Byousoku 5 Centimeter

A major letdown from the supposed 'Next Miyazaki'

I was skeptical about the assertion that Makoto Shinkai was the next Miyazaki, and although I really liked he two previous works, Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, I could not bring myself to lavish him with such high praise until he made a movie that blew me away and that would become an instant favorite. It would seem that I made a wise decision. Miyazaki is undoubtedly one of the greatest anime directors to ever live, and his films (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) rival those of any genera, animation or ... otherwise. He's been said to be on par with Disney, but that is a lie. Miyazaki is BETTER then Disney. So obviously I'm always skeptical to people comparing an up and coming director to Miyazaki.

I watched Shinkai's carrier with great interest from his debut film Voices of a Distant Star to this new film. His strong suits have always been animation and music. No anime director I've ever seen can create such beautiful animation as he, and few can combine such stunning and magnificent animation with just the right music to set the tone and take his viewers far away to walk the snow covered streets along side the characters. He's great at this, but for all that talent he also has a critical flaw to his style which makes his movies miss their full potential; he has no idea what pacing means. Being only 23 minutes long, Voices was paced very well and never had a dull moment, but the follow up Places, being full length, was paced so badly it made me want to skip large portions of the film so I could see some more beautiful landscaping. If the animation and music weren't so great, I doubt so many people would love that movie so much, even though I personally gave it 4 stars.

But now, with his third film, I expected him to have found away around that weakness and create a film that wasn't just visually beautiful, but also well paced as well. Well sorry, but he hasn't done it, and my patience with him is wearing thin. In this three part film Tonoo and Akari are best friends in grade school who spend all their free time with one another, but as they grow up they slowly drift apart, contacting one another at first through letters and then falling out of contact altogether. It is, surprise, surprise, another romance. This would not have been a problem if this new film didn't seem like a carbon copy of Voices and Places, especially places. Guy and girl fall in love at an early age, guy and girl drift apart as life goes on and they grow up, guy and girl never get over each other and miss the other, guy and girl sit awake in their rooms all night thinking about the other, guy and girl never see each other again. If you've seen Places you can pretty much see everything that’s coming. There are no surprises here, just gooey romance.

It’s a real disappointment to see an animator with so much promise get bogged down in these silly romances again and again and again. Voices was good, Places was as well, but Shinkai always tells the same exact story. Its not that he likes telling a certain kind of story, it’s that he likes telling only ONE kind of story, every single time. Get a grip man; make something a little more original. Its bad enough that his pacing is so bad but why even bother making new movies when you’re just going to tell old stories again and again and again? If this is all Shinkai has to offer then it’s not worth my time seeing every film he comes up with.

The animation, as always, is brilliant. I just don't know how much more I can gush over his amazing art. I've been saying this since Voices, but his three films are THE BEST animated films I've ever seen, and I've seen my fair share. Unfortunately this film is missing something; the music. Both his previous films have amazing musical scores that made the film just that much better. I never fail to catch myself humming their main themes after watching them without even noticing. Well I'm not going to end up humming these tunes, that’s for sure. For one thing there wasn't enough BGM to begin with, and what little there is was just a remix of old themes. But the biggest disappointment was the ending song. It’s just not pretty; I'm sorry, but Japanese isn't the most beautiful language to listen to. The ending song was nowhere near beautiful, in fact I found myself turning the volume down and playing a song of my own instead. If they had only play "Don't Say Goodbye" from Skillets album Comatose then it would have been the greatest scene ever (trust me, listen to the song and watch the scene and you'll see what I mean).

So no, this is not the next Miyazaki, not even close if this film is any indication. I don't think I've ever given a Miyazaki film less then 4 stars, he is far and away the most consistent director I've ever watched, so if Shinkai can't pull it off after three tries I think its an unfair comparison.

Replay value; low.

This is a story of "boy meets girl", and then nothing else happens.

Now before I begin my thoughts, I'd like to say that I am a sucker for the anime romance genre. I went in this movie with high expectations, and came out watching one drab, albeit beautifully illustrated animated film.

