Souta Munakata

## **Souta Munakata**in *Suzume*

* Human
* Chair

**Souta Munakata** (宗像 草太, *Munakata Sōta*) is the deuteragonist in *Suzume*.

## Overview

A young man who travels across Japan searching for open doors that bring catastrophe upon its surroundings. He encounters Suzume Iwato while headed for a certain ruin containing a door.

Later, Souta encounters Suzume while he is attempting to close a door. With the two's combined efforts, they close the said door. Afterward, Suzume insists on bandaging Souta up at her house. Souta explains that he is a ‘Closer’ whose job is to lock doors to the Ever-After, which leads to the realm of souls. This is because a thing called the ‘worm’ is constantly trying to escape from the door, which causes an earthquake in Japan. He explains that the reason why the worm got loose must have been because the keystone left his post. Suzume reveals that she was the one who released the keystone, to which Souta responds with anger and then calms down after seeing Suzume's distress.

While the two get acquainted, a cat, later revealed to be Daijin, appears at Suzume's window. After Suzume feeds the cat, he speaks, saying "You're in the way" to Souta, then turning him into the 3-legged chair he was sitting on, which was later revealed to be a memento from Suzume's mom.

Souta, realizing the cat is the missing keystone, chases the cat all the way to a ship, where the cat escapes. Suzume, who had followed them to the ship, declares to team up with Souta in capturing the run-away keystone, much to Souta's objection.

Souta ended up traveling with Suzume all over Japan to close the doors from abandoned places which were opened by Daijin, while meeting various people. Along the way, Suzume finds out Souta is going to college to become a teacher and has a friend named, Tomoya Serizawa, who claims Souta owes him 20,000 yen. During this trip, Souta had multiple dreams about him being stuck on the chair and having ice fuse him to it.

Daijin ends up opening the door in Tokyo, and after Souta demands he return to his post as the keystone Daijin replies that he cannot, as he passes the role of being a keystone to Souta. This made Souta realize that the moment he was turned into the chair he was indeed a new keystone and was slowly loosing his humanity. He ends up accepting his fate and asks Suzume to use him to seal the door, while Suzume obliges with tremendous guilt.

Later, Suzume enters the Ever-after to save Souta from his fate as keystone, culminating in a battle where the 2nd keystone (Sadaijin) and Daijin fight the worm. Suzume successfully frees Souta from the Ever-after, and he watches as Suzume gives the 3-legged chair to her younger self.

After leaving the other world, Souta expresses surprise at Tomoya being there.

## Behind the Scenes

### Portrayal

Souta Munakata is voiced by Hokuto Matsumura. His role was announced on September 6, 2022. In the English dub, he is voiced by Josh Keaton.

## Etymology

* The name **Souta** means "grass, herb, weed" (草) (**sou**) and "thick, big, great" (太) (**ta**).
* Souta's surname **Munakata** means "religion, sect, denomination, main point, origin, essence" (宗) (**muna**) and "image, statue, picture, figure, portrait" (像) (**kata**).
	+ **Munakata** is taken from the Three Munakata Goddesses (宗像三女神, *Munakata san jojin*).
		- In the mythology, Susano-o Mikoto (素戔嗚尊, *Susano-o Mikoto*) went to bid his sister Amaterasu-ōmikami (天照大神, *Amaterasu-ōmikami*) goodbye, however, Amaterasu doubted his intention; to prove his sincerity, Susano-o gave Amaterasu the Sword of Totsuka (十束剣, *Totsuka-no-Tsurugi*) which Amaterasu shattered and used to create the Three Munakata Goddesses from the sword's debris. The Three Munakata Goddesses were believed to be the sea goddesses.