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When one thinks of Makoto Shinkai, what comes to mind are poignantly beautiful love stories. Paired with great music and striking visuals, these stories have resonated with numerous fans across the globe. Natural disasters and romance are motifs commonly present in all Shinkai films.
However, the director wanted to switch things around with the portrayal of romance inSuzume. If Shinkai had followed through with his initial idea, the relationship between Souta and Suzume would have been extremely different, or maybe it wouldn’t have been at all.
What changed his mind was some persuasion from the film’s producer. Hearing the initial idea would make many fans light up with excitement, and to our joy, we might see it coming to life in Shinkai’s future endeavors. As for Suzume, here’s what Shinkai’s initial idea was and why he changed his mind.
SuzumeWasn’t Supposed To Be Like All Shinkai Films
The representation of heteronormative romance in media is quite frequent and redundant. And, that’s exactly howMakoto Shinkaifelt. While working onSuzume, Shinkai felt he had explored the different possibilities and facets of a boy-girl romance inYour Name. He wanted to take a different path withSuzume. His preference leaned more towards a relationship between two girls as he wanted to portray a sense of sisterhood.
Makoto Shinkai Demanded Fans Not to See Your Name After Budgetary Constraints Made it Feel “Incomplete, unbalanced”
However, he couldn’t pursue that idea (via trivia on IMDb) as his producer mentioned the audience’s expectations. According to him, even though Shinkai was tired of the same type of romance, his audience wasn’t. So, Shinkai decided to drop the idea but found his own way to avoid showcasing a typical romance.
So in order to not make it too much of a romance, I decided to make her primary interest a chair.
It’s interesting to find out that Souta being transformed into a chair was a sign of Shinkai’s defiance. Moreover, he shares that he wasn’t consciously trying to incorporate an LGBTQ romance, but it made sense for a story likeSuzume. More than a romance between different individuals, he wanted to portray a genuine human connection.
It’s not necessarily the context of male/female; it’s about a human overcoming something. In my future films as well, I want to focus on that human story as opposed to too much commentary on gender or sex.
Those who are familiar with Shinkai’s films would instantly understand what he meant when he said he wanted to focus on a human story. EvenYour Namestarted off similarly. Initially, Mitsuha and Taki were experiencing each others’ joys and hardships. Their romance was gradual and a result of the days they spent as each other.
Your Namewas a story about shared feelings and emotions despite having wildly different lives. Their connection was a result of those similarities and differences. If Shinkai wants to explore the ‘human’ part of his stories more in the future, fans would probably find it an exciting change.
A Riveting Shift in Shinkai’s Filmography
Shinkai showed us a glimpse of how his future projects could differ from everything we have seen so far. The unfortunate yet beautiful romance that remains unresolved either because of space, time, circumstances, or all those aspects has become a definitive trait of Shinkai films.
It would be interesting to see how he shifts from that to something new and more exciting. It’s safe to say that irrespective of the characters, the directorial genius and the emotional resonance would still be ever-present.
Suzumeis available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Laveena Joshi
Anime Writer
Articles Published :926
Laveena is an anime content writer at FandomWire. Having written more than 800 articles, she’s an expert in mainstream shonen series, ranging from the bizarre world of JoJo’s to the expansive worldbuilding of One Piece.With her formal education in Journalism and Mass Communication, she explores entertainment journalism through the lens of anime and manga, from mainstream and classic titles to niche and obscure ones.