Byousoku 5 Centimeter had a promising beginning. There is a very touching scene during the (seemingly) fated encounter of the main characters. Unfortunately there is no more enjoyment to extract after this. The rest of the movie consists of observing the inability of the male lead to get over his first love. At ... this point it becomes completely mundane, watching the mc twiddle his thumbs and waste his life wishing he did not have to grow up and apart from his one-time sweetheart. Realistic? Perhaps, but a part of realism that I want to get away from when I watch a film to begin with.

Sure, Byousoku 5 Centimeter is pretty, yet it is dull and unflattering in the story department... at least past the beginning.

I discovered this work of Shinkai's after being impressed by his latest film, Kotonoha no Niwa. Sadly, I was rather disappointed by this one.

"Do you know? The speed at which cherry blossoms fall...five centimeters per second" is probably the film defining quote.

Perhaps it was Shinkai's intention to make the viewer feel this slow passage of time through the incredibly, incredibly slow progression of events in the film. This movie was terribly paced to the point where it was unbearable.

The beginning was set up well, but the middle was just a long and aggravatingly drawn out depiction of scenes that honestly contributed nothing to the ... plot. One would think that sitting through the full length of this movie would merit a well thought out ending, but the ending was just as frustrating as the rest of the film.

The characters, especially Takaki, are not very well developed. They are quite flat. Takaki is the Hamlet of the movie, constantly brooding, melancholy, and very prone to inaction. He does nothing but feel sorry for himself. Akari is the typical anime girl. What else is there to say? Disappointing.

The scenery was very nice. The character art was not. There was a very stark contrast between the quality of the background and that of the characters. It was very strange and the amount of work that was put into developing the realism of the scenery made the lack of work put into the character art more apparent.

Overall, I think many people overrate this simply based on the good quality of the animation and a tendency to be drawn to easily relatable themes like two people slowly drifting apart, long distance relationships, and that whole love stuff.

I have attempted to accurately describe why I dislike this anime, and I have failed momentously on every occasion (I may have even failed this time around). Some may call this lazy, but I find it suitable for the situation. In the portion of this review dedicated to addressing story and characters, I will compare 5 Centimeters Per Second to a literary work considered to be one of the greatest gothic novels of all time: Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Is this a fair comparison? No. But it will be much easier for me to reference Wuthering Heights since it accomplishes what 5 Centimeters Per Second ... could not accomplish and is vital in addressing some of the more fundamental flaws of this movie.







WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!









In Wuthering Heights, Catherine and Heathcliff are two seemingly inseparable lovers just as Takaki and Akari are. Additionally, Catherine and Heathcliff refuse to change just as Takaki and Akari do. Even in the face of marriages (Akari and Catherine), their loves for their respective "similar beings" persist. Both relationships are intended to be shown as the negative way in which relationships that never change can be detrimental to those involved and those surrounded by them. Examples from both works would include Kanae and Isabella. However, unlike in Wuthering Heights, no proper alternative to this destructive relationship is ever presented. The movie comes off as a frustrated and cynical criticism of this relationship without a proper solution as to how to resolve this issue. In Wuthering Heights, Hareton and Catherine share a relationship that develops in a normal enough manner and progresses and changes with time as Bronte views that a relationship should. If a lack of a solution is Makoto Shinkai's method of presenting a theme, then this should have been a problem drama rather than a romantic drama turned tragedy. It is generally much more difficult to offer a solution to a problem than to point out its existence. This is one of the primary reasons Emily Bronte is such a respected author today. Bronte shows the negative effects especially well through Heathcliff. In 5 Centimeters Per Second, the audience has to be told by Takaki himself that his morals deteriorated because of his obsessive love. However, Heathcliff experiences a physical and evident turn from an innocent man with a passionate love for Catherine to a vengeful and malevolent villain. The approach taken in Wuthering Heights is much more affective and helps the audience become more invested in what transpires. Additionally, instead of facing his problems directly in the final scene, Takae walks away from his problems and refuses to apologize to those whom he hurt (i.e. Akari for not even telling her his true feelings when it is revealed that he could have easily done so or Kanae for refusing to even consider her as anything other than a friend). Shinkai couldn't even manage to have Takaki take a villainous role similar to what Heathcliff does in Wuthering Heights. Instead, it feels that everybody in 5 Centimeters Per Second needlessly suffers because Takaki is too cowardly to face his problems and tell anybody the truth about what he is feeling. Even in the end when he walks away from Akari, he has hurt her and himself by not running after her to apologize for never talking to her after their reunion. In fact, Takaki's problem is self perpetuated by his inability to act while Heathcliff simply is driven to becoming a bitter villain after his love, Catherine, is married to Edgar. More than anything else, the story feels like a major letdown and a source of missed potential.








