This book is a novel version of the film by the same name that I directed and that is scheduled for release in 2022. This is the third time I’ve written a novel at the same time I’m making a film, the first two being your name. and Weathering With You. Each time, I feel a little reluctant before I start (because I don’t think I can handle that much work), but once I start writing, it becomes more and more fun, until by the end I’m convinced it was an indispensable element of my process. The same was true this time. In hindsight, I think it was necessary for me to trace Suzume’s emotional journey in words whether the film existed or not.
In the following paragraphs, I touch on the story’s roots. I urge those who prefer to enjoy the book or film without any preconceptions to read the book (or watch the film) before reading this section.
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami took place when I was thirty-eight. Although I wasn’t directly impacted by the disaster, it haunted me through my forties. My thoughts and feelings from that time stayed with me constantly as I worked on animated films, wrote novels, and raised my children. Why? To what end? Why those people? Why not me? Can things stay as they are? Can we get away without changing? Have we been pretending not to see? What should I do? How should I live? At some point, endlessly thinking about these questions and my work making animated films became almost the same thing. After 2011, I witnessed several other moments that remade the world, yet the sound playing constantly in the back of my mind was stuck on 2011.
I listened to that sound as I wrote this story. I suspect the same thoughts will continue circling through my mind in the future, and I will continue creating stories that are not much different from this one (though I am trying to make them different), hoping that next time I’ll manage to tell them a little better and entertain my viewers and readers a little more.
I hope you enjoy the film and novel I have created this time, too.
Makoto Shinkai, June 2022