Makoto Shinkai is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) is one of my favorite movies ever. I also love Weathering With You and Suzume. Despite this, I have never read any manga adaptations of his films. I jumped at the opportunity to read the manga for Suzume since I loved the movie so much. With the manga adaptations for A Garden of Words, certain things are in the manga that are not in the movie. I wondered if this is the case for Suzume.
As someone who has seen Suzume, reading the manga felt like watching a recap of the movie from a different perspective. If the movie is the main footage, the manga feels like the story through B-roll. I wanted to take it in as its own project, but that proved difficult for me. It was hard for my brain to stop comparing each scene to how it happened in the movie. That being said, I don’t consider this a bad thing, but I’m not sure if I personally can judge if the story would feel whole solely based on the manga.
Back to the B-roll of it all, since my brain couldn’t process this as “a new story,” I took it in as something meant to add to the movie. I felt that the manga’s direction expanded the characters in a new way, making them more dimensional. For example with Suzume, she has so much emotion. Even if there aren’t thought bubbles, the art makes me feel that I know her mind. Her small blushes or looks of determination are so noticeable.
I also find this to be the case with Souta, who is a chair for 90% of the time. The manga’s art has a way of making his movement and looks more human. I can tell, even without dialog that Souta is in there and he’s looking at Suzume or feeling something. I think the animation does a wonderful job of bringing him to life but the manga’s art captures a little more of his humanity.
The first volume covers until Suzume meets Rumi and arrives in Kobe, when she sees Daijin at Rumi’s bar. It was a good place to separate the story and I’m curious to see how it picks up in the next volume.
I haven’t seen Suzume since it premiered in theaters, so I may also be biased in what my memory of the film is compared to the manga. I may rewatch it before reading the second volume and compare my feelings then. Either way, the manga adaptation of Suzume was enjoyable for me and added a lot of exposition on these characters that I really enjoyed.
Suzume Volume 1
Story By: Makoto Shinkai
Art By: Denki Amashima
Translation: JM Iitomi Crandall
Editor: Alexandra McCullough-Garcia
Publisher: Kodansha
You can purchase it here.
Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for an advanced reviewer copy.
Yeah, I totally got the same experience when I read the original novel of Howl’s Moving Castle. It was like watching the Ghibli movie, but with extra scenes and details added in. I really loved it! Howl/Howel, is a bit more funny in the book, which I kind of liked. Also, in the book you get his background story, which was a lot of fun!