Having seen the 2-hour long Suzume, I will admit that the film's emotional core is intriguing. It's that of a 17-year-old girl still grieving her mother who died 12 years prior. Taking this and the brilliant animation aside, the rest of Suzume is quite simply... below average.
As much as I didn't want to hate Suzume, I hated it mainly because of the shoddy characterisations. Even the voice-over actors were unconvincing. As someone who has been indulging in anime, J-dramas and K-dramas, it's that female characters are written rather poorly. Think of the last K-drama you just watched; was the main female lead clingy, confused and almost easy to convince into doing anything?
The titular character of Suzume falls head over heels for a mysterious young man she meets. Moreover, every problem that begets the protagonists is kick-started by Suzume being a clueless and dumb 17-year-old schoolgirl. The film's plot wouldn't be afoot if not for her and throughout the film no one seems to acknowledge that she is the cause of the hell that's about to break loose.
The protagonist creates the mess, cleans it up after a lot of trouble and chalks that up as personal growth. How does this make the film great?
As much as I didn't want to hate Suzume, I hated it mainly because of the shoddy characterisations. Even the voice-over actors were unconvincing. As someone who has been indulging in anime, J-dramas and K-dramas, it's that female characters are written rather poorly. Think of the last K-drama you just watched; was the main female lead clingy, confused and almost easy to convince into doing anything?
The titular character of Suzume falls head over heels for a mysterious young man she meets. Moreover, every problem that begets the protagonists is kick-started by Suzume being a clueless and dumb 17-year-old schoolgirl. The film's plot wouldn't be afoot if not for her and throughout the film no one seems to acknowledge that she is the cause of the hell that's about to break loose.
The protagonist creates the mess, cleans it up after a lot of trouble and chalks that up as personal growth. How does this make the film great?