First off, the story. The synopsis will cover you without spoilers, so all I want to say is that the story is touching, interesting, heartwarming, beautiful and with a bittersweet ending.
Animation is next. I watched this film in an incredibly high quality, and it was clear that the animation in this film had a high budget. The environment throughout was beautiful and amazingly drawn.
Finally is directing. This is directed by Shinkai, so you know top quality, amazing directing is going to occur. And that's not wrong. This film's directing is spot on throughout.
This film contains the song "One More Time, One More Chance" written and performed by Masayoshi Yamazaki originally in 1997, written about his feeling for his girlfriend, who passed away in 1995. This song is incredibly beautiful written with so much emotion put into each version I've heard (1 studio and 2 live), and it fits perfectly with this film, with each line fitting the character's emotions perfectly, and the whole ending sequence is beautiful and REALLY powerful, especially with One More Time, One More Chance's lyrics of reminiscence.
