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Maybe The Simpsons isn’t the only animation to predict the future
To say Japan is hit with earthquakes regularly is an understatement. They’re so common, there’s a joke among Japanese people: “Stop, duck, and Twitter.” Yet, when an anime seemingly predicts where an earthquake is going to happen, what are you to do? Well, the recent broadcast premiere of Makoto Shinkai‘s 2022 movie Suzume showed us what Japanese people do: they speculate on social media.
©2022「すずめの戸締り」製作委員会
Suzume aired for the first time on April 5 on YTV‘s Kinyō Roadshow (Friday Night Movie) slot. While the movie aired without a hitch, an odd occurrence happened just after. Two cities the movie’s heroine visited were struck by earthquakes. On April 17, X (formerly Twitter) user Rui posted two images of earthquake epicenter maps and noted how Suzume had traveled to the same two cities, in that order.
「すずめの戸締まり」地上波初放送してから
すずめが巡った順に地震発生してる、 pic.twitter.com/0OkYuHcYlS— Rui (@Rui_tsum24) April 17, 2024
Since Suzume‘s first broadcast, earthquakes have occurred in the order Suzume traveled.
Again, this is mere coincidence, and Rui even apologized to fans if he caused them any discomfort.
僕自身「すずめの戸締まり」が大好きで、すごい偶然だなと思ってポストしただけで、それ以外の意図は全くありません。不快に感じられた方いたらごめんなさい。ただ、すごく良い作品なので是非観ていただきたいです。
— Rui (@Rui_tsum24) April 18, 2024
I love Suzume and thought this was a great coincidence so I just posted it, with no other intention. I apologize to anyone who was offended. However, it’s a really good movie, so I hope you’ll watch it.
If the movie is predicting where the next strong quake in Japan would be, then it’d be Kobe City. Hopefully Suzume isn’t a predictor of earthquakes, because this writer might go back over all of Shinkai’s works just to see if the man is some sort of portent. Thankfully we’re almost a month out from the movie’s TV premiere. So, maybe a strong Kobe quake won’t happen.
Sources: Suzume film’s X/Twitter account, Rui’s X/Twitter account (link 2) via Hachima Kikō