyway, she ends up picking up some totem, or keystone is what they call it. She picks up a keystone which basically locks the Ever After in that location, and when she picks it up she basically unlocks it and now she has to go around closing gates throughout the entire movie.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Yes, yeah, it's hard to explain.

Speaker 2: 23:09

It really is hard to explain. Like there's these doorways to the Ever After that they have to. They're usually guarded by the Keystone, but since Suzume kind of like unleashed the keystone or like released it from its like hold the keystone, which is this cat called daijin, and like he kind of takes off and so sota is called a closer and so his job is to go around and close these doors or make sure that they're closed and because if he doesn't, then these giant, like billowy cloud things that he calls worms, will come out and nobody else can see them. But they kind of cause earthquakes, and that is actually a very, very significant part of this film, the whole earthquake thing, and I mean it's the theme of this film and you get that, especially when you get to the end of the film. But you know, I'll just say that one of the major themes of this film is the 2011 earthquake that caused the tsunami.

Speaker 1: 24:16

That's. That's that's what I was gonna bring up, because I looked up, because, like when at the end of the movie, when she finds her notes as a kid and she sees that like day blacked out in her in her like drawings, she has the we know that it's 12 years prior to the present and on there she has 3 11 written down. I'm like what the heck happened? March 11th 2010 so.

Speaker 2: 24:37

So when I watched that in the the theater, I instantly felt like I knew it was like 3, 11 march 2011. I was like dude. Like when I had seen it, I was like I think that was when that earthquake happened in japan. And, sure enough, I looked it up and I was like, oh my gosh. Like I said, dude, this movie is heavily influenced by that earthquake.

Speaker 1: 24:57

It's not even just that earthquake, it's also influenced by like. So remember there's a point where he said that like the worm in tokyo about a hundred years ago came down on the kanto region, did it harm any pokemon? Many pokemon, no. So he basically said that, like on the kanto region of japan, like that worm came down on them, and that's like a legitimate, that's like the worst earthquake in Japanese history, like, probably close to so. I'm looking at now casualties 105,000 to 142,000 deaths from that earthquake in September 1st 1923, which was exactly 100 years before movie, basically. So the idea that these earthquakes are baked in, or that these worms and the ever after is baked into the bedrock of japan, basically, and you know, as soon as like a gate opens, everyone gets an alert. You know, everyone gets a size, a seismograph, like warning that you know earthquakes are about right, and there's.

Speaker 2: 26:00

There's something so eerie about that, like when you hear it going oh it's so yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:05

I mean I've seen streams of people in japan where, like, they're live streaming whatever and then all of a sudden, like they have that and they're like, oh, earthquake's about to happen and then they have to run for cover. You know like it's, it's crazy, like it happens often there, and that's why this movie is so interesting and cool, because they use that real world phenomenon that they all collectively experience and the fear of that warning system to kind of elevate what happens if these closers make a mistake, if they fail to actually close the gate before the worm collapses. So yeah, that I thought that shoot is such a cool concept.

Speaker 2: 26:39

It's really genius there's such deep emotion that's embedded into this film and and the other films because, you know, like he really does have something that he wants to tell that connects to the real world in some way. Like I would say that weathering with you is pretty much. It's like it's a story on climate change, you know, and yeah, absolutely and suzume or your name.

Speaker 2: 27:06

It's kind of like star-crossed lovers, but it also has a disaster that is tangled within it. I I don't know what disaster that your name is connected to, but I know for a fact that suzume is definitely. I mean, it's cool that you're talking about the earthquake that happened a hundred years prior, because I definitely like see, I didn't catch that, but I definitely caught the 2011 earthquake, and even the region that she goes to looks very similar like towards the end of the film. The region that she goes to looks like that region that was affected by the tsunami.

Speaker 1: 27:43

Yeah, so I'm sure we've all seen those, those videos of like the storm surge like coming in, yes, and you know, like the boats just being washed over the roads and stuff, and you actually see there's a pretty striking visual in suzume of a boat atop a building, and that's what got me thinking like what kind of earthquake would bring a boat on top of a building. And then I was like, oh, and it was quick.

