‘Suzume’ Ending, Explained: Were Suzume And Souta Able To Save Japan From The Worm?

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Makoto Shinkai’s creation, “Suzume no Tojimari,” created a splash everywhere. With stellar animation and an equally incredible soundtrack to boot, the movie was a fantastic experience. The plotline was alright and had a lot of unique elements to it; however, after a certain point, it simply seemed to be dragging on. The animation, on the other hand, was spectacular and a real treat. The animators had really outdone themselves with the level of detail they had incorporated. The storyline incorporated some cliches but still made for a good watch. The adventure, humor, and expressions of each of the characters were top-notch. I would have loved to see Daijin more in the movie because Daijin’s character was my favorite.

Spoilers Ahead


‘Suzume no Tojimari’ Plotline: What Is The Film About?

The movie follows Suzume around as she embarks on a bizarre adventure around Japan. Suzume meets Souta and Daijin, who show her the existence of an entire world in Japan. Suzume and Souta set out to stop the spirit of a worm-like creature from wreaking havoc and causing earthquakes. The worm is a harbinger of natural disasters. They tried to seal the worm while chasing Daijin to ensure that it returned to a keystone to help seal the worm.


Did Suzume Follow Souta Eventually?

The movie begins with a character introduced as Suzume waking up from a familiar dream. The dream was about her younger self searching for her missing mother. She wakes up with a start, and her aunt calls her for breakfast. Suzume prepares herself to leave for school as she puts on her uniform. She takes her bike, and on her way, she comes across the most attractive man she has ever seen. The man asks her the way toward an abandoned ruin over the mountains, and he tells her he is searching for a door. Suzume guides him with the directions and leaves for her school. She meets Aya, her best friend, along the way, and in a split second, she decides to follow the man. She rushes to the ruins and comes across the door, standing in the middle. She opens the door to witness an alternate world with stars spanning across the sky over endless, vast fields filled with greenery. She attempts to reach out to the world, but whenever she decides to step inside it, she cannot go through it.

Eventually, she stumbles on a small idol-like structure resembling a fox. She takes it out of its resting place, and immediately the structure turns into a cat later, and not a fox, and it sprints away from the area. Suzume, spooked by the situation, immediately rushes back to her school. In school, she spies smoke coming out of the abandoned ruins while her friends and classmates receive a warning alert for an earthquake. The earthquake seems to be related to the smoke; however, except for Suzume, nobody else could notice it. Suspicious, she rushes back to the smoke, which resembles a worm, as the earthquakes seem to increase in magnitude. She makes her way toward the door, where she meets the man, who is now trying to close the door to keep the creature from escaping. The man was struggling; therefore, Suzume gave him a hand, and together they pushed the door closed while the man, with his prayer, summoned a keyhole where he inserted the key he held and sealed the creature in. The creature disappeared, and they saved the day for now.


Did Souta And Suzume Meet Daijin?

The man thanked Suzume and had been on his way out when she noticed he had been hurt. She insisted he follow her home, where she could treat his injuries. He reluctantly followed her, and while she treated his injuries, he introduced himself as Souta Munakata. Suzume had told him to take a seat so that she could treat him; he sat on a small three-legged chair while she treated him. While they conversed about their situation, a cat climbed up to the window. Suzume, delighted, was about to pet it when it spoke up and magically merged Souta with the chair. The cat immediately fled, and Souta, in his current state as chair, gave chase. Stupefied by the situation, Suzume regained her senses and thought of how the situation would be perceived by others, which is why she chased after them. They eventually end up on a ferry set to reach Ehime. The cat jumped off the ferry onto an oncoming motorboat and reached Ehime before them. Souta asked Suzume to return; however, she insisted on helping him out.

