Anime Review: 5cm per second

Review 5cm a secondWritten by WarpshadowRating very good

The usual love story is about a certain fictional person’s budding relationship but this movie is something different as it is a movie that tries to distill the wistful feelings of first love into animated format.

Cherry Blossoms fall at a speed of five centimeters a second, that is what Akari told her childhood friend Takaki. The two became close friends in elementary school although fate and their parents forced them to move away from each other. Still they have a special love that allows them to endure through hardship but in the end even love is as fleeting as a falling cherry blossom.

5cm a second is a short film directed by Makoto Shinkai which is all I knew about it before I actually saw the movie. The movie is less about a coherent plot than it is a series of short stories about the very idea of first love. Also instead of normal dialogue for most of the movie the story is told by whatever character is in control of the story at the moment. This approach works simply because the speeches are good and not pretentious. The animation is real nice to watch just like any of Shinkai’s other works. This is a movie that I would recommend probably to watch at very least as a rental but this is something that would be at the top of the rental pile.