Speaker 2: 28:07

That brings water that would cause a tsunami, so something off the coast, so it was like the land wasn't exactly directly affected by the earthquake. I think maybe the I think it was off the coast. It was off the coast, but I think it did affect the nuclear power plant. I think it caused a crack or something.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Oh, that was. That was a yeah, that was a crazy thing, because it could have been so, so much worse, but what made it?

Speaker 2: 28:31

really bad was the tsunami. That's what made the situation so much worse and it caused that whole nuclear meltdown over there.

Speaker 1: 28:40

But it's crazy because there's people that are living in that region where they're trying to get people to move back into that area like well, I mean, humans have gotten pretty good at determining what levels of radiation are acceptable and what levels of radiation we can kind of like pass through our body and out. And also they've gotten really good at like it's something that they've like started to do in areas affected by like by that, like that area in Japan where they remove the topsoil layer where most of the radiation settles, from pretty much the entire area, the affected, all the affected miles. They just remove like the first couple inches of topsoil and that kind of clears almost everything.

Speaker 2: 29:21

So well, I think about 10 years ago there they had people going, or I don't know if it was 10 years ago, maybe a little less, but you know, there's people who like take tours into that area. They'll have Geiger counters, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:36

So Fukushima, the town of Fukushima, is actually still pretty heavily radioactive. Fukushima is where the actual nuclear plant basically went into what's it called. It's like a meltdown.

Speaker 2: 29:51

Yeah, that's what they call it, but it's crazy because they're trying to get people to move into those areas that are still they're still pretty decent high levels of radiation.

Speaker 1: 30:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:02

And I'm like like, like I mean, they don't even have people, like nobody's going to move in chernobyl and chernobyl like they was even chernobyl was much worse.

Speaker 2: 30:12

Chernobyl was much well yeah chernobyl was much worse, but like this one it was more recent, but if it wasn't as worse as chernobyl, it was kind of getting there because, remember, we had the tsunami and that carried a lot of. You had some radioactive seawater going on. You know, yeah, because I watched. I watched the oh my gosh, dude, I don't remember what the. There was some show and it was essentially like, because I've seen that show, chernobyl, which fantastic show, dude, we should cover that because that's such a good show. But there's a version of that, a Japanese version of that, and it covers that the Fukushima disaster.

Speaker 1: 30:51

Oh yeah, I don't remember if it was on.

Speaker 2: 30:53

Netflix, or if it was on Max, but yeah. Yeah, so I know that we kind of digressed into it yeah. Well, we digressed into disasters, but it's very relevant to this story. Because that's that is such a huge central focal point?

Speaker 1: 31:08

because susan may is living with her aunt and there's a reason why she's living with her aunt because of this disaster yeah, it's, it's the disaster that took her mother from her and it's it's that disaster that had her, as a as a kid, wander back into the village, find the door to the ever after and actually walk through it, like she was capable of walking through it as a kid. And you know she has these memories of where she thinks that she's, you know, seeing her mother again and all that. So it's a really powerful memory and that memory is what allows her to see the ever after in doors as an adult or an almost adult. You know she's a teenager at this point, but let's talk a little bit about sota and what he becomes, because like it's.

Speaker 2: 31:52

So it's kind of it's, it's.

Speaker 1: 31:53

It's a little ridiculous, but it's also like so and kind of cool how they animate it. Yeah, it's so animated so or so animate, but yeah, like the way that they animated it, so all right, all right. So Sota is coming back to Suzume's place. He's going to be bandaged up. He's a little cut up from closing the door to the Ever After and Daishin comes. It's like this little cat that can talk, and super cute at first and then, just like Daishin goes, you're in the way.

Speaker 2: 32:21

Right, right, right Daishin. And then, just like daijin goes, you're in the way. Right right, right daijin likes suzume.

Speaker 1: 32:32

but then he looks over at sota and, yeah, turns him into a chair, which is crazy.

Speaker 2: 32:34

Yes, it's but I like the animation of that. It's really, really cool because, like he, you just like it flashes like you don't see him turning into a chair, it's a cut, but he vanishes within that cut. And then you just like it flashes like you don't see him turning into a chair, it's a cut, but he vanishes within that cut and then you just see the chair fall over and then it's him. It's really cool. I like the way that they did that moment.

