"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.
