As expected of a Shinkai film, it's a visual and auditory feast and some of his best work in those regards. Unfortunately, it's held back by a bit of a scrappy narrative and some lazy & underdeveloped character writing and dynamics. Specifically, I felt there was a lack of significant development or establishment for any of the cast, with the only attempts at such coming way too late into the film, leaving most of them feeling bland but at least likeable. This could have been remedied with better utilisation of the supporting cast during the travel segments, but an unnecessary focus on 'the kindness of strangers' squanders what could have been a wonderful opportunity to actually explore Suzume's character in depth. However, the overall cohesiveness seems to feel more put together than in his previous films, even with the flaws mentioned earlier. It carries a bit more of a Disney or Ghibli sense to its tone - perhaps a sign of Shinkai further understanding and embracing his target audience of young adults and my overall feeling is that, in terms of his career, it's a bit of a 'two steps forward, one step back' moment, even if I didn't personally like it as much as some of his other works.

Nanoka Hara and An Yamane absolutely nailed their debut roles as Suzume & Gaijin's VAs, respectively, though.