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Makoto Shinkai Reveals Which Pop Song Didn't Make It Into Suzume

Onyanko Club ("Kitty Club") in 1985.

Shinkai revealed this while answering a question from the audience about whether he'd ever removed elements from his films because they wouldn't work with an audience outside Japan. The director said that when he made a film, he aimed for something a Japanese audience would enjoy. "If Japanese people can enjoy it, then I think other people will also get it."

However, he added that sometimes producers told him, "No one outside Japan is going to understand this at all."

(Minor spoiler for Suzume.) One part of the film involves a journey in a car, and several vintage pop tracks are heard on the car radio. "There was one song that I wanted to use," Shinkai recalled, "and the producer said no. It was a famous Japanese pop song from the '80s called 'Don't Make Me Take Off My Sailor Uniform.' I like the song, Japanese people are all familiar with it, but they didn't think that title would go down very well."

The song was Onyanko Club's debut single in July 1985. AKB48 twenty years later.

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