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I enjoyed this anime up until the last three or so episodes. Essentially the cry-me-a-river Uori bit. Your voice goes out and suddenly you're the pity party of the century? Get the fuck over yourself.

The whole on-stage fighting/making up thing was also annoying. I get that they were going for some raw emotion to bring the group together, but doing it in that particular setting is so unprofessional. If I were in that crowd, that could have been one of my favorite bands from when I was a teenager up on stage, and I'd still leave if they had some weird fight/non-fight thing happening on ... stage.

Plus, isn't the common theme among idols that you're supposed to always be smiling and making the best of every situation? I don't remember if that was specifically said in this anime, but I'm just going to assume that it was. Instead, the power goes out during one of your most important performances, the microphones still fucking work because plot, yet you're going to sit there sobbing while your staff member tries to save your career for you. Okay.

Also what was that godawful CGI transition? They got to the end of episode 12 and were like, "Oh shit, I thought we had 百万円 for this final episode, but turns out it was actually 万百 oops." Well, what can you expect from the studio that brought you Deen/stay night?

Otherwise I mostly enjoyed this series. Slow pacing and attempted character development are okay with me, even if it only makes half sense. It's when you go full none-of-this-is-even-remotely-reasonable that you lose me. Throughout the non-cringey parts of the series, I liked many of the songs, the art was pretty good, and I certainly didn't have to force myself through it.

Spoiler warning, for safety.

Like many others, this anime is always recommended as one of those "highly emotional" anime, one of the best in season for its genre/type, etc. After having it on my list for a while, I finally had time one evening to sit down and watch it consecutively as a full movie.

The first episode (or segment, if you prefer) was certainly enticing. The art was pleasant, the allure of romance was captivating, and the hinting at the struggles the two main characters would face was down-to-earth enough to make it relatable.

However, with three significant stages of life condensed sardine-style into a mere ... twenty-two minute timespan each, I felt the story progressively fell apart and lost its appeal as early as the second episode.

There is nowhere near enough time to become "attached" to the characters. There is not enough time to feel the true impact of the two characters' relationship degrading over time. There is not enough time to really care that a new person has entered each person's life as a lover or potential lover. You just don't care.

Maybe some people will enjoy this form of choppy storytelling, but for me the transitions were too jarring and each segment lacked enough substance to really formulate a wholesome story of loss, sorrow, distance, and eventually acceptance. There are far too many anime that tell this exact same story more fully and more rewardingly to regard Byousoku 5 Centimeter as a masterpiece or anything of the like.

I feel like this would have been better as a full cours or even just ten episodes with three to four dedicated to each period of life. But it was not, and as such, I can only rate it what I've rated it.