(L) 5 Centimeters per Second

[Vexx]

The first act of 5cm/s I found just about perfect and satisfying. The 2nd and 3rd acts were excellently executed drama but left me less happy since I tend to pay attention to how the so-called protagonist affects the lives of others rather than only whether the protagonist worked through their personal dilemma. The whole effort is still quite stunning in visual art and in effective use of communicative silences as much as dialog.

Japanese stories in general tend to focus on how things "don't really work out but people get by" rather than more dramatic happy endings. Acts 2 and 3 seemed to trend toward what is interestingly (or appallingly) a theme that date-sim based anime (or visual novel software) often follow. Those works are frequently quite selfishly promote the idea of the protagonist "winning" and he wants rather than any altruistic or empathically shared consideration of other feelings. Takaki left a bit of a bruised trail behind him.

[Xcomp]

Originally Posted by Setsilya~

Oh dear leave the troll alone.

I hate to say this but, I have to agree... ^^;

Valiant effort guys!

Originally Posted by Setsilya~

Although to my surprise, there was little plot to part 3 of the movie; not that it was bad. And the theme song "One more time, One more chance" really was a nice touch to it.

The majority of people feel the same way. The novel makes up for it, though.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Japanese stories seem to focus on how things "don't really work out but people get by sometimes" rather than more dramatic happy endings.

Might be because of the pressure they can be under so nice stories to show how one can get by in life may help them move along.

Originally Posted by cheung

Haha, it never even came out in the UK. Consider yourself lucky to even get a DVD of it.

A real pity. Just after someone asked when it was going to come out at the London BFI screening a month ago.

[Littm]

I'm interested - who tried Blu-Ray version ? Is it upscaled ?

[Xcomp]

Originally Posted by Littm

I'm interested - who tried Blu-Ray version ? Is it upscaled ?

I haven't but, the movie itself was originally produced in HD so there would be no need to upscale it.

[Z3120]

Edit: Moved to my last post on page 47.

[Vexx]

argh.... we were trying to ostracize idiocy and move on... :P


Anyway, this film is probably one of the few reasons I might consider a Blu-ray device purchase. But they are still mighty pricey even by my standards and the technology has uncertain longevity.

[Z3120]

Originally Posted by Vexx

argh.... we were trying to ostracize idiocy and move on... :P

My bad. It was for me to not bother anymore. I'll just move it to my last post concerning that matter then.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Anyway, this film is probably one of the few reasons I might consider a Blu-ray device purchase. But they are still mighty pricey even by my standards and the technology has uncertain longevity.

Yeah, I was mighty tempted too when I got my friend to watch B5CM on his PS3, and it's damn gorgeous on a 42" at 1080p.

[Swifteh]

Just finished... really really sad

Have a few questions:

Spoiler for Questions:

1. Who is that Mizuno Risa girl? Was she the one that Takaki was dating, and are they still together at the end of the movie or no?

2. What happens to Akari? From what I could tell, she had a boyfriend or was married?

3. What happens to Kanae?

4. That text message in Part 3 where it was something like "I still love you but even if we wrote 1000 text messages to each other our hearts probably wouldnt even move 1 cm closer", who was that from and who was it to? Takaki to Akari? Takaki to Mizuno? Mizuno to Takaki? Akari to Takaki?

Thanks in advance.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Swifteh

Have a few questions:

Spoiler for Qn. 1:

1. Who is that Mizuno Risa girl? Was she the one that Takaki was dating, and are they still together at the end of the movie or no?

Spoiler for Ans. 1:

Risa was Takaki's new girlfriend. It seems they lived together as well. But he never really loved her, because his heart was still set on Akari.

Originally Posted by Swifteh

Spoiler for Qn. 2:

2. What happens to Akari? From what I could tell, she had a boyfriend or was married?

Spoiler for Ans. 2:

Akari got married in the end. She was already engaged and was moving to Tokyo in December, just before New Year's Day. Takaki was still stuck in a deadend job which he would quit by around February. Takaki and Akari "met" again in March.

