[Yukinokesshou]

Originally Posted by typhonsentra

Spoiler:

But.... how long after is that epilogue? It'd be sad to think that they've already graduated and he hadn't seen her for so long.

Spoiler for answer:

A little over a year later. Taiga left around the end of 2nd year (a month or so after the winter holiday... January or February?), and returned in time for Ryuuji's graduation at the end of 3rd year in late March.

I was wondering about the same question. From the light novel spoilers, I got the impression that Taiga came back at the beginning of 3rd year (2 or so months after she left) but the anime delayed her return. Earlier in this thread, I asked which year they were in because I was a little confused, but I just went and double-checked: they were clearly in 2nd year in the anime (from the classroom number), just as they were in the novel.

So there's no doubt about it: Taiga and Ryuuji hadn't seen each other for a year. Note that Taiga is wearing a different school's uniform in the final scene.

Incidentally, I wonder whether the Japanese understand the concept of "long-distance relationships". In this day and age, we have things like trains and instant messaging... I'm not in a relationship, but many of my friends are and quite a few of them make the 4-hour train journey down to London every weekend to see their significant others, besides video-calling on Skype every single night -.-