‘Suzume’ Ending Explained: Do the Cats Die?

After Your Name. and Weathering with You, Makoto Shinkai came back to his fans with a new anime film that premiered in Japan on November 11, 2022, titled Suzume no Tojimari. Although not a direct sequel, Suzume no Tojimari is a spiritual successor to both of Shikai’s previous movies and features a similarly strange and beautiful story and a similar aesthetical approach. With the movie being a major hit in Japan, fans are overjoyed that Western theaters have also begun to air this movie.

With Suzume no Tojimari being a big hit in the West as well as in Japan, we have decided to talk about the movie’s ending in this article. Although Suzume has a fairly complex plot, Shinkai did his best to explain everything to you in the movie, leaving very little to the viewers’ imagination. Now, this doesn’t mean that we cannot talk about the ending, as we are going to explain what happened in the movie and interpret the ending for you if you’re unsure what actually happened.

Suzume no Tojimari has an intriguing premise

The 17-year-old orphan Suzume lives with her aunt in the quiet town of Kyushu in southwestern Japan. One morning, while going to school, she meets a handsome young man looking for a “door” in a deserted town. She shows him the way, and out of curiosity, she follows him. In an abandoned village, she actually finds a lonely door. As she tries to pass through, she sees a strange world that she cannot enter. In her attempts, she loosens a stone that is first freezing and then turns into a being that runs away. An insecure Suzume returns to school.

From there, she later sees a being rising out of the ruins that no one else can recognize, and an earthquake shakes the city. She returns to the ruins, where the young man is trying to lock the door from which the creature is emerging. Finally, the giant worm that came out of the door falls on the city and causes another earthquake. Both return to Suzume’s home, where she patches up the man, who introduces himself as Sōta Munakata. He is a sentinel who guards and locks the gates through which the earthquake-causing parts of a worm enter Japan.

The worm lives in the Ever-After, seen through the gates, beneath all of Japan. Then a little cat appears that can speak and banishes Sōta to a child’s chair kept by Suzume. She was the Seal Stone that Suzume accidentally removed. Now the cat wants Suzume out of the way for himself and Sōta. But since he wants to be transformed back, she flees first. In pursuit of the cat, the two – Sōta still in the form of the chair – follow her through several cities in Japan. The cat, who goes by the name of Daijin, makes it easy for them by always taking pictures for social media. Again and again, worms appear from gates, and the cat is close to them.

With combined forces and Sōta’s power as a guardian, they seal the gates and prevent earthquakes. On her journey, Suzume meets people who support her and who she can stay with, even if she cannot reveal anything about her mission. By the time they arrive in Tokyo, Suzume’s aunt Tamaki has become increasingly concerned and is traveling behind. In the city, Suzume gets to know the apartment of Sōta and his fellow student Tomoya Serizawa, who is also studying to become a teacher. They find the gate in Tokyo but cannot reach it, and the giant worm that appears here is untamable.

Eventually, Sōta realizes that Daijin made him the new Seal, and in the absence of an alternative, using him as the Seal Stone, the distraught Suzume seals the Worm. Suzume does not want to give up Sōta, with whom she has fallen in love, and seeks advice from his seriously ill grandfather, who is also a guard. But he sees no other way and sees a necessary sacrifice in Sōta’s commitment. He is now in the Ever-After, the world of the dead, into which no living man can enter. However, Suzume says she was there once in her childhood, and her grandfather confirms that every person has a door to go through.

So she makes her way to her mother’s home. In Tokyo, she meets Serizawa, who wants to drive her to her destination for Sōta’s sake, and her aunt, who decides to travel with her. Daijin also joins in and is soon joined by Sadaijin, a large black cat who was the seal in Tokyo. They travel to Tōhoku, where Suzume’s mother had perished in the Tōhoku earthquake 12 years earlier, and Suzume walks through the door in the ruins of her hometown. She locates the door and goes through it, accompanied by the two gods in cat form.

Amid the hell of a burning landscape lives the worm that Sadaijin keeps at bay while Suzume runs to Sōta. She can redeem him and give him his form back. To compensate, Daijin reverts to being a Sealing Stone, and together with Sadaijin, the worm can be sealed again. Sōta is freed but breaks up with Suzume again to seal more gates. But he promises to visit her soon. Serizawa takes her back to Tokyo, and with her aunt, Suzume travels back to Kyūshū again via all the stations and the people who live there.

Daijin and Sadaijin did not die

Now that you know what happened in the movie, we can address the ending itself. We have told you what actually happened and how it all played out. Suzume and Sōta managed to seal the final worm, and the two “cats” returned to being keystones, which allowed for additional stability. Doors will continue to keep appearing in the future, but with the keystones in place, it will be easier for Sōta and (potentially) Suzume to keep them in place. But what happened to Daijin and Sadaijin?

Well, while Sadaijin’s role as a keystone was never in question, Daijin was the one who caused a lot of trouble for everyone. But, seeing Sōta’s sacrifice (when he accepted becoming a keystone) and Suzume’s efforts to save him, Daijin realized that he was at fault and reverted back to his original role so that Sōta and Suzume could be happy. Being a keystone does not mean death, although they are not exactly living beings either. They have, as we’ve come to understand, some liberty in the Ever-After, but that’s about it. They seem conscious and can be brought to life somewhat easily, as seen by Suzume’s example, but they are limited in that aspect.

So no, Daijin and Sadaijin did not die in Suzume no Tojimari. They simply reverted back to their original roles as keystones.