SPOILERS END HERE







On the note of art style, the visuals are impressive and frequently serve to further and advance ideas and tone within the work. Such instances include the somewhat symbolic nature of the rocket launch in Tanegashima, the crossroads in Takaki's hometown, and the frequent changes in lighting and weather to influence mood (empathetic nature). The art style is impressive from a technical standpoint as well. However, there are some imperfections with the art. The art itself becomes noticeably more grainy in Episode 2 onwards (I don't know whether this is simply my computer acting up or that this really occurs. If you known the answer to this, please let me know). The bitrate also becomes noticeably slower, (once again, not sure if this is my computer or not).
The sound and special effects are pretty average. There really isn't much of note in that regard.

P.S. Thanks for reading this review! I just want to give a simple aside to the audience. If you have any constructive criticism on my writing style or the points that I bring up within the review, please feel free to let me know! I'm always open to suggestions and realize that my writing is far from perfect. If you have some insight to this anime that I missed, please, feel free to let me know.

That left me empty and soulless. I wish I'd never watched it. If I had to explain my feelings right now.. it would be a black hole. Lacking any sort of 'Good' feeling what so ever.

Sad. Tragic. Pish.

About ten minutes into the first episode, I was already confident that this would be painfully dull. A direct narration of the show's themes, done here through Takaki's inner monologue, set over nothing but a sort of montage of day-to-day activities with some bits of actual dialogue thrown in is hardly impressive to me. Instead of leading the viewer through events that show them connections between things and allowing the viewer to see connections between things, it's all just spelled out as some metaphor the character giving the monologue at that moment spits out. This largely illustrates what I hate about risking ... my time on a show labeled "slice of life." Often in anime I do enjoy shows that are regarded as such, though they're actually just dramas. A true slice of life, such as this show, using the original intent behind the phrase itself when it was first applied to literature, is hands down my least favorite category of anything ever. Basically the key point is it's like taking a bunch of random events that could very well be part of someone's life, providing no further integration between the events than some inner monologue or a speech (if even that. Often times there is no such integration, leaving nothing but a useless juxtaposition of random occurrences.)

5cm per secound is one of the worst fucking anime movies i have ever fucking seen in my entire fucking life. Every single list of "best anime movies" i have ever seen this fucking movie has been on them or atleast in the comments section where people are like "BUT WHY DIDNT YOU INCLUDE 5cm" Fuck this movie and fuck those people.
The only things this movie has going for it are the amazing visual animation which is one of the best ive seen in a long time, but that amazing art is betrayed by the 2-dimensional characters and the pitiful story and i say ... pitiful because the entire time watching you expect there to by a grand ending where all the choices and things come together and make sense, the movie even hints at this but nope. The end means nothing, and it feels like it was thrown together at the last secound.
If you are a digital animation student or an artist who wants to learn about how to draw and make the scenery feel alive then watch this film and if you're not just skip it because in the end the MC makes YOU his bitch aswell because like all the other women in this damn movie he breaks your heart aswell cause you expect him TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING IN THE FILM. FOR GODS SAKE ALL HE DOES IS STAND AROUND AND THROW SOME DEEP ""QUOTES"" WHICH IN THE LONG RUN MEAN NOTHING.

