I haven't watched Suzume yet, but reading this eARC made me ten times more excited to get to it. The charming art style and movement had all the charm I remember from the trailer and I loved the story.

Suzume follows the titular character, a young girl trying her best despite the loss of her parents, whose world is turned upside down when she meets a stranger on the road to school asking for directions to an abandoned place nearby. After hearing that the cops are keeping a strict eye on the place, she races back to warn him—only to find a mysterious door leading to nowhere that ends up taking her on an adventure she never could have predicted.

I loved the whirlwind energy and I adored the characters. They both have my whole heart and the parts where they reacted to underestimating each other were done quite well. I think there were some pages where the flow of panels felt kind of strange, though this might have been the way they ended up being laid out on digital. This is a manga adaptation of a movie, so at least if you're desperately craving more like I am, the full story is already out there.

I really enjoyed this book! I’ve had the film on my list for a while now because I loved Your Name. After reading the first volume I’ll for sure be checking out the film!

I loved the movie for Suzume and loved this manga version just as much. It's such an interesting, dramatic world that Suzume stumbles into and this manga version is a lovely accompaniment for movie fans.

I first saw the ads, which mesmerized me with their vibrant colors and whimsical "go-to-the-woods-as-a-cute-cat" theme. Then I watched the animation, which surprised me with its deep plot and dazzling array of colors. Finally, I got the chance to read the manga, specifically the first part of a three-part series!

Souta is a mysterious young man who travels around Japan looking for doors in abandoned places. When he meets Suzume, a schoolgirl, and asks for directions to his next location, Suzume embarks on the biggest adventure of her life. The strange question from this enigmatic young man sparks Suzume's curiosity, and despite warnings, she follows Souta. Unaware of the doors' true purpose or the dangers they conceal, Suzume accidentally opens a perilous portal and releases the guardian (a cute cat!) that keeps the door between two worlds sealed. Enjoying its newfound freedom, the guardian, in the form of a cat, decides to turn Suzume and Souta's lives upside down and escape. But not before transforming Souta into a three-legged children's chair.

This is an utterly wild adventure that captivates and astonishes with its story and characters. The illustrations are also worth mentioning, with their fairy-tale colors that seem to create new hues through tone-on-tone fusions. However, like most mangas, only the beginning and the end are colored; the rest is in black and white. Having seen the animation first, I naturally imagined the scenes in color (a tip for future readers!). Besides the presence of mythological creatures unique to Japan, the story also explores the pain of losing a loved one. As the manga gradually reveals, Suzume was raised by her aunt, and she has only a few, sometimes confusing, memories of her mother. To understand why these memories resurface or what they signify, you must dive into the world of Suzume and Souta. 😊

The only downside to my reading experience was the translation, which felt a bit awkward at times. Certain sentences or word choices didn’t quite match the context in a few places and seemed odd. However, this doesn’t detract significantly from the overall enjoyment, and many readers might not even notice. Hopefully, the next parts will have a more consistent translation. All in all, it’s a refreshing change from regular books, and I highly recommend it to all manga lovers and anyone considering starting their manga journey. Now is the perfect time to dive in! 😊

Thank you so much, NetGallery and Kodansha Comics, for this wonderful reading experience!

Review in Estonian (will be published on July 29, 2024): https://brixieblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/29/suzume-to1-makoto-shinkai-denki-amashima/

This was the cutest intro to a new manga series for me. I loved Suzume as a main character and I can’t wait to know the back story of Souta and what secrets hide behind the door!
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a e-copy.

4.5 stars

I've been meaning to watch the film so when I saw it was coming out as a manga I knew I had to read it

I thoroughly enjoyed this and loved the whole premise behind it all! I love the characters and I'm now super eager to watch the film and continue on with the manga!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this. The artwork is beautiful and it did a great job of adapting from the movie. This was a fun quirky story about a 17 year old girl going on an adventure to save the world from an other worldly foe. Fun adaption from the anime and I’m excited for book 2!

