First of all, be warned that I might spoil some of the plot, so read at your own discretion,
-Story: The movie is divided in 3 acts, the first one takes us to the time when our main characters meet, under the falling “Cherry Blossoms”, during their elementary school years, the second act, “Cosmonaut”, is set during their high school years, before going to college and lastly the third act,”5 Centimeters Per Second”, is set during their years of adulthood.
During the entire movie there is this felling of simplicity lingering in the air, everything follows a believable course through time, nothing’s very flashy, every one suffers and loves in silence sometimes, and there’s nothing that feels out of place, and you get that feeling trough, sometimes subtle, hints left by the author. That’s where I think that this movie shines, in its simplicity, which also ends up hurting this movie, namely during the third act, where some events weren’t properly explained.
-Art: This is definitely one of the best assets this movie as to offer, hand crafted backdrops that take you breath and an attention to detail that would baffle any animation connoisseur, of course that the animation as it quirks, character lip sync is sometimes a little quirky, but to be honest there is nothing bad to say about the animation overall it’s just so good, everything feels as it should, and without a doubt, this is definitely one of the best animations I’ve ever seen.
-Sound: The sound is spot-on, everything sounds as it should, and the OST was all magnificently made by Tenmon, with the exception of the theme song, "one more time, one more chance", that was composed and performed by Masayoshi Yamazaki in 1997.
-Character: There aren’t many characters besides the two main ones, Takaki Tohno and Akari Shinohara, the only other character that stands out, or that as any kind of development is Kanae Sumida.
Takaki is the kind of quiet boy that tries not to stand out much, while keeping everything to himself, being very kind to everyone and trying not make himself a burden to anyone, this as to do with the fact that from a very young age he had to move allot, Akari is in the same way a very quiet, shy and kind girl, also due to the fact that she had to move allot, being this the main reason why they got to know each other and why they became friends.
On the other hand, Kanae is the potential love interest present during the second act, she’s a very worried person, always thinking all her choices trough, trying not to make any mistakes, and in the end feeling guilty for falling in love with Takaki, later on she finds out that even Takaki as all the same worries that she as, making her feel a little less guilty about her choices.
-Enjoyment: The first time I watched this movie I felt this feeling of emptiness, I really didn’t knew what I thought about it, and so watched it a second time, and I’ve got to be honest, even after watching it a second time I cried in some instances of the movie, it really stroke me as this fantastic portrayal of how allot of relationships develop.
I personally loved the second act, namely because I’m a huge sucker for sci fi, and since it is set in Tanegashima during the final days before the launch of a NASDA rocked, I really got a connection with that part.
Overall I give this movie a “5 wallpapers per second”/10, would screen cap again.