Through social media, Suzume finds out the name of the cat, Daijin, and its whereabouts. They set out to follow its trail as they came across a fellow high school student named Chika. While helping her and talking to her, they spot another worm ready to wreck the town. Chika gives them a ride to the abandoned school ruins from where the worm had found its way out, and they close off the entrance to the school with difficulty. Daijin arrives after they manage to close off the door and stop the earthquake to inform them about another gate opening. It slips away yet again. Suzume and Souta stay at Chika’s inn, where Suzume tells Souta that the chair had been a present from her mother, who had passed away when she was young.

The next morning, they find a video of Daijin on the Kobe bridge. They bid Chika adieu, as their next target was the abandoned amusement park in Kobe. Here, they met with Rumi and her kids, who was kind enough to let them catch a ride with her to Kobe because it had been raining, and she also offered them a place to stay. The worm had found an opening in one of the cubicles of the Ferris Wheel. Suzume tried to close it, while Souta fought with Daijin while threatening to return it to being a keystone. Daijin refused and eventually escaped because Suzume had found herself in a trance and was about to fall from the Ferris wheel. Souta helped her get out of the trance, and they closed the door. Eventually, they returned to Rumi’s place, where she had been worried about their sudden disappearance. They made food together, and the next day, Souta and Suzume set out for Tokyo.


Was Suzume Able To Save Souta?

This time, Suzume had later informed her aunt about her whereabouts; she had first lied to her about being at Aya’s house when she had boarded the ferry; later, Suzume did inform her that she was in Ehime. Tamaki had been worried sick for her, which is why she took her days off and went to find her. Tamaki’s colleague gave her a ride to Ehime and suggested she find out her whereabouts through the bank account. Tamaki followed Suzume to Tokyo. In Tokyo, Souta led Suzume to his flat, where they collected information about the worm. The Tokyo gate was guarded by another Keystone, and there had been a similar situation where the worm had escaped its seal and caused a catastrophe, wiping out the Kanto region a century ago. The same was going to happen to Tokyo if they didn’t hurry and seal the worm with the help of Daijin. However, once Souta wrestled Daijin to get him to turn back into a keystone while they hitched a ride on the worm, which had now covered the entire Tokyo city, he found out that Daijin had passed down the power to turn into a keystone to Souta.

Souta, accepting his fate and feeling his soul crystallize into a keystone, asked Suzume to help seal the worm. Reluctantly, Suzume pierced the worm with Souta as a keystone as she mourned for him. The worm immediately exploded into colorful rain as Suzume fell from the height where the worm had been. Daijin protected her from injuring herself from the fall. Here, she dreamt yet again of her childhood, where she had lost herself in the Ever-After, where Souta is currently as a keystone sealing the worm’s exit. She consulted his grandfather after she gained consciousness and set off to find the door she had used 12 years ago to enter the Ever-After to find her mother. She met with her aunt, who did not want her to go anywhere else alone. Daijin followed them. Serizawa, Souta’s friend, gave them a ride to her hometown. On their way to save Souta, they met Sadaijin, a big black cat who seemed harmless and hitched a ride with them too.


‘Suzume no Tojimari’ Ending Explained: Were Suzume And Souta Able To Save Japan From The Worm?

They arrive at Suzume’s hometown after a long ride, and Suzume tries to find the door. She finds the door while Sadaijin and Daijin jump inside the Ever-After along with her to help save Souta. Suzume connects with Souta’s memories and lures his soul out of its crystallized form. Souta regains his original form as a human and, together with Daijin, Sadaijin, and Suzume, seals the worm, saving Japan from its impending disaster. While Suzume had been saving Souta, Sadaijin had kept the worm from escaping by keeping it busy fighting it. Daijin helped Suzume bring back Souta, injuring itself in the process and then turning it back into a keystone. Sadaijin rushed toward Souta and turned into a keystone as well. They planted the stones on the worm, sealing it permanently to prevent further damage as they began to make their way out.

