#fukatsu eri

[asilosmagdalena]

Okayyy as a j-drama enjoyer and RGG fan I had to make a list of actors I'd like to see cast in a Yakuza/Judgment game

1. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi

2. Meisa Kuroki

3. Hidetoshi Nishijima

4. Ko Shibasaki

5. Yo Oizumi

6. Yamashita Tomohisa (Yamapi/Tomo)

7. Hiroshi Abe

8. Fukatsu Eri

9. Kaneshiro Takeshi

10. Atsuhiro Inukai

[antinousamongthereeds]

[apple53-ak]

[sunlightfeeling]

Site was severely lacking in Kimura Takuya being manhandled content, so here

From Change (episode 9)

[cinematicjourney]

Haru (1996) | dir. Yoshimitsu Morita

[marypickfords]

Haru (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1996)

[lostinmac]

Haru (1996)

Dir. Yoshimitsu Morita

[gregor-samsung]

サバイバルファミリー [Survival family] (Shinobu Yaguchi - 2016)

[splinteredsoul]

Villain (2010)

dir. Lee Sang-il

[heystella]

Haru (1996)

[redsamuraiii]

Suzume no Tojimari *spoilers*

Sypnosis

Just watched this today and once again Makoto Shinkai is able to deliver it as always. The story is interesting, the animation and sceneries are beautiful, the songs are epic, the characters are likeable and it makes you smile and in tears. Coincidentally, I watch this today 11 March which happens to be the anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake which devastated Miyagi Prefecture, which this anime is likely to be based and inspired on.

Suzume is a high school girl who lost her mother in a devastating earthquake which destroyed her entire town in Miyagi prefecture and now lives with her aunt in Miyazaki, Kyushu who loves her like her own daughter. Suzume is an outgoing and cheerful girl who loves school but deep down is still saddened by the tragic lost of her mother and still dreams of her, remembering the time she looked for her in the house debris when she was a child.

One day, she came across a strange guy who asks her for directions towards an abandoned area nearby. Out of curiosity, she tailed him and discovers a mysterious door and a statue which turns into a cat, scaring her away. Back in school, she notices a black smoke near the mountain area when she was having lunch with her classmates but only she could see it. Shortly after, an earthquake occurs as she ran out of her school towards the smoke.

Upon reaching she discovers the strange guy struggling to close a mysterious door which smoke seems to be coming from. Apparently, the smoke is a spirit from the after world which causes the earthquakes. After helping him close the door, he introduces himself as Souta, who is a guardian that wants to ensure the smoke doesn’t come to our world and in other words, to stop earthquakes from happening.

Just as Suzume is trying to make sense of what is happening and Souta figuring out why Suzume is the only one who could see the smoke but not her friends, a familiar cat appears and places a curse on Souta. Determined to get to the bottom of it all, Suzume and Souta races across Japan, chasing after the cat who turns out to be some spirit god, going from Kyushu to Ehime, to Kobe, to Tokyo and back to where it all started...

...the Miyagi Prefecture, Suzume’s home where her mother died.

Along the way, Suzume encounters various people who ends up becoming a part of her life and going along on the joyride is Suzume’s aunt who is looking for her since she left school during the earthquake when Suzume first saw the smoke and Souta’s friend who’s been searching for him since he went missing in Tokyo.

Thoughts

Although it wasn’t explained or I might have missed the part as to why or how Suzume is able to see the smoke from the after world and not the others, I suspect it has got to do with her yearning for death as she do not fear death, possibly wanting to reunite with her mother whom she still misses dearly. 

The smoke spirit from the after world wants to enter our world to claim more human lives that it could bring back to its world. So Suzume is kind of at the “borderland” in between the world of the living and the world of the dead, which is why she still has dreams of her late mother who is in the after world.

As for Souta, I suspect that his grandfather might be a Yamabushi, a mountain hermit, which is why he keeps reciting the prayers to the mountain god for help every time he attempts to close the door and why his grandfather has books about this smoke spirit dating back centuries since ancient times.

It’s a story about overcoming loss and letting go of the past, which is not easy. Suzume wasn’t afraid to die because she wants to be with her mother but along the way when she met new people who became her friends, her views began to change and realise that she has to move on and live her life.

Souta is afraid to die and wants to live which is why he is determined to close the door and save the world as he could not bear to see more people dying. But after meeting Suzume, he realises that in order to be fearless to do his mission, to do what he set out to do, he has to be ready to embrace death. 

So in a way, they both change each other. 

I think it’s about balance. It’s like a Samurai who is ready to die but does not mean that he has a death wish going on suicide missions, it only means he is fearless because at the same time he does not wish to die so he could return home to his family which is why he fights bravely to survive.

It’s a beautiful anime like Your Name and Weathering With You, each unique and special in different ways. Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending for this too. But it doesn’t mean you won’t cry in tears along the way. Makoto Shinkai never fail to pull your hear-strings and making you all emotional.

[antinousamongthereeds]

[gigihou-jff]

KABACHITARE

[anamon-book]

REPLIQUE 2004年2月号 Vol.47 HANKYU BOOKS 表紙＝深津絵里（撮影・KEI OGATA） 深津絵里「透明だから、ふんわりと、自由。」

[bluen3hey]

1996   (ハル)

(Haru)

[marypickfords]

Haru (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1996)