Originally Posted by Swifteh

Spoiler for Qn. 3:

3. What happens to Kanae?

Spoiler for Ans. 3:

She was heartbroken. She was there to see Takaki's plane fly off to Tokyo, but she never managed to tell him she liked him. She went back home from the airport all alone on her supercub. Presumably, Takaki never saw her again.

Originally Posted by Swifteh

Spoiler for Qn. 4:

4. That text message in Part 3 where it was something like "I still love you but even if we wrote 1000 text messages to each other our hearts probably wouldnt even move 1 cm closer", who was that from and who was it to? Takaki to Akari? Takaki to Mizuno? Mizuno to Takaki? Akari to Takaki?

Spoiler for Ans. 4:

It was from Mizuno to Takaki. They may have broken up, but she still loves him.

[Solafighter]

Originally Posted by Littm

I'm interested - who tried Blu-Ray version ? Is it upscaled ?

Well i have the Blue Ray and the quality is unbelivable awsome.


Well the answers of TinyRedLeaf cleared up some things, i wasnt aware of.
Thanks a lot.

[cloudninja]

Finally got around to watching this last night and let's just say I had trouble sleeping because it kept me up late thinking about it. Definitely a great movie even though to me it was kind of a sad ending from the perspective that they don't end up together, although they both managed to move on with their lives. It left so many openings for what if? type questions that it has to play with your mind if you don't like how it ended but I won't get into those because it would make for too long a post. I'll just say something about the ending.

The last minute and a half struck home the finality of their closure to me. A couple of clips showed them as teenagers sitting alone respectively in their classrooms looking out the window at the falling cherry blossoms, likely thinking of each other. Later in the present time, Takaki is standing on a roof as a cherry blossom falls into his hand and it cuts to Akari on her balcony also seeing the falling blossoms. As she holds out her hand to let one land on it she smiles and turns. Seems like she decided to take a walk outside just as Takaki does the same. They happen to walk along the same path as they did as children, just from opposite directions, looking around and reminiscing as they watch the blossoms fall. They pass by each other on the train tracks before looking back but two trains in succession go in opposite directions and Akari is not there when they finish passing by.

It basically ended where it started. In the opening minutes of episode 1 Akari as a child ran across the tracks and said that it would be great if they could watch the cherry blossoms together again next year. They finally did do it in a sense now about roughly a decade and a half later. They both walked along the path they used to walk, looking at the blossoms, then once again met at the tracks. They did watch the cherry blossoms again except not in the way they had expected when they were younger. Then the trains separate them and this time instead of being there, Akari is gone. Final closure as they have moved on with their lives, just a beautifully sad ending for those who wanted them to end up together.

Of course since they now both live in Tokyo and maybe in the same general part of the city they would likely meet again eventually but their past is behind them. It does bother me that he never tried to contact Akari again even when he moved to Tokyo for university studies. She probably still had the same address as when she first moved away from Tokyo or at least her parents are there if she went away to college as well, they just stopped writing to each other after a while. She likely did'nt meet her husband until college or after so Takaki had time. To me it kind of sucks that they stopped communicating if they were only just a couple of years from graduating from high school so they could have said they would go to college in the same city. I would have liked to have known more about Akari's thoughts. Did she want to stay in contact but was unsure of how Takaki felt? We know Takaki was still thinking a lot about Akari in high school and it affected to some extent his relationships in college and afterwards. Ok, I've had enough of a mini-rant, too many what if questions to think about.

Edit: I would have liked this movie anyway but felt a bit more emotionally invested because I had a somewhat similar but definitely smaller scale experience compared to what Takaki had with Akari. I remember transferring to a new school in California in the 7th grade and met a cute brunette who was in 3 of my classes and we got along great. It only took 2 months to admit that we liked each other but then her family moved to Michigan at the end of the school year because of her father's job. It hurt a lot for a few months before it started to fade but I can imagine to some extent what it would be like for Takaki and Akari not only attending 3 years of school together but being best friends as well because they seemed to hang out only with each other back then. That much more time and intensity would make for some very strong feelings. Too bad it affected Takaki so long. I think his indecisiveness hurt him because he should have at least written Akari one more time and asked clearly whether she wanted to stay in touch or not. Knowing what she wanted would have either kept their relationship alive until perhaps meeting again in college or would have lead to closure at a much earlier time depending on what she wanted. Instead they just stopped communicating but we saw them still thinking about each other afterwards although Akari moved on before Takaki did.

