Sep 27 2007 07:48 PM A friend recommended
5 Centimeters per Second and added the warning that I should watch it with a box of tissues handy. I'm really pleased that I followed his advice and watched this OVA as it's now on my list of all-time anime favourites. When it is finally released in Australia (which will probably take some time) I will have to add it to my collection.
Just after the recommendation, I read a feature article on the independent director Makoto Shinkai (the one responsible for
5 Centimeters per Second) in the July edition of
Anime Insider ("Rising Star") and this only made me even more determined to watch this.
The style of animation is truly mesmerising and exceedingly beautiful. Even the most mundane situations, like being stuck on a train that's running late, are portrayed with an exquisite sensitivity that draws the eye to the subtle, and sometimes heartbreaking, beauty of the everyday. Shinkai's use of light and colour is very distinctive and a dream-like, impressionistic, style is evident throughout.
5 Centimeters per Second is a very poignant story about three intersecting lives and the love that binds them together.
A Tale of Cherry Blossoms, the first episode, presents Takaki Tohno and Akari Shinohara's very first romance. It's an exceedingly sweet exploration of a childhood love and traces their relationship from its first stirrings up to their forced separation.
Cosmonaut, the second episode, focuses on Kanae Sumida who is in love with Takaki Tohno. Now a high school senior, Takaki appears distant and somewhat detached from the world around him. Kanae does her best to attract his attention; however, although he is friendly towards her, she is unable to determine whether the future she longs to share with him is possible.
5CM Per Second, the third and final episode, presents Takaki as an adult. Now a computer programmer, he appears to be fairly settled in his life. A glimpse of a seemingly familiar face sparks a memory but it is a brief occurrence and perhaps the past no longer has any hold over Takaki.
Like the falling Cherry Blossoms, it would appear that people can be swept away by a capricious breeze. Lives may intersect but the paths that people are set upon can also diverge.
Other anime by Makoto Shinkai:
- Other World (1999)
- She and Her Cat (2000)
- Voices of a Distant Star (2002)
- "Egao" Music Video (2003)
- The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
- ef - a tale of memories Prologue (2007)