Suzume (film)/Characters
Characters from Suzume include:
| Main characters: |
| Side characters: |
| Animals: |
English names use the western name order, where the first name comes first. Japanese names uses the eastern name order, where the last name comes first.
Main Characters
Suzume Iwato and Souta Munakata, who team up to close doors all over Japan. If the doors aren't closed in time, they'll unleash worms which will shatter the earth. Needless to say, their jobs are pretty important.
Tropes exhibited by both characters include:
- Holding Hands: Suzume and Souta briefly hold hands in the climax, leading them to hold Keystones to trap the worm.
- Meaningful Name:
- Suzume (鈴芽): "芽" means bud, or sprout, symbolising Suzume's budding potential as a closer.
- Souta (草太): "太" means "big"（e.g. 太平洋 = "Pacific ocean", lit. "big flat vast"). This symbolises Souta's status as the more experienced, "bigger brother" closer, also literally represents how Souta is older than Suzume.
- Opposite Gender Protagonists: Suzume, a high school girl, and Souta, a collegegoing young man who's part of a lineage of Closers, travel across Japan closing doors before the worm can escape fully and cause disasters. The two are separated for the majority of the film due to Souta's being polymorphed, only reuniting in the end. Suzume more than earns her role in Opposite Gender Protagonists by relentlessly pursuing Souta after he turns into a Keystone.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Suzume was raised by her single mother who went missing due to the 2011 tsunami.
- Souta was Raised by Grandparents; what happened to his parents is never revealed.
Suzume Iwato (岩戸 鈴芽)
| 岩戸 鈴芽 | |
|---|---|
 Suzume as a teenager. | |
| Story Role | Ordinary High School Student turned Action Girl |
| Actor or Voice Actor |
Nanoka Hara (JP) Akari Miura (JP, young) Nichole Sakura (EN) Bennet Hetrick (EN, young) |
| Demographic Information (as of the character's first appearance) | |
| Age: | ~5 (17, for most of the film) |
| Birthday | May 24 |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Brown |
An Ordinary High School Student who gets roped into closing doors all over Japan.
Tropes exhibited by Suzume include:
- Action Girl: Suzume is not one to shy away from action. If there is a worm escaping from any door, she will get to it, and the door will be closed. Plus, she's more than determined to venture into the fact of action for Souta.
- Crush Blush: She gets a small one when she first meets Souta. The blush grows much brighter when Souta walked away. One of Suzume's classmates remarks that her face is like a tomato.
- Determinator: Hey, this one guy Suzume knows for an hour was turned into a chair. Any other person would walk away, except our heroine. She's willing to travel across Japan and leave her home to attempt to turn Souta back into a normal person. When that fails, Suzume once again does not give up and will find a way to make Keystone-Souta into a normal human again by travelling into the Ever After.
- Doomed New Clothes: Chika gives Suzume some casual wear to use in place of the latter's uniform, but it gets badly damaged as a result of the events in Tokyo, forcing a reversion to the uniform.
- Expressive Hair: When Souta first speaks to her, her hair lifts up for the briefest moment. In fact, Expressive Hair is used any time Suzume gets surprised.
- Implausible Deniability: Suzume's attempts to explain to Tamaki where she's going get increasingly thin.
- Innocent Innuendo: Suzume uses chair!Souta to get to a box on top of a shelf, then belatedly asks if she can step on him.
- Kid Hero: The heroine is one of the oldest characters that can still be considered a "kid"; one more year and she'll belong in "Adult Hero". Although she hasn't come of age, she's too old to be considered a conventional Kid Hero. She's old enough to get a bank account, and is able to journey halfway across Japan without strict guidance from her guardians.
- Meaningful Name: "戸" in "岩戸" (Iwato) means "door", symbolising the doors Suzume closes, and even the one she stepped through as a child.
- Mistaken Identity: Suzume mistakes Suzume to be Suzume's mum. No, seriously. As a child, she believed an older version of herself was her mum picking her up in the Ever After. None of this is played for laughs.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Suzume never got closure over her mother going missing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Suzume removing the keystone is what speeds up the worm's escape, in the first door she closes.
- Ordinary High School Student: Suzume starts as this, having no idea of the supernatural struggles hidden to Japanese muggle society. Her removing the keystone, unleashing Daijin, and subsequent drive to make amends lead to her helping Souta to close doors throughout Japan. The film quickly shifts from being a Teen Drama to an action-adventure film.
- The Runaway: Suzume runs away from home to try to turn chair Souta back into a normal human. This does not make her guardian, Tamaki, very happy, and leads to an overwhelming amount of text messages arguably more threatening than the film's actual Eldritch Abominations (or the entire conflict, for that matter). Rumi straight up remarks that Suzume looks even more like a runaway with the clothes she gave Suzume.
- School Uniforms Are the New Black: Suzume wore her school uniform for the first part of her adventure, before Chika gave her something for the second act. Justified, as she just came out of school. She changes into uniform for the last third of the film, after Chika's clothes were damaged. She even wore her uniform on the poster!
- True Love's Kiss: Parodied. Just over a quarter into the film, Souta the chair falls asleep, and won't wake up. Suzume tries to wake him with a kiss, before remembering chairs don't have a mouth. The attempted kiss is also useless, as Souta later wakes up on his own.
Souta Munakata (宗像 草太)
Voiced by: Hokuto Matsumura (JP), Josh Keaton (EN)
A man from a long line of Closers tasked with closing doors. His name is also spelt Sōta Munakata. The characters "草太" literally translates to "grass big".
