nachtturne
5 Centimeters Per Second contains three short stories, connected by the main character and his childhood love-interest, essentially following their grow up. As many others already marked, the animation is simply gorgeous, and I can't add any more to this - Makoto Shinkai is indubitably one of the greatest animation geniuses of all time.While the visuals are superb, the plot is mediocre at best. I'm an otherwise emotionally sturdy, level-headed guy, but I'm also an absolute sucker for romantic tragedys. This stuff - even the cheesier ones - can make my eyes wet like putting my head in a bucket full of red onion. With 5CPS however, my eyes remained dry and my heart remained... err... unbroken? Each sequence is overshadowed by the immense despair of Takaki, longing for his never-fulfilled love to Akari. In the first episode, Cherryblossoms, it works well: my suspense built with Takakis during the train scene, and I felt soooo relieved when Akari was still at the station. It was sweet. During the sad goodbye, I was sure they were going to meet again, and that we're going towards a happy end. The second sequence then broke this expectation of mine. Instead of searching ways to stay in contact, Takaki goes full hopeless, writing emo messages to himself, while completely ignoring Sumida, a girl who fell in love with him. I GET THE VERY BLATANT MESSAGE, MR. SHINKAI! But come on: Takaki were in his 17-18's at the time. When did Takaki and Akari stopped sending mails to eachother? Why didn't they change numbers? And if Takaki was so goddamn in love, couldn't he visit Akari... like in the summer? If their love was truly impossible to be fulfilled, then this desperation of Takaki were justified. But I feel like it wasnt, and otherwise real and deep emotions regarding love felt like teenage angst and self-pitying. This organically carried on to the third sequence. Thats where realism finally kicked in: while Takaki was still deep in depression, Akari lived her life on, getting engaged and stuff. And when they met again at the intersection, I was so glad Takaki didn't run after Akari, but let her go - the only sensible thing he had done since sequence one.Overall it's a good one-hour movie, and a must-see for the visuals. The plot however is very lacking in some aspects, making very hard to live up to the emotions 5CPS intended to induce.
scientiiaa
5 Centimeters per Second (Byousoku 5 Centimeter) is a 2007 Japanese animated romantic drama film produced, written, and directed by Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star, She and Her Cat: Their Standing Points). The film consists of three parts: 'Cherry Blossom', 'Cosmonaut', and '5 Centimeters per Second', which together have an hour of runtime. As in Shinkai's previous works, Tenmon (he composed many music pieces for Falcom games) composed this film's soundtrack. The film was awarded Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The DVD was released on 19 July 2007. A novel of 5 Centimeters per Second was released in November 2007. In the July's 2010 issue of the manga anthology Afternoon, a manga adaptation started serialization with illustrations by Seike Yukiko (Majime na Jikan, Tsuki ni Hoeran nee).Takaki and Akari, two very close friends and classmates, attended elementary school together. One day, they cannot be together anymore because of Akari's family. Their plans to attend the same middle school are now shattered. The two continue to keep in touch via mails. However, as time goes by, the distance between the two grows larger and larger, making the possibility for them to meet again almost impossible. What fate awaits Takaki and Akari, and will they be able to meet again?Indeed, the story-line is very SoL like: no magic, no forced drama, no superpowers, or anything like that. This movie is absolutely generic, and it might have been the truth, if not one (thing) person: Shinkai Makoto. That person, the creator of 5 Centimeters per Second, made a piece about reality. Yes, yes, it is about reality. Makoto Shinkai does not need to follow a cliché route (death, betrayal, or anything like that) to make his movie unique, he only needs realism, and I must say that this movie is unique. It might be slow, it might have no plot twists, but it is extremely tragic, dramatic, and beautiful at the same time. The last thing I want to mention is that you will never guess what will happen next, as well as the anime's ending, which you will surely like about this movie.The art is amazing, too. Every scene, every detail are just fantastically beautiful. They put so much effort in the animation that you can even make out labels of every product during the convenience store scene. But this is not the main appeal of this anime, the main appeal is its amazingly gorgeous sceneries; they are just impressive. Too bad character designs are not as detailed as sceneries are, but this is not the main focus of this anime; there is no need for some wacky character designs. Sound wise, both English and Japanese dubs are good. There are some minor defects in the English dubs, though; but you will not notice them, just turn off the subtitles. The OST is also good, it manages to fit the voices perfectly well and it does its magic. Tenmon did simply a great job here.There are three main characters in this movie, but I will not touch upon the third one just to avoid spoilers. The first one is Takaki Touno. He is the protagonist of this movie and is forced to move a lot, because of his family's job issues. He and Akari become close friends, but when Akari moves away, they end up attending different junior high schools. The second protagonist is Akari Shinohara. She is Takaki's best friend and love interest in elementary school. Just like Takaki, she and her family move a lot. After elementary school, she moves to another prefecture, which distances her from Takaki. The two, however, continue to keep in touch via mails. That said, all three protagonists are very human and realistic; their inner dialogues and development are just something you will surely appreciate and enjoy. All in all, 5 Centimeters per Second is definitely a must see for all fans of the romance genre. There are no cliché aspects you will usually see in anime like that, only a real life story. What is more, the creator also tries to let the viewer decide and think in many situations during this movie, which is another huge plus of this anime. So, if you really do believe that you are a true fan of this genre and want to see something new, you should definitely give this movie a shot. It is not that long, watch it.
Zach West
The start makes for a brilliant opening, 2 childhood friends move away from each other and write letters to keep in contact, setting the way for a beautiful story of friendship and love, but as the story progresses the main character and heroine drift apart. Not bad as this makes for a great set up to a reunion. A reunion that never happens. the MC slowly drifts into depression in the third part as well as never meeting the main heroine again. the final scene is one of the most annoying scenes I've seen, on par with the ending to "Kimi no iru machi" as it tempts you with closure between the two and then ends without a single word or look between them. The whole films feels like a waste of time by the end of it as although the film seems to aim for "Well life sucks sometimes" approach, it comes off as if the film is unfinished.
