Current mood:	depressed
Current music:	One One More Time One More Chance - Masayoshi Yamazaki

5 Centimeters per Second - Byousoku 5 cm
This is actually the first review I have ever written. You can now probably guess how special the anime movie I'm about to review is.

Story

Oukashou: The first part revolves around two elementary school classmates, Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari. Takaki and Akari are very close friends, since they have many things in common and believe that they will be together forever. However, Akari soon moves away from Tokyo with her parents and they are unable to attend the same junior high as planned. The two of them try to keep up their friendship as good as they can by writing letters to each other. However, they soon come to face a major problem when Takaki's family moves to a place which is even further away from Akari's city than Tokyo. Both Akari and Takaki decide to meet one last time at Akari's home train station.

Cosmonaut: The 2nd part of the movie is told from the perspective of Sumita Kanae, a high school classmate of Takaki. She has a big crush on him but doesn't find the courage to confess to him. At the same time, she is worried about her future, for she can't decide on which path to take.

Byousoku 5 Centimeters: The last part shows us the life of Takaki and Akari as adults, how they continue living seperately and which paths they chose to walk. One day, they both walk past each other at a railroad-crossing. But before they can turn around to look each other, a train divides them.




Thoughts (spoiler warning)
As long as I can remember, "5 Centimeters per Second" is the best movie I have ever seen. The movie's theme is DISTANCE, distance between two individuals who thought they'd be together forever. This distance is being portrayed as something endless, something caused by time which flies mercilessly and hesitance of both individuals. Although the movie belongs to the categories romance & drama, it is not cheesy at all. You can easily feel the characters' pain, their simple inner monologues, the vast beautiful landscapes shown in the background and the melancholic background music strengthen the effect. Especially the last scene of the movie was terrific, seeing Takaki and Akari walk past each other - not recognizing each other first - at a railway crossing before a passing train divides them was bittersweet. Also, their behaviour afterwards seemed to illustrate their different methods of overcoming the pain. Takaki turns around and stops whereas Akari only hesitates a bit and walks on before the train entirely passes. Even in his adulthood Takaki still looks back while the meanwhile engaged Akari manages to take a step forward. She will probably lead a happy life with her future family while Takaki becomes a depressed alcoholic and chain smoker...

The movie's ending left me - I have to admit - in a pretty depressed state. I felt an emptiness inside which I had never felt before and still keep thinking "if only they could find each other again!". A happy ending didn't seem too far-fetched after the bittersweet first part, however, I already had a hunch where the movie was heading at the end of part two.
I did ask myself though why Takaki and Akari broke off their contact, they were living in the same country and could've exchanged text messages, letters on a regular basis. Also I asked myself several times why the damned train had to pass at precisely that moment. Small details like that can change so much >_< (but that's just me who can't get over the fact that Takaki and Akari will never be together again). In the end, I did not know whether I should cry for joy because the movie was so great or cry for sadness because there was no happy ending. Still, I would never say that the ending ruined the movie, in fact, the way it turned out had a great impact on me.

I would like to recommend this masterpiece of Shinkai Makoto, who you might know as the producer of "Voices of a Distant Star" or "The Place Promised in Our Early Days", to everyone who likes anime that is not just meant for entertainment.

Screencaps: