Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume Novel Surpasses 350,000 Copies Sold Ahead of Anime Film’s Release This Weekend
Image via Suzume on Twitter
Ahead of the release of the Suzume this weekend in Japan, the official Twitter account for the anime film revealed that the novelization of the film, which was also written by Makoto Shinkai, has already sold over 350,000 copies since it was released on August 24.
小説『#すずめの戸締まり』
㊗️35万部突破????????書店イベントも最高潮！
現在全国の書店で開催中の
ディスプレイコンクール最優秀店舗では#新海誠 監督＆ #原菜乃華 さんによる
「Wサイン会」の実施も決定！✍️その他書店イベントも実施中✨
小説の詳細は????https://t.co/09GPyzQ7va#11月11日公開 pic.twitter.com/TgOjOCbJia
— 映画『すずめの戸締まり』公式 (@suzume_tojimari) November 8, 2022
The Suzume novel, following on from the Your Name and Weathering With You novels, is written by the director and contains the entire story from the upcoming film. Your Name’s book was released a month prior to the release of the film in June 2016 and had passed 1 million copies by September, whereas Weathering With You’s novel was released the day before on July 18, 2019, netting 650,000 copies sold on September 10.
Suzume would be the first book released so much earlier than the film and is also the one that has sold the least—though it’s likely people bought the other two books to re-experience the story of the film rather than read it before going to the theater.
RELATED: Suzume Production Book to Be Given Out as First Japanese Theatrical Gift
While no English version of the Suzume novel has been confirmed at this stage, all of the other novels by Makoto Shinkai have been brought over into English from Yen Press around the time of the US runs of the films, including Your Name and Weathering With You.
Suzume is directed by Makoto Shinkai, who also penned the screenplay for the film alongside Masayoshi Tanaka as the character designer, Kenichi Tsuchiya as the animation director and Takumi Tanji as the art director with animation production at CoMix Wave Films. The film releases in Japan on November 11 with Crunchyroll teaming up with Sony Pictures and Wild Bunch International to bring the feature to global audiences outside of Asia in early 2023.
Source: Suzume on Twitter
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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