I saw the movie once a few years ago and forgot every detail about it. Last night I watched it with a friend.

Pros: Very pretty animation. For the year it came out, it was probably the prettiest anime anyone had seen. Lots of added glare effects and detail elevated every background to poster-quality, although characters looked pretty roughly drawn and designed.

Cons: Everything else. There are three segments with a thin story to tie them together. I'm fine with slow-burn movies but this was a slog to get through. The first story was cute and structured the best, the second story had a neat ... angle but not much else, and the third story was pointless. I can see what it was going for, but have seen it done better elsewhere.

Then you have the ending. My lord, what a terrible ending. If the movie ended a few minutes earlier, just at the end of the dry third act, it wouldve been a fine, forgettable, but inoffensive film showcasing fine animation and a director's attempt at telling a slowburn story. Unfortunately this movie ends with a weird trailer-like music video. Visually we are given a montage that adds nothing, and a terrible song plays over it that is notably faster in tempo than any of the scenes were in the rest of the film. Its a tonal shift and it was so comically bad that my friend and i were laughing and ranting about it. Even worse, we had a full discussion about it and realized the song was still going on. It was such a bad decision.

Forget about this movie. Shinkai was hailed as a great director because of Your Name, but all his movies have the same Shinkai tropes... Metaphors for long distance relationships, a cute first half and terrible second half, and Raining while the Sun Is Out. He was a 1-trick pony and I never want to see his work again.

5 Centimeters Per Second is an awkwardly executed awkward love story revolving around two awkward characters in an awkward situation that handle it awkwardly.

5 Centimeters Per Second is noticeably amateurishly made. Even though the backgrounds are stunning, the character designs (if you can argue that there is any character design here) are atrocious. The characters aren’t drawn correctly to begin with (anatomy and proportion-wise), but they also lack all detail whatsoever. This stark contrast between highly detailed backgrounds and uninteresting and detail-lacking characters is well… awkward. Not to mention their lifeless animation. The characters are awkward enough as characters, but then you add these ... terrible character designs and animations and it takes it over the line. It’s distracting enough that it takes away from the experience.

These characters… just… no. They are unpleasant and completely unrealistic. At least the main character is that way. He is completely unrelatable and has issues that are comical at times. No one is like this. And the fact that this whole movie revolves around him and his issues is what hurts 5 Centimeters Per Second the most.

I put off this review for like two months because of how uninspiring I found 5 Centimeters Per second. I’m only writing it now because I had another review to write. 5 Centimeters Per Second is not worth your time, go watch something else.

Gaaaah! What’s the point!!!

Love hurts, we get it.
Love doesn’t always work out, we get it.

I didn’t need to sit through an utterly boring and uneventful hour to be told something I’ve seen a million times done in much more important and better ways.

Inconsistent themes, bland characters, and dialogue that is straight out of a bad soap opera.

At least it’s pretty…
...
Shinkai has gotten much better at realizing how important characters are, with each new work he seems to prioritize them even more than the previous one. Takaki is a blank slate. Akari doesn't have enough screen time to matter. Unironically I think Sanae might be the only character I found myself caring about, just because she had motivations and emotions. Takaki shows nothing and it's not mysterious or accurate it's just a cheap way to write a story.

This review includes spoilers

So I came into the movie thinking it was going to be good. I was very disappointed

The only thing that I got from the whole movie was that a drink cost 90 yen or 90 cents.

Here is what you get out of the movie...

In episode 1 you learn about trains
In episode 2 you learn about rocketships
... In episode 3 you get a music video

All characters in the movie lacked depth at all. It seems like the movie intended the main character to be Takaki-Kun but the most dialogue I heard was from Akira.

I don't even know what happened in the story.

The main thing you can get from the story is that Akira didn't look back during the train scene.

