STORY:
I feel that some of the theme that Shinkai explores in this story are interesting for reasons more than just the fact that they aren't usually seen in romance anime. For example, the theme of distance doesn't seem like a great idea for an anime centred around romance, but somehow when it's first used at the start when Takaki is a kid, the theme resonates and makes us feel sad with the character, rather than for them. I believe this is because distance is something that almost everyone has experienced in one way or another and so we are more susceptible to being empathetic over sympathetic. Another key theme of the story is the theme of age and growing up, which is something that people sometimes have a hard time doing because it means leaving experiences in the past and Shinkai uses Takaki's inability to do this in the second half of the film to make us relate to him personally about a time when we have also failed to move on from an intimate or joyful experience. Unfortunately, despite the density of emotion we get from the first two parts of the film, I feel that the third part was more rushed and we aren't given nearly as much insight into Takaki's life, instead we are left to make assumptions about his lifestyle and his relationships. Depsite this, I give the story an overall 8.
ART:
Where do I even begin? If you've already watched a Shinkai film, you'll know exactly what I mean by that. It's just stunning the detail that is put into every single frame of this film and how much effort each scene is given to echo the emotions he tries to bring across to the watcher. Even if you don't particularly like the plot or the characters, you should still watch the entire movie based on it's visual features. The artstyle also captures the exact emotion of each character and, although perhaps simpler than other anime films and series, is drawn well and consistent. Overall, I give the art a 10. If I could give it an 11, I would.
SOUND:
For me, the sound of an anime has never really been a massive sticking point because I'm usually paying attention to the art and what the characters are saying via subtitles (I unfortunately don't understand spoken Japanese). However, I think the sound is well mastered and a consistent volume throughout and there are a couple scenes, like the rocket launch in the second part, where the sound design is done very well. Overall, I give it an 8.
CHARACTER:
Here's where the film takes a bit of a downturn. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't like Takaki very much. Hear me out, I think he serves his purpose as the main character and I understand that Shinkai was trying to make us feel sympathetic for his loss of contact with Akari, but I thought that Takaki came off as more of a dick than anything. Maybe it's because I really like Kanae's character and the way Takaki could never see her as someone who might like him and was ignorant to her attempts to confess to him pisses me off a bit. I also though Akari was a great character... until the end, where it was only after going back over the film that I realised she had moved on anyway, even though I think she could have been used for a different purpose, perhaps to meet Takaki again and bring closure to each other, but that's just my humble opinion. Overall, for me the characters get a 6, but I know some would disagree with me.
OVERALL:
Depsite my dislike for some of the characters, I give this film an overall 9. It was refreshing to watch something that gave me a new theme rather than the typical "Boy meets girl by unlikely chance, eventually live happily ever after". The visuals are stunning, like I said above, and I will continue to follow Shinkai's work closely because of it.