When a door opens to another world, what do you do? You step through it. Past, present, and future, combine when Suzume steps through her first doorway.

If you want a manga that will give you maximum emotional damage, Suzume should be your go to. Fair warning, volume 1 ends on a massive cliffhanger. It's worth the jump.

On the way to school one morning, Suzume encounters a mysterious stranger looking for some ruins. After directions him to an abandoned hot springs, she heads off to school, thinking nothing of it, that is until an earthquake hits and out of sky just above the hot springs, a giant form erupts Knowing she won't be able to forgive herself if something happens to the young man she rushes off to the hot springs not knowing she was taking her first step in the adventure of a lifetime.

Suzume has been on my "To Watch" list for a while, so when I saw that Netgalley had the manga, I jumped on the chance to read it, and I'm glad I did. Makoto strikes the perfect balance between a supernatural adventure story and a coming of age story so far with this first volume. Suzume is an excellent main character in that she is really one of those genuinely selfless people who don't seem to realize that they spend so much time thinking about others they forget to consider themselves. I've found that authors (of manga or otherwise) are often unable to write this character type without it feeling fake, so it was a nice surprise that Suzume felt very real.

I'm also enjoying that Suzume is helped by others along the way. She's not just traversing Japan alone with a talking chair but finding, again, genuinely nice people to assist her and being able to give them something back in return. To be fair I'm pretty sure I enjoy this portion because it reminds me a bit of the Pokemon anime which is just fine with me because there's not many people who can pull of the purity that is Ash and friends just running around the world helping people out.


Overall, I definitely enjoyed this and am looking forward to reading Vol. 2!

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for the eArc!

Very enjoyable!

I went into this manga knowing nothing about it. I didn't know there was a movie until after I finishing reading this. So, in the beginning of the story, I was a little lost. But I was quickly able to pick up on what was going on, and then really got into it. The art is beautiful, and I'm loving the storyline. I look forward to reading future volumes!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for giving me the chance to read Suzume (BOOK 1) by Makoto Shinkai in exchange for my honest review.

What to say about this beautiful masterpiece ?
It's simply outstanding, full of wonderfully illustrated panels that do justice to the artist and the storyline.
As someone who hasn't yet the movie, this volume made want to watch it as soon as I finished reading it ! It was not only an enticing and captivating story by Makoto Shinkai but a true work of art as far as Denki Amashima's works are considered.

I really want to get my hands on my own physical copies of the book/manga adaptation of this amazing story .

This was beautiful! Having the opportunity to read this after having seen the family was wonderful and it gave me the chance to fall deeper in love with the story. The manga was incredibly and it gave the chance to almost die deeper into the characters and spend more time getting to know them. I would absolutely recommend this to someone just getting started in manga and anime (like me) or someone who is already deep in the genre! It's something everyone is going to love!

Rating: 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟's
Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for approving me for this ARC!! I was super excited to read it as the same author wrote 'My Name'!!
-》Review《-
LOVED THE ART IN THIS BOOK! I love this authors art style and have read My Name by him and seen the movie!! This book was super short, but cute and full of a unique storyline!! I was laughing so hard at the cut scenes from the main character Suzume to Souta, where Souta is a chair and clearly has no capacity to express emotion but still the scene shows his clear distaste. I REALLY hope this book becomes a movie/show one day!!

I will be posting more reviews as the date gets closer both on goodreads and retailer sites@

Ever since I saw the film, I fell in love with this story. Now to see this marvellous story come to life on paper was the best thing they could have done.

Once again, I loved these characters and the artwork is magnificent! I can't wait to read the second book, coming this fall 🥹

I highly recommend that everyone get to know this story full of strong characters.

I watched the movie version of this back when it was first released, and I had a few qualms with the pacing and lack of explanations. I asked for the ARC of this manga in hopes that it'd spend more time on the topics that the movie wanted to explore but didn't have enough time for. This volume covers the start of the movie up until they meet the kitty keystone in the bar. It didn't cover enough material to sate my curiosity on ny post-movie questions, because they appear later in the plotline. Still, I'd like to read future volumes to see if the series covers them in the future.

