5 Centimeters Per Second: Anime-Movie Review

Heya people,

it's zmote. (zmote.deviantart.com/)

here is the first Review from me. I'll be doing (or at least try to do) one Review per week of Anime-Movies and Series.

Here you go with the PDF-Review: zmote.deviantart.com/art/5-Cen…

It's got images! Check it out.

For those who want a "text only" version, here you go:

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5 centimeters per second

Plot review:

The Anime-Movie 5 centimeters per second is centered around the male main character Takaki Tono and his various relationships during different aspects of his life.
The Anime is split into three acts, beginning with the elementary school arc, followed by the high-school arc and finishing with the - what I would describe as - "after school"-arc.

It is important to "memorize" the name of the main character, as he is refered to as Takaki in the first act, but Tono in the later ones. In the first run through the movie
I was thrown off by this seemingly unimportant fact, as I at first thought the three acts thematized three different relationships of three entirely different characters, which isn't true; the main character is
always Takaki Tono, even if in act two he is a more passive main character.

The final arc ties the loose ends from arc one and finishes in an unexpected way, which might leave you with an empty feeling in your stomach, but impacts with it successfully on what
an unrequitted love sometimes can signify.

Although you won't find anything explicit regarding "male-female" relationship such as nudity or other sexual interaction, there is a kiss-and-hug scene in the first arc which
might be entertained as somewhat inappropriate, but regarding the plot it is more of a "I missed you" kind of kiss-and-hug, which isn't necessarily an excuse for being appropriate, just
an indicator that it's more of the "harmless" variant if we might say so. Also in act two the swimming clothing of some high-school girls might offend, although I found it a refreshing change
to see swimming clothing not to be a bikini.

The Anime glances with a superb and truly beautiful art, interesting camera angles and character interactions. But all in all it's a rather slow paced Anime revolving around the subject
of unrequitted love. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you want to engage yourself about the issue of unrequitted love.

The movie runs a total of about 60 minutes.

PS: Don't read the Spoiler part if you want the movie to have that special feel of surprise.



--- SPOILER ALERT ON --- DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SURPRIZE ELEMENT GONE ---

Wiki summary:

The story is set in Japan beginning from the 1990s and ending in modern day, with each act centered on a boy named Takaki Tono. The first act takes place during a time when cell phones are uncommon and email has not yet reached the general population.

Act 1: Cherry Blossom
Takaki Tono quickly befriends Akari Shinohara when she transfers to his elementary school. They grow closer to each other due to similar interests and attitudes; for instance, they both prefer to stay inside during recess due to their seasonal allergies. As a result, they form a strong bond; they speak to each other using their given names without any form of honorifics, which is a sign of deep friendship and familiarity in Japan. (This fact is lost in the movie's translation to English and other languages, which reduces the implied closeness of their relationship.)
Upon graduating from elementary school, Akari moves to Tochigi, due to her parents' jobs. The two keep in contact by writing letters but eventually begin to drift apart. When Takaki learns that his family will be moving to Kagoshima, he decides to personally go see Akari, since they will be too far apart to visit each other at all after moving. He also prepares a letter for Akari, containing his feelings. However, during the journey he loses the letter and a severe snowstorm continuously delays Takaki's trip for several hours. As the two meet and share their first kiss, Takaki realizes they will never be together again. Stranded in a shed due to the snowstorm, they fall asleep after talking late into the night. Takaki departs the next morning, and they promise to continue writing to each other. As the train rolls away, Takaki thinks that the loss of his letter is not important any more after that kiss, while Akari silently looks at her own letter addressed to Takaki.

Act 2: Cosmonaut
Takaki is now in the third year of senior high in Tanegashima, where the Tanegashima Space Center is located. Kanae Sumida, a classmate of Takaki, had fallen in love with him ever since meeting him in middle school but does not have the courage to confess her feelings. She tries to spend time with him, waiting long after school for the chance to travel home together. However, Takaki appears ignorant to Kanae's feelings and treats her as a good friend. Kanae observes that Takaki is always writing emails to someone or staring off into the distance as if searching for something far, far away. It is later shown that Takaki's emails are not being sent to anyone, and he has had recurring dreams which feature Akari. Despite Kanae's feelings, she eventually realizes that Takaki is looking for something far beyond what she can offer and decides against telling him how she feels.

Act 3: 5 Centimeters Per Second
It is 2008. Takaki is now a computer programmer in Tokyo, and Akari is preparing to get married to another man. Kanae is not strongly depicted in this segment. Takaki is still longing for Akari to the detriment of his lifestyle, which is acknowledged by an ex-girlfriend. This leads to Takaki on the verge of a breakdown and leaving his job. Akari goes through her old possessions and finds the letter addressed to Takaki. Takaki and Akari have a dual narration, both recalling a recent dream depicting the events of their last meeting in the snow and hoping to watch the cherry blossoms together again.
One day while walking down a road, Takaki and Akari appear to pass and recognize each other at a train crossing, where they decided to watch cherry blossoms together right before Akari's sudden moving to Tochigi thirteen years ago. At opposite sides of the tracks, they stop and begin to look back, but the passing trains cut off their view. Takaki waits for the trains to pass but sees that Akari is gone. After a moment, he smiles to himself and continues walking.

Characters:

Takaki Tono (?? ?? Tono Takaki?)
Voiced by: Kenji Mizuhashi (Japanese), David Matranga (ADV), Johnny Yong Bosch (Bang Zoom!) (English)
Takaki is the central character of the film. Because of his parents' jobs, he is forced to move a lot. He and Akari become close friends, but when Akari moves away, they end up attending different junior high schools. In the second arc, he is shown to be an apt kyudo practitioner and a member of his school's kyudo club.
The Manga goes into more detail about his (failed) relationships after college and his attempts to cope.