Suzume gets reminded of her dream; she realizes that she had seen her mother in that dream, but rather, it had been her older self-giving her the courage to power through her nightmarish past. Older Suzume had given younger Suzume, who had just lost her mother in the tsunami 12 years ago, the chair Tsubame, her mother, had made. After the younger Suzume met the older one, she returned to her hometown, where Tamaki had found her and taken care of her like her own daughter. Older Suzume joined Souta and made her way back to where her aunt and Serizawa were waiting as they returned to Kyushu. The movie ends with Souta returning to Suzume after an adventure he set out on to make sure the rest of the gates across Japan were alright.


Final Thoughts: Daijin’s Sacrifice

The film changed focus sometimes and mainly had a lot of things it wanted to show. The main storyline that did come across, when Suzume met her younger self, preached the message of accepting your inner child and overcoming past traumas to really move on in life. The reason why Suzume had hazy memories of her past coming back to her in flashbacks was because, with each decision she took, she confronted her past little by little. Which is why the memories became more prominent at the end. She told her past self to embrace her future and push through the night because at the end of the day, she would find her friends and family and the one she would come to love and it would make her life better. As a child, Suzume had been able to get through to Ever-After because she had the drive to try and find her mother because she was all alone, and her mother had been snatched from her. With the belief that she would find her mother, she ventured on undaunted. However, it did serve to be traumatic, because she forgot the memories after not being able to find her. They addressed the repressed feelings between Tamaki and Suzume, and their bond grew after setting the hurt aside and communicating with each other. Although the romance between both Suzume and Souta was not that prominent, it was still given a lot of screen time. However, the romance between a chair and a girl was a little weird but I guess it is alright because Souta does return to his original state.

The Ever-After, as Souta had described it, is a place where souls find their resting place. It wasn’t a place that living beings could access. While in the state of a chair, Souta eventually lost consciousness and crystallized, which were symptoms of turning into a keystone. Suzume had woken him up before by shaking him; however, the last time before they set out for Kobe, Suzume kissed Souta to bring his consciousness back, almost like he was a sleeping beauty. During the entire adventure it felt like it would have been really easy to kidnap a girl who was chasing a bizarre three-legged chair across the town. Daijin, the cat, had been a keystone for centuries—and decades, nearly. So when Suzume accidentally freed Daijin, Daijin was very grateful and wanted to be her cat, so she passed down the keystone qualities to Souta. All the while, Daijin helped both Suzume and Souta track down the gates. I feel Daijin really loved Suzume and helped them in any way he could. Even after being emotionally hurt by Suzume, Daijin still helped her locate the door to the Ever-After.

In Tokyo, Suzume almost hurt Daijin physically because Souta had become the keystone. Then she went on to say that she hated Daijin, which really hurt Daijin. Daijin shriveled up and was portrayed as a sad and withered cat. Still, Daijin helped her and also protected her from plummeting by becoming her personal parachute and life jacket—not literally, of course. Daijin simply wanted to be with her as her cat. Later, while fighting the worm, Daijin helped Souta regain his human state and was injured. It then returned to its state as a keystone because Suzume had wanted it. Daijin just wanted to see Suzume happy; it had only regained its health after Suzume thanked Daijin for helping. Suzume and Souta safely got back from Ever-After, and Suzume did not even look back or think about Daijin. I felt really betrayed by that. She had been the reason for the catastrophe, had freed Daijin, and then, when Daijin just wanted to be her cat, had hurt Daijin in the worst possible way. I really wanted nothing more than to pat Daijin and take him away. The keystones were vessels for the gods to seal off the worm. So, once freed, both Dajin and Sadaijin were described as the yin and yang gods. Sadaijin, who portrayed yin, an older god, still chose to fight and seal the worm, while Daijin, who portrayed yang, was a younger god. 


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Alokananda Sen
Alokananda Sen
Alokananda Sen holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has a keen interest in graphic designing, reading, and photography. Her insatiable appetite for cinema and pop culture enticed her to work as a content writer. She is currently pursuing a Post Graduate Diploma focused in Animation & VFX to explore a new dimension in her career.

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