Reviews

Shinkai is up to his old tricks with 5 Centimeters per Second, a 'movie' that, while staying within the topics and tricks that he's used to playing with, still transcend much of his earlier work. The story in 5 Centimeters per Second takes place over three connected, but still separated, story features. The story takes place over a passage of time, and deals with romance over a distance of both time and physical. This is one of Shinkai's hallmarks, it seems, and its pulled off expertly here. Over the development of the story, the characters emotions can be felt very palpably - Shinkai taps into emotions that are very close to us as human beings. And to this end, it works very well. The characters are believable, as is the distances between them - distances so vivid that they hurt us as well as they hurt them. The art, for its part, holds up the story VERY well. There are several moments that look remarkable real. The movie seems nearly to have cinematography, the way real-world things are captured so accurately and vividly, framed and displayed. Shinkai here displays that he has the expert touch of a master filmmaker. You'd swear, as I did, that it's a live-action movie and not drawn, based on the way the shots are framed. Artistically, both the art itself and the movie's cinematography, as it is for lack of an appropriate word, convey the plot action well and superbly enhance the emotional gravity of the whole picture. 5 Centimeters per Second is one of those films that everyone needs to own. Its a rare film that deals so expertly, so artistically, and so humanly with the emotions that are such a integral part of the human condition. Oh yeah, and there is some space stuff too. Shinkai seems to like that a lot as well ^-^