Speaker 1: 32:52

Yeah, I yeah that it was a really special way that they were able to capture that, because they could have just shown him in the chair and then him disappearing in the chair, but the way that they cut it gave it weight.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Absolutely. Yeah, it was a really good cut, and then the chair fell back.

Speaker 1: 33:06

Yeah, so that's interesting. But for pretty much the majority of the movie at that point he becomes a sentient chair, a three-legged chair, who is trying to catch Dijon and help Suzume close gates as they move their way up Japan to Suzume's hometown, basically.

Speaker 2: 33:24

Yes, well, so the chair is significant too, because it's a three-legged chair. At some point Suzume had lost the leg on this chair, but it was a chair that her mother had made in her childhood. It's like a small chair and yeah, so people all over the place are like getting photos of this running chair and also daijin is becoming viral like everybody's taking pictures of him because he's just like everywhere and I I looked up what daijin means because I feel like that had.

Speaker 1: 33:58

Suzume says something like well, he does have a look after seeing that people were calling him daijin, and I looked it up and it's like a like a japanese minister, like an ancient minister. Suzume says something like well, he does have a look after seeing that people were calling him Daishin, and I looked it up and it's like a Japanese minister, like an ancient minister, for whatever reason, like not necessarily like a religious minister, but like a government minister, you know. And then later the Sadaijin, which is like the large black cat that we see. It's the other keystone, that Sadaijin means the senior minister of state. So I just think that that's an interesting choice. It's kind of like they're in control, you know of what, what happens, and that's kind of like how suzume kind of realizes that they're basically gods, you know, in this, in this mythology. So I thought that that was.

Speaker 2: 34:42

That was pretty fascinating right, and you know, we get to a point where and I think it's they're in tokyo, right, and this like whole, like massive worm, comes out of, out of the door yeah, that was in tokyo, yeah and you know that's insane.

Speaker 2: 34:59

Like that moment, it's like you're thinking that you're towards the end of the film. I mean, obviously, when you're watching it in streaming, you know that. I mean, if you check the time bar, you know that that's not the end of the film. But I remember seeing this in the theater and I'm like wow, you know this is crazy. But then, like, that's like maybe a little bit halfway, yeah, like about half, yeah, it's like halfway, it's halfway through, and you're just like man, like what is going on, and so sota becomes a keystone in that moment yeah, the pacing of this movie is really interesting because the first half is really energetic.

Speaker 1: 35:33

It's kind of non-stop. There are moments of respite where you have suzume, you know, spending time with locals in different areas, right you have her.

Speaker 1: 35:42

I like that yeah, I, I really liked her getting to be free, almost, you know, like she's coming into herself by these interactions, that she's meeting with other people. But after that point in tokyo, when that huge worm comes out and basically like she realizes that sota needs to become the keystone or else Tokyo, you know, millions of people will probably die Because the Kanto region back in the 1920s Tokyo was big, but nowadays Tokyo is the most populous city on the planet. It is massive. There is no bigger city in the world than Tokyo. So millions of people would have died had she not done something Right. And basically from that point the story shifts. So it's almost like there was kind of like a three-act structure in the first half in a way, and then the story shifts to like her trying to figure out a way to save Sota.

Speaker 1: 36:35

But you mentioned the chair and I want to talk about the chair a little bit, like the actual significance of the chair, because we have a flashback of the mother carving the chair, putting it together. She's capable of making really cool things. Honestly, it's a it's a nice looking chair. And then we find out later in the film at the end, that it's suzume who gave younger suzume that very same chair that she is now giving to younger suzume. You know it's cyclical. How old is that chair?

Speaker 1: 37:04

that's a good question how old is that chair? Because, like, if it's cyclical and but the only thing that's not cyclical is the chair itself, because it's being passed through time it's just looping, so my theory is the chair is stupid old.

Speaker 1: 37:20

I think the chair is like really dumb old and it probably lost one of its legs like a while ago. You know like in another loop of whatever is going on. You know like maybe there was a time period when the chair had four legs and Sota was, you know like put into that and he had four legs and everything. But like now it has three legs because something happened in that time loop, basically before susan may have to give the chair back to younger susan. You know it's, it's crazy. Like where's the original chair? Where did the original chair go, guys?