It could be that I'm not a good movie watcher. But only after reading and watching youtube videos did I realize each episode showed that Takaki-Kun and Akira were slowly drifting more and more apart. What could've been a 30-minute movie was stretched over 1 hour. With such a slow start I don't even know how I managed to continue watching the whole movie.

I don't know what the people on this site are talking about. This movie is shit. It's about cowards whining about things they have the power to change, yet don't. If you have any confidence in yourself or have any sense of how life works, this movie is pointless.

The backgrounds are nice; character designs are bad.

I, dislike romance shows. Never watched them (Unless Ouran Highschool is a romance). I saw how high rated this was, and since it was my "let's try one of the top shows that I haven't watched", I gave it a try. I can honestly say that I started to enjoy it from the start, and I thought it'd be amazing because it was like my first romance show, and I expected a lot because of the ratings.

I was wrong. Quite a lot.
I'm sure this is an unoriginal story, because of how it goes:

1. Boy meets girl in elementary school. They fall in love.
2. They grow ... up and move away.
3. They try to keep in contact. But fail.
4. They become adults... then I just didn't understand WTF HAPPENED.

Story: Like I said, unoriginal and not interesting. Part 3 of the movie confused me like crazy. I had no idea what the hell was going on. The story just goes by too fast and I barely felt anything from it. Aren't romances supposed to make you feel something? Or have an happy ending? This is how it ends people: "Boy and girl walk beside each other, going opposite directions. Then they turn to look at each other... THEN BAM A DAMN TRAIN COMES BETWEEN THEM." I STARTED TO "LMAO"." And then another one! The girl obviously left by then. After seeing that, I just felt like "Wow that's sorta sad". So, no happy ending for this shit.

Characters: I don't know who is who, forgot everyone's names and most of the girls look alike. I even think that the train scene girl was his childhood friend. If she was, than this movie is complete bullshit. Because of how fast paced this crap was, and how it just focused on them missing each other, I couldn't find out anything about their character. The only one that is actually remember-able would be, whoever that one girl who liked the main character is. She liked to surf =D - is all I know.

Sound: Voices are alright, none of them were annoying, or unfitting. That last song wuz guuud. It'd would fit in perfectly IF, this was a HAPPY ENDING story.

Art: Great. Beautiful. I likey. The art HAS to be the best thing in this BS.

Enjoyment: I felt sad, empty, it was like the movie took out all the good feelings from me. Well, maybe it's just because of the way this ended. But yeah this was bullshit.

I don't recommend this, but since people seem to like it, give it a try cuz you might too. But you kno what? Maybe I won't reject watching an anime if it's labeled as a Romance with other genres because of this.

Do you want to watch a beautiful looking anime in which absolutely nothing happens? Then 5 Centimetres Per Second is for you!

Seriously, there are some amazing looking shots in this movie. The only black mark on the visuals here is the character designs. They have some seriously ugly faces here. But just look at the environment around it - makes real life look kinda lame by comparison!

Thing is, the second I got over how pretty it all looked, what I found was a story that, after the first chapter, never really went anywhere.

While I see the message Shinkai was trying to send with this ... anime, he could've found a much better way of sending it.

The first chapter starts things off well - I could've done without the narration that sounds like I'm getting a novel read to me though. I don't really think that's the best way of establishing who the character is. Narration aside, it's easily the best part of the film (probably because it's the part that narrates the least). It shows just how far these two are willing to go for each other, and it's quite heartwarming.

Then, the second part starts. This is pretty much where it all goes wrong. It's hard to care about someone I just met, especially when that person has done next to nothing to distinguish themselves as a character. If I muted this film, I probably would've assumed that the two main girls in chapters 1 & 2 were the exact same person.

This is also the most narration-heavy portion of the film.

I think that's my main problem with 5 Centimetres Per Second. It presents itself as a "show, don't tell" sort of experience, that then proceeds to tell you everything.

