Suzume No Tojimari Trailer: Your Name Director Makoto Shinkai Returns With A Story About Closure

Director Makoto Shinkai is back this year with the follow-up to his global anime hits, "Your Name" and "Weathering with You." The Japanese title of his next feature is "Suzume no Tojimari," and now the first teaser trailer for it is here.

"Suzume no Tojimari," which has no confirmed English title yet, will debut in Japanese theaters on November 11, 2022. That means that it could theoretically make its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where "Your Name" won the Arigatō Award in 2016. Nothing official has been announced yet on that front, but the festival usually runs from late October to early November. "Weathering with You" was Japan's submission for Best International Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.

"Suzume no Tojimari" was written and directed by Shinkai, with character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka, who served as the animation director last year for "Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time." Though it involves the opening of doors, Shinkai has described his latest as "a story about closure." Check out the teaser for "Suzume no Tojimari" below.

The teaser for "Suzume no Tojimari" is dialogue-free and relies instead on pure visuals to convey the first impression of the movie. We see the main character, Suzume, riding her bicycle and soon wading into the water, where a free-standing door seemingly offers a portal of some sort. She's in a ghost town, which, according to the press release, is a former hot springs destination that holds an abandoned ryokan-style inn. The idea of such a place, ravaged by the elements and offering a portal to the past and possible danger, seems like it could be setting up a visual metaphor for letting go of old hurts.

Shinkai accompanied the teaser with a statement, saying:

We must think about how to close the many doors we left open. I've bestowed that responsibility upon Suzume as she travels across Japan closing various doors. It is my sincere hope that this film leaves its audiences with big smiles and excitement as they walk out of the theater.

CoMix Wave Films, the animation studio behind "Suzume no Tojimari," and Toho Co., Ltd., the film's distributor, have also released a poster and plot synopsis for it, which you can see below. The poster has the common goodbye word ittekimasu ("I'll see you later" or "I'm going") written on the side of it in Japanese.

Here's the official synopsis for "Suzume no Tojimari:"

17-year-old Suzume's journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu when she encounters a young man who tells her, "I'm looking for a door." What Suzume finds is a single weathered door standing upright in the midst of ruins as though it was shielded from whatever catastrophe struck. Seemingly mesmerized by its power, Suzume reaches for the knob...

Doors begin to open one after another all across Japan, unleashing destruction upon any who are near. Suzume must close these portals to prevent further disaster.

"Suzume no Tojimari" hits theaters in Japan on November 11, 2022, with more information on the film's international release due to come.