Speaker 2: 37:55

you know, makoto shinkai really loves his time stories dude, he loves him, he loves him.

Speaker 1: 38:00

I was tripping out over that last night. I was like what the heck, how, where is the original chair? Because, like, if she got the chair from older susan may, what happened to the chair that was given to her by her mother? I'm so confused. Yeah, like there's no answer to it where's the chair?

Speaker 2: 38:17

we're gonna start a. We're gonna start a, a thread on twitter hashtag. Where is the original chair? Dude, that's gonna be when this podcast episode releases, that's gonna be one of the hashtags where is the?

Speaker 1: 38:31

original chair we're gonna see that like what are you talking about nobody, only only I'm sure like a couple people have thought the same thing, but like I'm sure, most people watching this did not like think about it that thoroughly. But yeah, it's so. It's such a good movie I I love every second of it. I really like the side characters that they introduce that help suzume and sota along the way.

Speaker 2: 38:56

Oh, you're talking about the girl with the oranges and the mom with the two kids that she like ends up babysitting, and the friends of sota. And then you get her aunt too and the aunt as well.

Speaker 1: 39:08

Yeah, like all these characters actively want suzume, and sota to succeed in whatever their plight is. They don't even know what's going on right.

Speaker 2: 39:17

Seriously, it's so funny because they're they're like you know, I don't know what it is, but I feel like you're, what you're doing is important yeah, and it's.

Speaker 1: 39:24

It's kind of funny like that is a, that is a feeling you might get sometimes. You know like this person's probably doing something kind of important. You know, like I feel like every now and then you get that notion from someone, so I can, I can appreciate that and then. But that is also kind of a trait for Shinkai films. You know, like that's a big part of your Name.

Speaker 1: 39:47

There are several characters in your Name that help the main. You know, like Taki and oh my gosh, I forgot the girl's name but anyway the two main characters of I forget that anyway, I've seen your name so many times I can't believe I forgot the girl's name. But anyway there's so many characters that help them along the way, even though they don't understand why they're helping them or what their end goal is. Or you know, if you know this girl doesn't exist anymore because that's from a time period long ago or whatever. Stuff like that kind of is a staple of shinkai's work. At this point I forget how much of that there is in, but I know that both, both of those characters I don't want to spoil weather with you, but anyway similar stuff happens, whether with you, with that, but anyway I that's a thing that I really appreciate within shinkai's work I agree just like this, the selfless friend.

Speaker 1: 40:37

You know like someone who helps someone selflessly, you know like they don't really expect anything in return, and that's not something you see a lot of these days no, yeah, I agree, I agree, I really do enjoy.

Speaker 2: 40:49

Just, there's just something different about his films, you know, and I think that that's what I really like about anime in general is that, like, sometimes you don't know what to expect. There is a lot of similar reoccurring themes, especially when it comes to the shows, but when it comes to original ips and stuff like stuff out of studio ghibli or makoto shenkai and some of these other ones, like the one that I was telling you that I really like a silent voice there's really interesting stories that are told in these films, you know, and Makoto Shinkai really has like an interesting mind, because it's like dude, how did you think about this? How did you come up with this and incorporate something real life into it?

Speaker 1: 41:36

you know, yeah, it's really impressive and I think part of it and part of my love of anime is that they take the mundane or they allow the mundane to influence them in little ways. And I know miyazaki is really big on that. You know, like the mannerisms of how people interact with objects. He studies that, you know. He studies how people hold a cup, how people draw water, how people eat food or how people move when they're on a horse or something like that, and that all comes alive in his animation With Makoto Shinkai. I think he's introducing more modern day concepts into his movies. That you know Miyazaki may not care to tell, but he's using those real world elements like the phones that alert when earthquakes are around. You know, like that's a very modern thing, but that's something that you can make a story around. You know, I think did you ever finish Monarch Legacy of Monsters?

Speaker 2: 42:30

I think I have a couple more episodes.

Speaker 1: 42:33

Well, you saw the first episode, so they had the Godzilla siren in Japan and there are other countries that have similar sirens to like.