In the third chapter, they make the odd decision making the ending a music video, which really lessened the impact that it made on me. It's a bittersweet, but somewhat optimistic moment, but it contrasted heavily with the events of the chapter leading up to that moment. They could have used that time they were spending on the music video to give the moment a bit more weight, especially in relation to the character's current state of mind.

The one time that telling could've been beneficial to what Shinkai was showing was the one time nothing was said.

I wanted to like 5 Centimetres Per Second. It's a gorgeous film (people's faces aside), and I liked what Shinkai was trying to say.

I just wish he truly knew how to say it.

It made me angry. Like nothing happens in the movie. I kept waiting for the payoff for anything and it just kept getting sadder and sadder and by the end, I was like "well that was a huge waste of time." I'm originally not a fan of slow shows/slice of life, but when this guy just lives his life and I only get to see the sad parts of it right up till the end where the character X just ignores character Y entirely for no good reason, it pisses me off. I understand there was a message to be understood in the ending, but ... I did not jive with it at all.

Welcome all to another edition of Robert's Too Late Reivews! This time we're taking on the enigma that is the three part 'movie' Byousoku 5 Centimeter'. This anime opened with me gaining great hope and feeling wonderful feelings for what might be, only to utterly and completely dash them in the end. The short of it, I find this tale to be woefully and poorly done, and do not recommend this movie at all.

I know many sing the praises of work such as this, and it supposedly comes from a rather renowned director/writer/studio/whatever, but a famous name, a good movie does not make. One ... guess as to if any from this film made the RTRL wall of masterpieces. (Hint: no) Let's break it down for the home boys:

As this is in 3 small 'episodes' (my version presented as a complete movie) there's going to be no possible way to avoid spoilers or talk about thematic elements on any kind of grand scale, so keep that in mind.

Story: 3
I give this a 3 because it's the exact opposite as what one would expect. Now I will preface that by saying I'm a hopeless romantic. I watch movies and such to get AWAY from real life, not to beaten over the head with painful concepts real life often twacks us with. I will further admit that basically the first girl I really fell in love over still talks to me on a daily basis. I told her I loved her, and she me, no more than 8 hours ago. We are not in a romantic relationship, but our bond was important enough to both of us to keep alive these past 25 years. Now to the film, we have a boy and girl fall in love, move apart, and drift apart. We see both these people pine for the love lost, think of their errant loves, and yet, move forward without the other into the rest of their lives. Is this real? For some people (clearly not me) but most, yes. Childhood friendships and courtships are lost in time as life moves forward. It's a precious few that are willing to work to keep those bonds alive. And even me, with my first crush in my life, have lost other friends, ones that had either of us tried, might have prevented the loss.

I have no problem with this setup as long as we are given a replacement to show that the characters lives are still enriched by the changes they've experienced. The main guy is shown spending time writing letters (he doesn't send) and composing texts (also not sent) to the girl he loves deeply from his childhood. This is so much a point that a new girl at the new school falls for him, and is utterly putty in his hands, and he takes little to no notice of her, for he is always scanning the horizon for the love he had with the first girl. His devotion to a girl who he wont even mail a letter or send a text to dominates his heart and mind to where he inadvertently breaks the heart of a different girl who wants nothing more than to love him. Be with him.

The female lovebird also suffers the same, though we see less of her. She sends letters at first that slowly peter out, and with time she moves on. We see at the end that she's to be married, and that apparently her life has been fine after her whirlwind childhood romance.

All of this is fine from a story point, as long as we don't watch 2/3s of the film with the guy ignoring an adorable girl because he's lovelorn. With so much time and energy wrapped up into how much he misses her, I fully expected for her to run to him at the end, in some manner, and their relationship to resume, and them to live happily ever after.

I understand the point of the movie is to reflect real life. Yes in real life things like this happen (though Becky and I prove they don't HAVE to go down that way) but I don't watch movies to see heartbreaking sad real life, I watch it to see the girl get her prince, the guy to find his one true love, for romance to conquer all. Not really realistic, but realism in movies isn't exactly a norm. Last I looked thunder gods, and men with spider powers were not real. Movies and shows provide an escapism that real life lacks. At the end, when he turns back to look across the tracks, when she was gone, I wanted to cry. How depressing! I wasn't okay with it like he was, I don't want to accept that's how live goes, I want to be happy I want to see a moment where they run into each others arms and everything is fairy book perfect.

