Netflix easily has one of the biggest anime libraries around, especially for movies. They’re often the exclusive home for big and small titles alike, and even when they share titles with other services, Netflix’s accessibility often makes them one of the best streaming services for anime fans from every generation to find something they’ll enjoy watching.
Netflix has always had a great library of anime movies, and that now includes one of the biggest anime films of 2023: Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume. Suzume was met with widespread critical acclaim, even winning Best Film at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and as of April 5, Netflix is now one of the only places in the world to stream Suzume.
Netflix having a film as good as Suzume is great to see in their growing library of animated features, and it does a lot to show how they’ve grown as an anime service over the years.
The biggest reason why it’s so exciting for Suzume to be on Netflix is simply that it’s a great film, whether the person watching the movie is interested in anime. For starters, as is always the case with Makoto Shinkai’s films, Suzume features incredible music, animation, and overall cinematography from start to finish, and with it being Shinkai’s latest film, the visuals and direction are, naturally, the best of Shinkai’s work, yet. It’s a masterpiece purely from a visual aspect, so anyone looking for pure spectacle is sure to get a lot out of it.
What truly sells Suzume as a film, of course, is its fantastic story. Just like Makoto Shinkai’s previous work, Suzume succeeds at telling an emotionally resonant story with an engaging and well-developed cast, and its specific themes of overcoming tragedy by framing it around the 2011 Tohoku earthquake serve to enhance that writing even further. Suzume might not be the strongest of Makoto Shinkai’s films, but the quality of its writing cannot be understated, and when coupled with its incredible direction, it’s still a great film that any fan of his work should watch.
Something else worth noting about Suzume coming to Netflix is how it’s another sign of Netflix improving how it handles anime. A common criticism of Netflix is how slow they are to add non-original content, with many shows and movies not making their way to Netflix until well after the community has moved on to something else. A year after its release, however, Suzume is still a very relevant film, so the film being added to the service so quickly shows that Netflix has learned to start adding anime when it’s still relevant, which is exactly how a streaming site should handle content of any kind.
This improvement in how Netflix handles anime can be seen in other areas, as well. In addition to Netflix recently having added many popular anime like Black Clover and My Hero Academia, Netflix has finally gotten into the habit of simulcasting anime instead of releasing all episodes at once, so it’s clear that Netflix is taking strides to become a much better anime streaming service. Netflix becoming one of the only homes for a great film like Suzume while it’s still popular only further cements that idea, and with any luck, more content of its quality is on the horizon.
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