Speaker 1: 42:43

it's a titan alert system, basically, and it's kind of that same concept that Japan has had for years now of you know, like they have actually alerts not only for earthquakes but they also have it for, like, nuclear arms that have been released. There was one where I'm thinking I might be thinking about Hawaii, anyway, I don't know, but anyway, that idea of being an alert system that immediately tells the entire populace is something that is kind of very Japanese, because we don't really have that in the States. If something happens, we're left to our own devices. I'll have to feel the earthquake or I have to, you know, learn about it in, you know, on twitter later yeah, seriously like.

Speaker 2: 43:25

Oh, the building's shaking, like there's no alert system, like what are y'all doing? I mean especially like in in california, like, why like, why not?

Speaker 1: 43:34

what's funny about california is that, like because I I lived there for a couple years, I only felt two earthquakes while I was there. One was really minor. Like early in the morning I was, I decided to get up early for school and play a little while before I left.

Speaker 2: 43:47

It was I was a little nerd back then remember we used to wake up at 5 am to play that yeah, that was one of those days.

Speaker 1: 43:54

We're insane anyway, so we were absolute maniacs. There was one where I thought like a truck had like been like like slammed into something outside. I was like what was that turned out it was a small earthquake. And then I felt one, like the week before I left, and I remember I was on the phone. I was on the phone with my buddy and he goes dude, you feel that it's an earthquake. I'm just like what are you talking about? He's just like I'm on my bed, I'm riding it like a surfboard and and like, sure enough, like like five seconds later I felt it and it's just like that was a real earthquake. It was probably maybe like magnitude three or four, maybe not even.

Speaker 2: 44:29

Well, it was enough to be felt, I think, and you know, what's crazy was that I think when I was over there to visit you're like, oh hey, there was an earthquake and I was like I didn't feel anything. I think it's super low.

Speaker 1: 44:40

Yeah, it probably was. But one thing that happens in an earthquake, at least in the States, is that the phone companies turn the power lines off. They just cut them. Nobody can make a call, nothing, because instantly it gets flooded Like, hey, are you okay? Oh my gosh, did you feel that? Oh my gosh, the servers get so like blocked up that they just they just shut it off. It's cool that in japan that doesn't necessarily happen, or if it does happen, they also have like an alert system like hey, you know, find shelter you know, so I we keep diving into like but it's.

Speaker 2: 45:12

But the thing is, is that, like, I mean, I get what you're talking about, but it's very, it's embedded into this film and yeah, because you hear that alert system go off a few times throughout this film yeah, it's.

Speaker 1: 45:24

It's interesting there's. There's always like a preliminary earthquake thing that goes off when the gate opens, and then there's the actual quake when the worm falls. Like, if the worm falls, like, it's a really bad quake.

Speaker 2: 45:38

Yes, yes we'd even talk about, like it was interesting, the location of the doors and the requirement to like what they need to do to close these doors.

Speaker 1: 45:49

Yeah, talk about it I thought it was.

Speaker 2: 45:51

It was really cool because it's these doors were all located in the ruins of a place or in an abandoned place, and the way to close these doors is that Suzume and Sota have to think and visualize about the people who lived there and spent, like you know, just day-to-day life in these places that's, and they had to do this stuff to be able to close the door. And there's that thing that they would say, as they would close the door yeah, it was something like divine gods, something, something.

Speaker 1: 46:27

Let them take them back or something, or you can have them, basically like saying like you can have the, the souls or whatever the people that were lost here, or something like that, and I thought that was just a fascinating way to handle that. And what's cool about being a closer is that, like nobody knows this job exists. It's not like a job that pays, it's something that you just it's just like passed down family to family. So, like sota, he wants to be a school teacher, he wants like to have a normal, but he's also kind of in this family lineage of, well, my grandfather was a vampire hunter, so now I have to be a vampire hunter.

Speaker 2: 47:03

It's kind of like that, right right, it's an ancestral thing A worm slave. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, that first door was in the ruins of that water park and then you have that other one that is in like an abandoned school, and yeah, there was that one that was. Yeah, there was that in the amusement that door, but the door was in one of the cars of the, the ferris wheel, and so like it was fascinating susan may is in it, and it's going up and so I'm like, dude, this is crazy, you know.