Yes this is a review, and yes it is only my opinion. Many out there, reviews clearly show, preferred and enjoyed this realistic ending, this forced view of evolving maturity, and admittedly that they show the two do get on with their lives, keeping only their warm memories in their hearts. I'm sorry, I'm American, and if it's not a culture thing, it's a 'me' thing, I want my romance to have sweeping movements of love conquering all. I have lived a life where though I do not date my first crush, she is still deep in my heart, and we share in each other's lives. Some day we may pursue a relationship, and if so, that will only be possible because, as friends, we decided we wanted to remain close as possible. Even through a trip that took me several states away for years.

And if I never am with her, I have with me a life long friend, one that I have because I DIDN'T write letters and not mail them. Because I DIDN'T write texts and not send them, because I DID put forth an effort to hold on to what is important to me.

I find this story depressing, which is the total opposite of what I watch movies for. Life sucks, there's no need to remind me. No happiness to be found in the death of a dream. And the story taking the angle of showing how much she was still on the guy's mind makes his sudden 'well, that's over' turn there at the very end flippant at best. I could fix a huge problem in the movie's ending with one scene. Have the guy and girl not meet, like happens, and immediately have guy ask the surfer girl if she would like to go out. Boom, there we see that he's truly moving on. Alas, we don't get that.

Art: 9
This thing is pretty. I loved the art, just because I have a story issue doesn't mean I cannot enjoy how fantastic everything looked. I don't know if I can nail it to one issue or another, but overall together the entire artwork just really nailed it. Very awesome.

Sound: 7
The voices were good, the background tracks were fitting. They didn't blow my hair back like the art, but they were good overall, so no complaints.

Character: 3
With the story, as it stands, we have not only the shaky ground the guy is on in his sudden decision to carry on with life, we also have the hurting of the surfer girl that is never resolved. We know from the statement main girl gives to her parents that she's apparently getting married, that closes her arc, lets us know where she is, that she's moved on. Her not lingering at the train crossing also confirms for us that she's okay, that we can rest assured that she's not pining over him still.

On the other hand, the fact he DOES linger for even a moment shows she's still in his heart. The fact he isn't hurt by her not being there does show us that he's not as bad off as he could be, but still, we are left with him hanging. I don't like how we're left with him, and how we're left with the poor surfer girl who wanted nothing more than to love him. Why does she have to get the metaphorical shaft? Just because her heart fell for the wrong guy? Is that realistic? Sure it is. Is that the kinda thing I want rammed down my throat in a movie? Not usually. If we had seen those two move on together, that would have fixed so many problems for me. As is we have characters without resolution. If that was intentional, that is poor writing. If not, that's even worse.

The pro of it is that the movie does focus heavily on those three characters, the main guy and gal, and lovestruck loser gal. With such focus we are given more time to think and consider, come to identify with each character. Still I didn't enjoy such associations.

Enjoyment: 3
I know this is likely to not get a single 'helpful' if even a single read by mortal eyes. If you have an issue, please feel free to message me, I assure you I am most polite in conversation. But for my time, I really feel like this movie did nothing but remind me of pain, pain I've had slightly from losing some friends, and imagining what it would have felt like to lose my very best friend over something stupid like not mailing a letter or sparing a phone call. I love happy endings, and this was not a happy ending, even though they tried.

So no characters on the wall for this one, and no intent of that changing. So let's let the hate and/or ignoring begin! I love all you guys, I want happy endings for everyone. Feel free to bonk me on the head and show me how I missed the entire point.

