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I have wanted to write this for some time now, yet I haven’t gotten around to it. But now with the upcoming anime adaptation I feel it is as good of a time as any.
When I first heard about this series I thought I would like it, and I was right. The series probably seems dumb by what the description says, and maybe the first few chapters. But give it a try and you might like it. I thought it may not be quite what I expected when I first started, but there were only ten chapters translated at the time so I stuck ... with it. And I’m glad I did, on the surface it may seem shallow, but there is a lot of potential if you just give it a try.
I think that the story and the relationship between the two main characters is rather enjoyable to see. Even though the story can be ruff and maybe even dark sometimes it always has happy and funny times. I think it really completes the story to have the funny moments paralleled by struggles and short-comings, and there is a great deal of each. By doing so it shows that the characters are not larger than life; not only do they have their humorous moments they have a lot of serious and tragic times also. Sometimes their relationship can be rocky and strained, and other times awkward. What can you expect when you are told that you were destined to be with some one that you just met, and don’t even get along that well with. Personally I think that these struggles add to the depth of the story. It does seem that even if they didn’t really like the whole marriage thing in the beginning; they have grown accustomed to the idea. I think that for these two characters being told that someone can not only keep up with you but will be by your side while you fight pure evil together. Even if it takes some time to get used to, I’m sure sounds quite nice when you have been fighting alone for so long. It might be slow sometimes, but it is a good story and I can’t wait to see what will happen next. The story and characters are well developed for the length of the series; also the story has a good balance of action, comedy, and romance. In closing it has an interesting premise and I think someone needed to write a story like it, and I’m happy I found it.

Overall I had quiet a few opinions which prompted me to write this review, this section is a non-spoiler summary opinion. For my full spoiler laden opinion see below, I couldn't give my full opinion without spoilers.
This "movie" was certainly different than I expected it to be, is it good or bad? I not going to claim that I know what someone may like, I however didn't like somethings about it. The animation is in a different class than most anime out there, it has very sharp and vivid images. However I did notice that sometimes the voices didn't match the timing of the ... characters lips, in both Dubbed and Subtitled versions. I don't believe that it was just lagging, because I didn't notice any other problems in the viewing. The individual vignettes are well contained in themselves, yet they leave many gaps in the timeline. It takes the whole of the segment to get an idea what has occurred between the previous one and the current vignette. In my opinion this movie did a good job in making you feel the characters happiness and their angst, the latter of which there is quite a bit. No offense to the author of this story, but the speed of cheery blossoms falling isn't a very fitting title. But just to tie it into the title a couple of mentions of the speed of falling cherry blossoms is made. If you do not want any spoilers, read no further. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!





I had high hopes when I heard of this movie. I thought it would be a good heartfelt story and it was, just not how expected it to be. I will rate this on each vignette individually, as they vary greatly. #1 is much more intense and has more spoilers because it is the basis for the whole story.

#1 It starts out rather like you'd expect it to. A scene with a couple of friends (Akari and Takaki) being separated from each other and expressing a desire to meet again someday. After Akari moves away some time passes and letters are sent back and forth, flashing scenes of the two apart and memories when they were together. Then Takaki is going to move away from Tokyo were they both lived, but before he goes he wants to see her one last time so they set up a meeting to see each other one last time. Takaki also wants to give her a letter he has been writing for a while. After school on the appointed day Takaki hops on a train and goes the three plus hours to see her even though there's a blizzard. Well he gets there over four hours late with no letter (because it blew away), hoping she got tired of waiting for him and went home. But low and behold she is sleeping in a chair in front of a stove at the train station. They share a tearful reunion and a snack, before heading out into the snow to go... somewhere. I mean seriously, maybe they were planing on going to her house as they were only a short distance away when they stopped. They stop under the cherry tree Akari mentioned in her letters, and admit their feelings for each other by sharing a kiss. Then after spending the night in some random shed, they regretfully part ways in the morning. After Takaki leaves Akari is seen with a letter of her own, which probably says something similar to his letter, whatever that may be. Seeing all this I thought the story would be a heartwarming story, and would give it a nine.

#2 Alright so Akari isn't there, but Takaki still seems to be keeping in touch with her by text as he is always on his phone. I seemed to me that the second part followed Kanae Sumida who has a crush on Takaki, and her struggle to get him to notice her. It is not uncommon to have another love interest show up after some time in any story, but after the first part I was confident in the outcome of the story. So frankly I was shocked to find out that Takaki wasn't writing to anyone, but just writing messages only to delete them. Apparently Takaki and Akari have barely spoken to each other in the past several years, but this movie is about the distance between them so I was not surprised. Just like Takaki I was hoping for a miracle that they would be reunited, so I wasn't surprised that he didn't notice Kanae. I felt very sad for Kanae when she discovered she didn't have a chance with Takaki, and looking back on it now I wish they had hooked up. Still over all the second part wasn't that bad, it had good character development for the length it had. Over all I'd give it a seven, even though some distance separated them I still thought there was still hope.

#3 Oh, where to start. Quite some time has past since the end of part two, and Takaki has a job in some big office building. He moved back to Tokyo after graduating and now sits in front of a computer all day. He still has not met Akari again, and his life isn't going very well. He has continued to think about Akari even though he hasn't heard from her in many years. His girlfriend also broke up with him, probably because he was so distant, only driving him into further depression. His work suffers because of this forcing him to quit and wander about all alone. Now Akari doesn't seem to be doing that bad competitively. She is now engaged to some man working in the city, and is to be married in a month. While she is packing to go back to Tokyo she comes across the letter she was going to give to Takaki. Finding of the letter brought back memories of their days together on her train ride back into the city. Next Takaki is seen crossing the train tracks, that he used to as a kid, one day he passes a girl that resembles Akari. But as a train is coming he crosses to the other side before looking back, and it appears the girl looks back as well. The trains separate them for a moment, and when the trains pass she is gone. Takaki then gives a slight smile and walks away. THE END. Needless to say this is not how I thought it would end, and it leave a big question "What happened with the trains?". Was it really her? If so why wasn't she there when the trains moved? Did she not recognize him? Has he gone Crazy? Quite possibly he didn't have a very pleasant life there at the end. I have to think it really was her and she didn't want to face him after all this time. She was just thinking about him on her trip over, so if she thought to turn around she knew it was him. She probably thought it best to tell him to 'move on', by walking away. He might have gotten her message because he is smiling as he walks away, or he thinks he has totally lost it. I give this part a four only because I believe he got the message.

So in the end I found this story rather depressing. I thought they would be separated for awhile then find each other and have a heartwarming reunion. I thought the scene on the stairs from "The Garden of Words" was in this movie because of the similar animation. Part of this thought I credit to the AMVs that I have seen where both of these movies are included. As you can see my opinion degraded as the movie went on. The first part I wouldn't mind seeing again. Maybe even the second part even though it was basically just filler, but the last part I don't think so. Maybe they just were not as close as they thought they were. You think that nearly freezing to death in a shed would be a great bonding experience. It is sad to see a relationship that had potential dissolve because of neglected communication. As you can see in the song at the end they both stopped writing to each other, it was not solely one persons fault. I know that they didn't admit their feelings in words, but actions speak louder than words. However it was evident that they regretted not verbally expressing their feelings. Over all it was a good story as to how things can go wrong, however that was not what I thought it should have been.