[ShadowFoX]

^ I had nearly all the same thoughts. (Very well written, by the way)

I was personally disappointed when I found out there were only 3 segments of it, making it only a one hour long film. The film left a lot to assume at the end, and left a bittersweet feeling as well.

Regardless, however, it was still an extremely well-done film. The first five minutes of it just made me fall in love. A true animation masterpiece.

[Jagz]

Very insightful analysis and very much appreciated. However, I read up till page 29, couldnt go further and saw no mention of the

Spoiler for ending scene:

ring on the ground once Takaki turned around to leave at the end of the movie

Doesn't that change quite a few theories here?

[EusthEnoptEron]

Originally Posted by Jagz

Very insightful analysis and very much appreciated. However, I read up till page 29, couldnt go further and saw no mention of the

Spoiler for ending scene:

ring on the ground once Takaki turned around to leave at the end of the movie

Doesn't that change quite a few theories here?

Spoiler:

Do you mean this ring here?

Spoiler:

If so: I don't think it's her wedding ring, since you're able to see it, when she turns around the last time - right before the trains block their view.

Spoiler:

[mg1942]

Some questions...

Is this movie worth it?
Is the plot straight-forward?
Nothing confusing?
Any plot holes to watch out for ?

I'm about to download to preview it. If I like it I'll buy the blu ray edition

[Vexx]

Um..... read the last couple of pages of the thread?

But in short --
Yes.
Depends on whether you pay attention?
Depends on what confuses you?
Not to speak of... but all stories have plot problems of some kind...

[WanderingKnight]

And every story can be as confusing as you want to make it.

[DrDX]

I recently watched 5 cm per Second. It was (and still is) quite an experience.

The first story, “Cherry Blossom” was absolutely tremendous. I'm a sucker for love stories - and a train buff, too. And I live where it snows a lot. "Cherry Blossom" had all these aspects in play. Nothing not to like! I savored every minute. It felt real good, like when I have ice cream or chocolate cake. I enjoyed the minute details of the train journey and attention to detail.
Due to time constraints, I stopped after watching “Cherry Blossom” and was looking forward to watching the next stories later on.

A couple of days later I watched “Cosmonaut” and “5 cm per Second”. “Cosmonaut” was nice but I didn't have the same connection with it. This is likely because I was already identifying with Takaki and was looking for Akari throughout the entire story. Interestingly, both stories 1 & 2 were anime length: about 24 minutes.

However, the last part, 5cm ran only 7 minutes and suddenly jumped to the ending song and the whole movie was over in an hour.

I felt cheated. The show ended suddenly without much in the way of explanation. It appeared like they ran out of money to make it, although I know that this wasn’t true.

Spoiler for 5 cm per second end:

In this last story, I initially thought that Akari was talking about marrying Takaki. From my perspective, they both had the dream together and then connected and were to marry. But something didn't seem right in the story. I was confused (there’s an understatement!)

Two days later, I watched the entire movie again, this time with the subtitles on. From lyrics of the closing song it was clear that they never did reconnect and by studying the screen shots which flew by at an amazing pace, this was confirmed. I was crushed. I was depressed. I didn’t sign up to get my emotions ripped into like this. Every time I run into a sad ending like this, I think about giving up anime. Thankfully, this forum has provided excellent therapy. Evidently, a lot of folks have similar feelings.

Why would a “silly cartoon” (as my spouse refers to this) cause such distress? It’s good anime, in fact, excellent anime and the fact that it causes you to dwell on the situation means it has touched you. But why?

