Suzume Iwato is a student who has recently moved to Kyushu due to the death of her parents, she now lives with her aunt Tamaki. She starts her day by going to school but ends up getting to know a boy named Souta who is looking for a door at an abandoned resort. Only later it is revealed that Souta is a Closer and it is his job to go around Japan searching for doors that worms come out of which cause earthquakes and he closes them. Suzume then meets Souta again when the door due to these worms opens that she had helped him close and because of that she learns that she was the reason for one of the doors to be opened. Later she finds a talking cat in her room who first cursed Souta by turning him into a wooden three legged chair and due to this she follows that cat throughout Japan hoping to find out the origin of the talk. Meanwhile, all this is happening her aunt is haunted with the idea of her niece never returning home.
We all know how difficult the process of finding girls is, so it’s only natural for anime to resort to the well-worn concept of youths saving Japan from yet another disaster, a concept that Shinkai seems to have mastered and overused time and again.
So, it makes more sense to analyze the all pervading symbolism present in the movie which is by far the most engaging part in this case and the different remarks scattered in the narrative.
The idea of the impending earthquake, for instance, finds corroboration in worms breaching Shinkai’s universal reality as a warning of some sort of “sword” that always hangs over Japan’s head. Closing off American science fiction themes is not that hard, nor is it American: it is slightly less embedded how the doors that surface in the abandoned places fit in, but they could be viewed as yet another warning about the doors people flee to (resorts, schools and such) that may become dangerous as they fall apart with time. The great thing about Shinkai’s work is that its protagonists are students, in this case a girl who dreams of becoming a nurse, and a boy in the advanced stages of studying to be a teacher, which may be interpreted as a stratagem suggesting who has the potential to be “heroic” in the reformed future, Shinkai is demonstrating to the audience teachers, nurses, and generally all the young people.
In terms of the comments, there is another Japanese favorite topic again, which is the absence of parents almost completely, especially with regard to the main characters.
The ending part of the film, the metaphor of family and states that people can care for each other without blood relations, through the characters of Tamaki, Suzume, Souta and later on Yamashita takes a different route and argues that families can be formed from people who share no biological connections which becomes the explanation of the films most emotional aspect.
Besides what is mentioned above, the currently popular theme of post fukushima is also in the picture, the cataclysm that took place is more than the mention of the beauty of the region, which makes it seem like an appeal to the region’s recovery, and the region’s beauty is also accompanied by the most stunning scene of the film, which will definitely remind some of the ending of kenya boy. Plus, the inclusion of cats that have mystical powers also goes along this route, just as a crowd pleaser, Shinai who also has made the tour guide part, displaying some of the sites of the country and some of its many sites of interest, from local pubs and public baths as the story’s key elements. What Suzume does for her character also appears to be a ploy, New Zealanders being hospitable is what seems to be the aim of this last aspect, where kindly helps everyone she meets who is a stranger to her, in yet another aspect which seems to nod to tourists.
As is typical of Makoto Shinkai and Comix Wave Films, The Laughter of the Universe is from the maximum sup quality.
Without doubt, Tanaka Masayoshi’s artistry is exquisite; the characters and the animals can be considered aesthetically pleasing, but the southern landscapes can easily rival them in terms of beauty. But it is here where the drawing and the animation reaches its height, the worms stand out due to their devastating nature because of a lack of better words, A talking point of the visual means the action was capturing the key scenes of the anime and the man’s character animation was its forte while the lady’s was quite realistic. It is hard to believe that cats normally behave so innocently, have you ever watched how they start ‘fighting’ with a chair? The action is bound to plunge into lovelier vistas, but is interesting to watch in any case.
Yuya Takahashi does not add something refreshing to the theme of the series of “Tien Shun. Suzume no Tojimari“, but instead it is a standard anime which is filled with messages and comments and overall has good quality production as what Makoto Shinkai does is what can only be described as a fusion of briefly said Miyazaki’s recipe for success but in the best possible way.
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