Speaker 1: 47:36

And she steps in and she kind of gets like mesmerized because she's in the, the ever yes like she sees, basically like what she remembered seeing in the ever after, and she's kind of like entranced by it. She walks into the carriage or the car that has the door that's bringing all this worm out and, for whatever reason, the power comes back on. And I have a feeling it was just kind of like the energy that was being released brought the amusement park back to life temporarily, because there's no reason otherwise why the power would still even be operational. It should be cut off from the source. But yeah, I thought that was such a cool visual dude. That scene is worth the entire price of admission it really is.

Speaker 1: 48:20

And then and then, and then. That's where you probably get the best, like animation of the chair itself as it's running up and down like the roller coaster oh yes daijin and everything.

Speaker 1: 48:32

Dude, it's so good, so good. Let's talk a little about daijin before we close out. I really it's kind of is a character that like you're terrified of because it's freaky, but also like you feel bad for because it's something that clearly wants to be accepted. You know, like the first thing it says to suzume is that like something like love suzume, or suzume loves me, or something like that, yeah. And later on down the line, after the events transpire in Tokyo, where Sota has to become the new Keystone, she grabs Daishin and she's, you know, like Daishin's like Suzume. No, it hurts and I feel so bad for it because, like, clearly it doesn't want, you know, suzume to hate her, but like Suzume hates her, yeah. It doesn't want, you know, susan may to hate her, but like susan hates her, yeah, or him, I don't. I don't know if it's him or her yet. Yeah, so solid, and that seems hard to watch. As a pet owner, you know, I have a cat as a cat owner.

Speaker 1: 49:24

It's as a cat owner, as an animal lover, you know like seeing animals like dejected, like that, oh it hurts, and like the way that it kind of like shrivels up like without the love of susan, may it killed me right it like, it gets like smaller yeah, it shrinks back to like like when before susan may fed her, basically like remember show that affection she's like yeah so let's talk a little bit about sadaijin also.

Speaker 1: 49:51

Like it's a, the other keystone cat that like pops up when the aunt is traveling with them to go to susume's hometown, and there's that really creepy scene where, like she basically like regurgitates the darkest thoughts that she's ever had towards susume, and in a really cruel way right, right, like intrusive thoughts were like yeah, coming out, yeah, yeah yeah, the thoughts you never want to actually like she expressed and it's basically like she was being influenced by this spirit basically, and it was.

Speaker 1: 50:26

It's a really creepy scene. But she kind of regains her consciousness and realizes what she said and she freaks out, you know it. Imagine, like saying something like so terrible to someone you love and then realizing like oh, I wasn't in my you know, like right mind, why would I ever say something like that?

Speaker 2: 50:44

right, right. Yeah, it was almost like when you are like in a deep emotional, like kind of upset state and you just say stuff to to her right, right, yeah, yeah, I saw your daijin walking around in the background my gato, my male gato, my very male keystone

Speaker 1: 51:04

he's got a couple keystones, that's for sure. Um, let's, let's close this up. I really like the relationship that the aunt and susan may have with each other and I. I want to just comment on the fact that she admitted like, yeah, these are real thoughts. You know like I've thought that on occasion, but more often than not I've thought about other things. You know, like how happy I am to have you in my life and all that Super positive message, and I love that about the film.

Speaker 2: 51:29

Right, right and then, in the end, suzume saves Sota from the life of being a keystone and a chair.

Speaker 1: 51:36

With the power of love, suzume earns the power of love. Guys, go check this movie out, if you haven't already. Suzume is incredible. It's streaming on Crunchyroll and it is one of the best anime movies that have come out in the past couple years. Definitely, definitely, check it out, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 52:02

I agree, you guys can check us out on our socials in the show notes down below. You can follow us on pig ecology at twitter and project ecology at instagram, or you can follow our individual handles. Whatever it's going to be linked down there. Thanks so much for listening to us for our 75th episode, anthony, I don't think we've decided what we're doing next week. What are we doing? We're gonna do lilo do.

Speaker 2: 52:14

Lilo and Stitch. I haven't seen Lilo and Stitch in a long time. That would be an interesting movie to go back to.

Speaker 1: 52:20

You down? Yeah, I'm down. Let's do it, Guys. Next week we're doing Lilo and Stitch. You heard it? Here, first, your boys are going back to our childhood. Yes, we are All right. All right, guys. Thank you so much. Don't be a chair, bye adios.