People long for love and root for love to blossom. I was rooting for Akari and Takaki and like most everyone who watched the first story, thought their relationship developing over time a far gone conclusion. But Mr. Shinkai had other ideas. As I “identified” with Takaki, his pain became my pain and the ending (for me) was bitter, or at best, bittersweet.

In the fantasy anime world we all expect magic to happen and they would move their relationship forward despite all odds. In the real world, in which this movie was so accurate in portraying, of course they were not going to get together. They were only 13!

And with Takaki in Kagoshima, or actually Tanegashima Island, this was a separation of some 600 miles, which requires a 2 hop air flight ($450 each way). That’s a lot of bread for a kid! Given the circumstances, this becomes almost a 1 in a million shot. But this fact still does not make me feel any better about the outcome.

After the first 2 stories, which were masterpieces, Shinkai did any awful job with the ending. The message of lost love that the story delivers is realistic, but bad enough. But it is poorly handled to boot. When someone dies, it is our nature to pick apart all of the details of everything that occurred. In this case, the relationship dies and as the listener to the story, I want all the news, not just glimpses. Shinkai did not live up to his part as storyteller in this last story. We get some glimpes and a sad song and are left to figure it out for ourselves. And from the posts on this forum, the viewpoints are many and varied. A good story should make it clear what happens. I don’t like quizzes.

Spoiler for the novel:

Fortunately, the book that Shinkai wrote had a fully fleshed story about Takaki in later life and things make a lot more sense. He is not a sad loner as we see in the movie, but has pals and several relationships over the years. His intense work burns him out (mid life crisis?) and in the height of this frustration, he has a dream about Akari after all these years. And after the dream he straightens up and flies right. True, he has these wonderful memories of a love as a kid, but most of us have those memories.

Unfortunately, as viewers, we have been fed the romantic story line from the beginning of the movie and there is an expectation. We end up depressed when the romance and magic we expect is not fulfilled.

The flaw of Shinkai’s movies is that they require several viewings to understand the nuances. “Place Promised” also had some muddy parts where the story wasn’t clear. The otaku who are responsible for the 900+ posts on this forum do rewatch animes as a matter of fact. However, many others watch the movie once and move on. A presentation like this needs to get the story clear on the first watching. But I'll admit, it makes for some interesting discussion!

Despite an almost fanatical attention to detail, Shinkai leaves us with a bunch of items which are inconsistent. I’m not sure if these are purposeful or not, but I’ll touch on these in the next post. Despite our nagging criticisms, 5 cm per second is an excellent movie in that it brings up such a high level of thought and emotion. Just be forewarned that an adequate supply of tissues should be available at the ending.

[WanderingKnight]

People long for love and root for love to blossom. I was rooting for Akari and Takaki and like most everyone who watched the first story, thought their relationship developing over time a far gone conclusion. But Mr. Shinkai had other ideas. As I “identified” with Takaki, his pain became my pain and the ending (for me) was bitter, or at best, bittersweet.

It's always that sort of bitersweet feeling you get in the end with Shinkai. The feeling of something lost, but something gained at the same time. It's simply his style.

Why would a “silly cartoon” (as my spouse refers to this) cause such distress? It’s good anime, in fact, excellent anime and the fact that it causes you to dwell on the situation means it has touched you. But why?

Perhaps because its various emotional layers and overall complexity doesn't make it a "silly cartoon" at all?

[Z3120]

Originally Posted by DrDX

The flaw of Shinkai’s movies is that they require several viewings to understand the nuances.

I don't think so but having more than 1 viewing like reading a book repeatedly helps spot things you'd might not have saw the first time since you're looking differently than before. Like in the 3rd story for me, when Takaki was walking to the opposite side of the railroad crossing, we're only given the view someone caught his attention at the corner of his eye. The 2nd time Shinkai showed this moment, we see both Takaki and Akari (my belief it was her) notice each other. But still, by the time I watched B5CM again, I still came away with, more or less, the same impression as my previous one.