One thing I'll note is how well the artist did with the art. I loved how they draw expressions on Souta's chair form. In the movie, it felt like they heavily relied on body language and the voice actor because the chair's "expression" never changes. Sure, it's missing most of a normal person's facial features, and even missing something as trivial as eyebrows can be a huge detriment to expressing emotion, but you can show so much emotion with just eyes. The artist combines composition and expression to depict the weight of stress, frustration, or desperation that the characters feel. Speaking of composition, the pages have panels that are well-placed and make it easy to follow the flow of the page - the composition is used to guide the reader's eyes to the next panel or speech bubble, and it naturally guides the reader to the next panel. I've never seen an artist do that before, and it was a joy to read! You could tell each page was well thought out and planned.

The artist hand-draws each background in each panel, which is a delight to see - especially when they take creative liberties and show how less can be more, and they don't shy away from doing this on panels with impact that take up the whole page. Some favorites are the panels where they retrieve the fruit on the road and the scene where Souta confirms Suzume closed the school gate and rain is falling. It gives off a light and refreshing feeling.

I have to bring up the soundtrack for the movie was so iconic that I kept hearing it while I read this volume! I'd recommend new readers to listen to a playlist of the OST in the background.

The plot itself is straightforward. We start off with high schooler Suzume and a mysterious man who's looking for random doors. When Suzume accidentally removes the keystone from the ground, we learn about how the keystone is essential to preventing earthquakes. The keystone has been yearning for freedom and turns Souta, the mysterious man, into a chair to prevent him from interfering from their long awaited exploration of life and the world that it finds itself in. Meanwhile, Suzume and Souta go around closing gates, preventing earthquakes, and chase down the keystone. The manga adaptation has been faithful to the movie so far, and I enjoyed revisiting Suzume and Souta's world!

Better Than The Novel

I have already read the light novel Suzume, and thought it was good. However, this Manga version was outstanding!

I was so happy to be able to "visualize" the characters of the book, and give insight into the world of the books.

I really thoroughly enjoyed the art, and found it very impressive.

The story was great, and flowed well throughout the pages.

I am very glad I got this book, and thank you to Netgalley for this.

Definitely recommend checking this one out!

4.4/5

I really don’t know why I don’t read manga more often because practically every time I do I end up loving it!
Suzume was such a fun read, the atmosphere was so cozy it felt like curling up with a blanket to watch one of your favourite movies!
It was so light and summery, and I love the idea of doors that lead to liminal spaces! Even though I'm not entirely sure I've grasped that particular concept yet but hopefully Vol.2 should tell us more. Definitely recommend for fans of the Studio Ghibli films especially My Neighbour Totoro And Howls Moving Castle! With the magic in a modern world and the adventure through the countryside i think i can safely say this book is now one of my new favourite manga!

I’m fairly new to manga, and after reading this adaptation, I’m definitely eager to watch the film it’s based on. Following Suzume Iwato, a high schooler who encounters a mysterious man searching for a door, the story quickly drew me in. It’s a heartwarming tale that emphasizes how people can support each other in unexpected ways. The artwork is stunning and effectively captures the essence of each scene, keeping me engaged throughout. And the addition of a cute yet mischievous cat just added to its charm.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 ⭐

Suzume is one of my favourite anime movies and I'm glad too see there's a manga adaptation for it!!

The story is about Suzume and Souta going on an adventure to catch a keystone turned cat while closing doors to stop earthquakes along the way. Luckily for them, the cat has hashtag called #hanginwithdaijin and they eventually meet new people who helped them on their journey.

I would highly recommend this manga for literally anyone even if you don't like anime. I'm interested in getting the full set and reading them once they released.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics for the e-ARC!

Super cute adaptation of the movie!! I love the movie though and think it's hard for a black and white manga to capture how beautiful the colorful and rich animation of the movie.

Thank you netgalley for letting me read the ARC!