Akari Shinohara (?? ?? Shinohara Akari?)
Voiced by: Yoshimi Kondo (Part 1) and Ayaka Onouei (Part 3) (Japanese), Hilary Haag (ADV), Erika Weinstein (Part 1), Tara Platt (Part 3) (Bang Zoom!) (English)
Takaki's best friend and love interest in elementary school. Like Takaki, she and her family move a lot. After elementary school, she moves to Iwafune. Apparently she suggests living with her aunt in Tokyo in order to stay with Takaki, but her parents forbid this. For a while, she and Takaki keep in touch via post.

Kanae Sumida (?? ?? Sumida Kanae?)
Voiced by: Satomi Hanamura (Japanese), Serena Varghese (ADV), Kira Buckland (Bang Zoom!) (English)
A classmate of Takaki in high school. She has been in love with Takaki since he began attending her junior high school, but cannot express her feelings to him. Kanae loves to surf and rides a moped to school. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her future. Her older sister is a teacher at her high school.

Alternatively in the manga, she is seen working as a nurse after the events on the film. She decides to go looking for Takaki at Tokyo and after arriving and wandering aimlesly for a while she finally gets his phone number. Just as she decides to go back and not see him, he seems to walk in front of the park bench where she is, presumably noticing her and her noticing him.


Personal thoughts:

Let's get this straight out in the beginning: this is a love-centered Anime-Movie, yet more of a "love from a distance"-type of love. This isn't the kind of love from Clannad, Angel Beats or Toradora, it will disappoint in that aspect.

The first act really touched me, the relationship between Takaki and Akari was so innocent and pure; they were like two souls who were clinging on to oneanother to survive their days in isolation. The whole "staying connected"-thing
through letters was very adorable, especially if I remember back to when I was their age; I found the idea of writing letters very entertaining and special. Their struggle to keep in touch with eachother - keeping in mind that their parents keep moving around Japan because of work - adds this further depth to the story and to the relationship between Takaki and Akari. When arriving towards the end of act one there is this "plan" to meet oneanother, maybe
for the last time, as in the near future their parents are about toe move so far apart that they won't be able to reach oneanother as easily by normal means of transportation. The struggle of Takaki, how he saves up money for the trip and goes through all the trouble to take the train to where Akari currently lives, eventhough it's snowing and storming outside conveys the emotions of Takaki to us viewers in such a way that you'll remember them in the finale of act three and which will make the end of this Anime-Movie this much harder to digest. Both of them realize that this meeting will be special and maybe even final and thus they both decide to write a letter in which they admit their feelings for eachother. On the way to Akari Takaki looses his letter due to windy conditions at the train station and you can see how much it meant to him as he is welling up in tears about its loss. After they meet, they take a walk. They stop beneath a cherry blossom tree and Takaki and Akari, overwhelmed by their emotions for oneanother, kiss oneanother and finish the moment with a hug. Although a great experience according to Takaki, he also speaks about the bitter taste of reality that followed the kiss; he knew they would never be together like this ever again. After that they spend the night in a stable talking. The next morning Takaki leaves with the first train. Both promise to continue writing, but the letter of Akari, which one might assume to be a confession of feelings, the same as the one Takaki had lost and which she chose not to give Takaki after the kiss, kind off indicates what their future will bring.

Act two centeres around the high-school period of Takaki and is mainly based, storywise, on a different girl trying to confess her feelings for Takaki. But Takaki, eventhough friendly and kind, is very much unapproachable relationship-wise due to his thoughts and feelings being with Akari, with whom he seems to have cut contact a while ago as he indicates with "writing to noone" on his phone. In the end of act two that girl, Kanae, fails to confess due to unapproachable Takaki who doesn't seem to get the signals from Kanae that she is in love with him and the act closes with a rocket taking off just in the moment Kanae tries to attempt a final confession.

Act three transports us further in to the future, where Takaki is a computer engineer. He is in an unstable relationship with a girl from work which is about to end. Takaki, in loss about what to do with his life, tries to overcome the emptiness with focusing on work, but fails in the end and quits his job. After his girlfriend finishes the relationship and him having quit his job, he wanders around the city he lives in on the lookout for a new meaning. At the same time, Akari is engaged to a different man and is soon to be married. She moved to the same city where Takaki lives as her soon to be husband lives there, too. One day Akari and Takaki cross the same railroad, around them you see the cherry blossom trees whose leaves are falling. They recognize eachother and both look back after they cross the railroad, but are cut by a train before they can see eye-to-eye. Takaki, convinced that Akari would be looking back, too, is left to realize that Akari has moved on, as she didn't stop to wait for the train to pass. After realizing that Akari has moved on, Takaki smiles and moves along, too.

When the movie ended like that I was like: "This can't be!"
That was too sad. Poor Takaki I thought, living all these years with the passion for Akari, unable to commit himself to other relationships, just to realize that the woman he loved so dearly has moved on a long time ago. That
was painful to watch, but in a way also a very true depiction how not a small amount of love-relationships end, unrequitted, tracked and cheerished by only one side. Although I couldn't quite decide what Takaki's smile was
indicating in the end, there were two explanations. Either he thought to himself how unforgiving life was and his smile was more a smile of resentment towards life itself, or it could also have meant that after all these years he had
held on to Akari, seeing her having moved on allowed him to be free of the burden of the passion for Akari; allowing Takaki to get on with his own life. I choose to think of the latter to be true as I think I'd react that way. The realization that your love was kind of a waste is harsh, but realizing it also gives you freedom not to cling on to that person anymore.

All in all, a great movie, definitely worth the watch.


--- SPOILER ALERT OFF ---  



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