Tropes exhibited by Souta include:
- Badass in Distress: Souta is pretty badass when he's closing the first door. After that, since he's trapped in a chair and later Keystone he needs Suzume's help.
- But Now I Must Go: After the sealing of the worm and returning of the two keystones, Souta tells Suzume that he can't go back yet because there are still other doors out there to close. He promises to find her again once he's done that, though, and keeps the promise.
- Diving Save: Souta does one to save Suzume from falling debris with the first door they close.
- Heavy Sleeper: Souta in chair form falls asleep very often and is difficult to wake. Early on, it is played for laughs, but as the film progresses the simple fact takes a much darker turn: Souta's energy is being depleted as he slowly turns into a keystone.
- Heroic Lineage: Souta is the latest in a line of Closers tasked with closing doors across Japan before the worm can escape.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Suzume outright calls Souta "beautiful" when she first sees him, accompanied with several dramatic camera shots.
- One Head Taller: Souta is roughly one head taller than Suzume. Depending on the perspective and shot, it might look like they're the same height.
Supporting Characters
Tamaki Iwato (岩戸 環)
Voiced by: Eri Fukatsu (JP), Jennifer Sun Bell (EN)
Suzume's aunt, who serves as her caregiver.
Tropes exhibited by Tamaki include:
- Christmas Cake: Tamaki is in her 40s and still single. One of her coworkers, Minoru, is obviously interested in her, but she doesn't seem to notice.
- Nephewism: After Suzume's mother died, her aunt Tamaki took over as her caregiver.
- Parental Substitute: Deconstructed - Tamaki took it on herself to raise Suzume in Tsubame's stead, but developed resentment over what it's cost her.
Tomoya Serizawa (芹澤 朋也)
Voiced by: Ryūnosuke Kamiki (JP), Joe Zieja (EN)
A man studying alongside Souta to become a teacher.
Tropes exhibited by Tomoya include:
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Taki Tachibana's Japanese voice actor appears in his third Shinkai-directed work, albeit as a new character.
- Hidden Depths: He looks like a rebel high school teen who ignores every instruction that comes his way, but no. He's actually a pretty relaxed person studying to become a teacher.
- Meaningful Name: "朋" means "friend", as Serizawa is very friendly towards Suzume.
Chika Amabe (海部 千果)
Voiced by: Kotone Hanase (JP), Rosalie Chiang (EN)
One of the people Suzume encounters throughout her travels.
Tropes exhibited by Chika include:
- Meaningful Name: "千果" (Chika) literally translates to "thousand" and "fruit", respectively. This represents the oranges that fell from Chika's moped when Suzume first met her.
Animals
Daijin (ダイジン)
Voiced by: Ann Yamane (JP), Lena Josephine Marano (EN)
A Keystone-turned-cat who is not very nice towards Souta.
Tropes exhibited by Daijin include:
- Ambiguous Innocence: The first time Daijin speaks, it declares that it likes Suzume, but that Souta is an obstacle, and binds him into the three-legged chair to "volunteer" him to be a replacement keystone, and seems too cheerful about the damage the worm will do. The way it shrinks into itself and runs away after Suzume declares her hate for it following the use of Souta as a keystone over Tokyo, though, suggests that it wasn't being sadistic but genuinely did not expect Suzume's adverse reaction to its behaviour, and it's more docile when it next reappears. When it helps find the door Suzume went through when young, Suzume wonders aloud if it wasn't maliciously opening doors to let the worm through, but instead leading them to doors that were going to open. Finally, when it sees that Suzume is willing to sacrifice herself to become a keystone as a substitute for Souta, it helps her free him and goes back to being a keystone in her stead.
- Cats Are Mean: Daijin is not nice towards Souta at all. From cursing him, to running away from almost every single confrontation, the cat has caused Souta a lot of trouble. Daijin is pretty good towards Suzume, though.
- Cute Kitten: Daijin is pretty cute, with big, exaggerated eyes. He is, however, far more devious than his cute looks would suggest.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Daijin demonstrates this when it appears in darkness.
- Glamour: It's implied to have one, as when it appears at Ruri's bar, everyone there who isn't Suzume seems to treat it like another human customer rather than a cat.
- Jerkass Gods: Daijin is definitely not a nice god. He wants to spend time with Suzume, but Souta's presence means Suzume won't spend as much time with him. His solution? Play with mortals by turning Souta into a chair. He continues to be an asshole whenever chair Souta enquires about the possibility of regaining his human form, running away from Souta like there is no tomorrow.
Sadaijin
The other Keystone, in addition to Daijin. Despite Sadaijin's larger size, the cat plays a lesser role in the film.
Tropes exhibited by Sadaijin include:
- Mega Neko: Daijin is pretty small, but can grow to be about as tall as a person. Sadaijin, on the other hand, can grow to become much, much bigger.
Worms
Abominations from the Ever After dimension trying to escape into Japan.
Tropes exhibited by worms include:
- Eldritch Abomination: The worm first emerges from the doors as a, well, wormlike maroon smoke, but as more of it escapes, it starts to take on forms that wouldn't be out of place in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The unknowability comes from how Souta says that it causes destruction for no humanly-discernible reason. An even bigger Eldritch Abomination worm is unleashed over Tokyo due to the failure of both keystones allowing its full form to come out.
- Kaiju: The absolutely massive giant worm that fully escapes into Tokyo and will shatter the Earth unless stopped.
- Back to Suzume (film)