A week after Suzume no Tojimari opened in Japan, a stage greeting by director Shinkai Makoto together with the actors who voiced Suzume (Hara Nanoka) and Sota (Matsumura Hokuto) was held at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills and broadcast live to 343 cinemas nationwide in Japan. I wasn't going to make my way to Tokyo for this, but since it was being streamed live at the nearby cinema, I got myself a ticket to see the movie for a second time.
The actual announcement on the official website (in Japanese)
The event took place at 18:30 on 18 November 2022. The stage greeting was scheduled to take place before the movie's screening for that time slot. It started with the three of them (Shinkai Makoto, Hara Nanoka, and Matsumura Hokuto) entering the stage, with a short self-introduction by each of them. This was soon followed by the unveiling of a HUGE standing panel display printed with the comments about the movie gathered over the past week.
The following are some of the topics touched on during the stage greeting.
- The MC for the event congratulated the director and cast for the movie's great performance. In just one week, the movie had already drawn 2 million viewers to the cinemas in Japan. 3 million copies of the special booklet "Shinkai Makoto Book" (below), given out as a door gift to viewers, was printed, which means it is still possible to get a copy.
- Shinkai asked the audience at Roppongi Hills about the number of times they have watched the movie. Some were watching for the first time, but there were also some in the audience who have watched two, three, or even more times.
- The three of them read some of the comments on the board out loud after the unveiling. "There are two handsome men in the movie." "I want to watch it again but it is taxing on the stamina." Matsumura even pointed out that someone was at a lost of words to describe the movie, simply stating "I love it."
- The three of them were actually just back from Kobe. As part of the movie's publicity, Shinkai (and sometimes with one or two of the main voice actors) will be visiting various parts of Japan to talk about the movie. The first location was actually Kobe. They took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin Kobe Station, which was actually featured in the movie. At the station itself, they were greeted with a life-size door, the same one used for publicity in cinemas (like the one below). It seems the station master is a fan, and had decorated the station, even going so far as to change the flowers at the station to make those in the movie (in terms of color). They spoke about the warm welcome at Kobe, with fans preparing the venues, such as their own illustrations of the movie.
- Shinkai talked about the selection of the voice actors. To him, having written the story besides being the director, the movie was like his own child. So instead of choosing voice actors who are good in voice acting, the audition process was more like recognizing his own children from among the crowd. It was not about choosing new talents. He also wanted to choose people who could work with him as partners in creating the movie together, beyond just acting their parts, and then go on to deliver the movie to others together with him.
- The voice recording for Hara and Matsumura took place over the course of two months. They have their own "position" in the recording studio, with Matsumura standing closer to Shinkai (separated via a glass window in the control room) while Hara was further away. Based on Shinkai's request, they did a short voice acting session on stage, replicating part of a scene from the movie.
- Shinkai talked about how apprehensive he felt about the movie's reception, losing sleep after the movie was launched. He was drinking by himself one night when Kamiki Ryunosuke (the voice actor for Taki in Your Name, plus the voice actor for Serizawa in Suzume no Tojimari) found out and joined him in the middle of the night at the izakaya for drinks.
In all, the three of them avoided talking too much about the movie itself, since there were people who have yet to watch the movie. It was a short event, less than 30 minutes.
The next event will be part of the nationwide tour, with Shizuoka + Aichi on 20 November, Aichi on 21 November, Kumamoto on 23 November, Fukuoka on 24 November, and Miyazaki (which is where Suzume lives) on 25 November. Other stops for this nationwide tour will include Okayama, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Niigata, Miyagi, Iwate, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Ehime, Kagawa, and Nagano. Other places may be added subsequently depending on how well the movie does in the box office. More information can be found here (in Japanese).
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