5 Centimeters per Second [SUB] (2007) Review

 5 Centimeters per Second [SUB] (2007) 9/10

Hello and welcome to another movie review. After coming off of a rather uninteresting movie, I needed something that would draw me in a bit more. 5 Centimeters Per Second is a romantic drama movie that was released on March 3, 2007. The movie was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai and produced by CoMix Wave Inc.

This is a movie that I’ve only seen one other time. Last time I saw it, I found it to be a disappointment with boring characters and a boring plot. But now I see that I just wasn’t mature enough to understand what was being done here. 5 Centimeters per Second is a good movie about love and distance, and although the movie tackles this pretty well, it leaves me sad that the movie didn’t have a happy ending. However, it’s because of this is part of the reason why I enjoyed it more than I did a few years ago. Let’s begin.

This is the story of Takaki Toono and Akari Shinohara. These two became best friends in elementary and grew a solid bond between each other. Even though they wished to stay friends for forever, their lives said otherwise. As time marches forward, they find themselves moving away from each other due to their parents’ jobs. This story is told through three chapters, with each one focusing on Takiki’s life in middle school, high school, and early adult life. As Takaki looks in the distance, yearning for the one he loves, she too does the same, but their lives couldn’t be farther apart.

Last time I watched this, I genuinely didn’t care for it. I had just finished Your Name and, blown away, was yearning for more Shinkai goodness, hoping the rest of his movies would deliver the same feeling. With The Garden of Words, that didn’t happen. And now with this, that definitely didn’t happen. I now know why I was disappointed, but because of this feeling is the reason why I wrote off the rest of his movies. 5 Centimeters per Second is a great love story, or should I say an anti-love story. Despite our main characters Takaki and Akari loving each other, they could not be together, as if God or the universe were using them as some sort of sick joke. But despite this long distance non-relationship, they still loved each other. I think this is a brilliant way of saying “not everything is going to go your way, and the lesson is to not dwell on the past so much, otherwise it’ll eat you alive.” In the third chapter, Takaki is in full-on depression mode and I felt bad for him. Akari clearly still loved Takaki too, but with her own life, she decided to move on and marry someone else.

Chapter 2 is probably the most important part of this whole movie. Akari is not in this chapter at all besides a brief glimpse with a visual representation, but the way the movie mirrors this chapter in a final montage at the end with Akari tells you everything about these two. There’s a character named Sumida that has a crush on Takaki, but she struggles to confess to him for one reason or another. And the whole point of this chapter is that Takaki had the chance to move on and be with Sumida, but he didn’t as he was still in love with Akari, who had moved on despite her feelings. Powerful writing and I can now see why many people claim this to be one of the most underrated anime movies of all time. People recognize Makoto Shinkai because of Your Name, but those who know, know that this movie is arguably the better and more realistic love story.

As for production, the movie looks nice. With the classic Shinkai touch, the movie has breathtakingly beautiful backdrops and sceneries, but the characters themselves aren’t that tantalizing. I recognize that his characters aren’t exactly supposed to pop out like most other anime characters, but some sort of defining feature for the characters could go a long way. Honestly I’m glad Shinkai learned this with his future movies. I will say, this movie loves the color gray. The film’s color palette is notably Shinkai as all of his movies look similar, but this movie has a more gray and bleak tone than normal, which I guess coincides with the film’s themes. The entire movie has this tone until the very end, when Takaki finally moves on and the film switches to a brighter vibrancy for the final shots.

Unfortunately the movie’s soundtrack isn’t all that great. I didn’t really notice the music at all. Idk if this is a product of its brilliance of complimenting the movie, or the lack thereof. The song that played during the final montage was alright, but again no pizazz. I will say, I really enjoyed the sound design and editing. For a movie that’s split up into three parts, everything flowed very well. The Japanese dub is pretty solid too, with the best performances going to our three main characters: Kenji Mizuhashi (Takaki), Yoshimi Kondo (Akari Act 1), Ayaka Onoue (Akari Act 3), and Satomi Hanamura (Sumida).

I am honestly really glad I revisited this. I wouldn’t call this a masterpiece, but 5 Centimeters per Second has a lot of layers to peel back, making it a movie made for me. I love layered films like this and I can not believe I didn’t like this way back when. But hey, I guess that’s what growing up is for. This is a movie that is not for everyone, especially if you are looking for a standard romance movie. But if you are interested, get ready for a depressing ride. Until my next review, stay frosty.

Thanks for reading.

This is Zorgak, signing off.