To be honest I didn't like the end, Akari and Takaki ends with a cliff hanger.

this anime different from the manga. And I think the manga is better.

in the manga, although the same ends with a cliff-hanger, but what about the feelings of each character are described. and that I can understand while reading a manga version.

that just my opinion, I think that akari (although married) still not forget takaki. And kanae with risa still liked takaki.


Maybe the anime and manga is finished, but yeah ... for me the end of the story is still unclear. because the end of takaki yet ... can be sure with whom. Although the manga is finished ,there are still a lot of possibilities which would occur. but it seems the author will not continue the story.


However, thanks for makoto shinkai who've made this anime.

Let me start by saying that I love romance anime. Some of my favorite anime series ever are Shakugan no Shana, Toradora, and Nanatsuiro Drops. However, this one really falls flat in terms of its execution and characters.

As for the movie, the story was actually very interesting; it piqued my interest and made me want to start watching immediately. Two people who fall in love, get together, but eventually drift apart. This movie would have been excellent if it wasn't for the following reasons:

1. The characters are so unbelievably flat. I watched this movie last week and I can't even remember any names. (In fact, ... I couldn't remember any names an hour after watching it.) Any great movie can pull off fleshing out and portraying very powerful characters in just an hour and a half. However, this one does quite the opposite. There was very little character development throughout the entire movie.

2. There were little to no scenes outside of strictly the main plot line. Sound like a strange reason? Well, the main plot line really wasn't very interesting. Intriguing, but not interesting.

3. The way the story was told seemed like someone was just telling their life story or something. Sure, it's different, but it's not exactly interesting.

4. I really had no idea what the second part had to do with the story. One shouldn't be confused through thirty minutes of an hour-and-a-half long movie.

So in conclusion, it's been one week since I watched the movie and I really can't remember anything about it other than the impressions that it wasn't that great. Like I said, I can't even remember a single character's name.

With all the high reviews and recommendations on how 'great the film is' along with the fact that it was written by Makoto Shinkai, I was expecting this movie to be absolutely breathtaking. Sadly, this is far from how I actually felt and it has to be one of the most disappointing animes I have seen to date.

It immediately throws you in the deep end, expecting you to already know and care about these characters you literally just met with little context as to what is actually going on. For the majority, I was sitting there thinking 'what is going on? why should I care? ... should I be feeling something right now?' which is not something you should have to deal with in a good anime.

After watching it, I get why it was meant to be sad, but it was portrayed so poorly that even during the supposedly 'emotional' ending I was unable to feel anything for the characters at all, and that's coming from someone who will cry at literally anything.

Characters were plain, boring and unmemorable with little to no development, being thrown at you one after another with no backstory which makes it hard for you to find any relatability in them, making it near impossible to actually care about them and their feelings.

I've literally been sitting here for ages just trying to work out what the hell I just watched and what the point of it is. It's a complete waste of time if you're looking for something emotionally moving that has an actual impact on your day.

I really don't understand why this is considered a masterpiece. It wasn't god-awful, but I wouldn't call it great - or even good.
First off, the art: It seems to be the main selling point with most people. The backgrounds and scenery are gorgeous, yes. In fact, the surroundings looked so nice that the poor quality of the characters' animation was not only surprising, it was downright jarring. The facial anatomy rivaled Madoka Magica in terms of cringe - lazy eyes, assymetrical jawlines, the works - and it was all juxtaposed against beautiful sunsets and photo-quality street scenes. Clearly the people who animated the backgrounds had ... nothing to do with animating the characters. It was really strange and distracting.
The story is mediocre. I think the director was trying to be subtle, but instead of saying a lot in few words, it seemed like he didn't have much to say at all. The relationship between the two main characters was two-dimensional and uninteresting, mainly because we never see what made them so valuable to each other in the first place. Moreover, there wasn't really a climax or payoff; the story just drifted on lazily, each character travelling a slow downward slope, until it just sort of ended.
Like I said, it wasn't god-awful, but it wasn't compelling or even interesting. The most memorable thing was the scenery, which couldn't make up for the prodigious mediocrity that came with it.