nachtturne 5 Centimeters Per Second contains three short stories, connected by the main character and his childhood love-interest, essentially following their grow up. As many others already marked, the animation is simply gorgeous, and I can't add any more to this - Makoto Shinkai is indubitably one of the greatest animation geniuses of all time.While the visuals are superb, the plot is mediocre at best. I'm an otherwise emotionally sturdy, level-headed guy, but I'm also an absolute sucker for romantic tragedys. This stuff - even the cheesier ones - can make my eyes wet like putting my head in a bucket full of red onion. With 5CPS however, my eyes remained dry and my heart remained... err... unbroken? Each sequence is overshadowed by the immense despair of Takaki, longing for his never-fulfilled love to Akari. In the first episode, Cherryblossoms, it works well: my suspense built with Takakis during the train scene, and I felt soooo relieved when Akari was still at the station. It was sweet. During the sad goodbye, I was sure they were going to meet again, and that we're going towards a happy end. The second sequence then broke this expectation of mine. Instead of searching ways to stay in contact, Takaki goes full hopeless, writing emo messages to himself, while completely ignoring Sumida, a girl who fell in love with him. I GET THE VERY BLATANT MESSAGE, MR. SHINKAI! But come on: Takaki were in his 17-18's at the time. When did Takaki and Akari stopped sending mails to eachother? Why didn't they change numbers? And if Takaki was so goddamn in love, couldn't he visit Akari... like in the summer? If their love was truly impossible to be fulfilled, then this desperation of Takaki were justified. But I feel like it wasnt, and otherwise real and deep emotions regarding love felt like teenage angst and self-pitying. This organically carried on to the third sequence. Thats where realism finally kicked in: while Takaki was still deep in depression, Akari lived her life on, getting engaged and stuff. And when they met again at the intersection, I was so glad Takaki didn't run after Akari, but let her go - the only sensible thing he had done since sequence one.Overall it's a good one-hour movie, and a must-see for the visuals. The plot however is very lacking in some aspects, making very hard to live up to the emotions 5CPS intended to induce.

MartinHafer I can only assume "5 Centimeters Per Second" was designed explicitly to teens and pre-teens. Therefore, my dislike of the film should be taken with a grain of salt, as I am a 53 year-old guy who likes anime movies, though I don't love ALL anime. For me, the film, though beautiful to look at, was very tough going.The story is about a romance between two classmates, Akari and Takaki. She is a rather simpering and uncertain young lady and she is attracted to Takaki because he's a silent, brooding, poetic sort of guy (the sort of guy most adults would think is incredibly pretentious). However, when he moves away, they promise to remain close and write to each other. Can their perfect, undying love stand the test of time and distance? Or, are they just two teens who need to let go and get on with their lives?The biggest problem with this film is the god-awful dialog. It makes me cringe about that period in my own life...a period I would just as soon forget because I thought everything was so gosh-darned profound and important. Now, with time, I find teens who talk like a dying, misunderstood poet to be annoying and hate that I can remember a bit of that in my teen self! All in all, a gorgeously animated film (better than many of the Ghibli films) but also one that has very, very limited appeal and rather annoying characters. Even though the film has some dubious messages for kids, I'd give this one a 7 for teenage girls, a 1 for adults and a 4 for teenage boys who will most likely want to punch Takaki and tell him to shape up!

xristoff93 The art behind this movie is amazing.The design,the colours,the backrounds,the little details all top notch!But where was the plot?We see two kids getting really close as friends,falling in love with each other and then facing the difficulties life puts in their way.At least,that's what you would expect after that slow first part.To see what happens next in that love story.Will it be tragic or things change in a surprising heartwarming reunion?But nothing....After the struggle of meeting after a year of separation,Takaki moves away.You expect to see them thinking about each other,maybe experiencing temptations of falling for someone else,who's physically closer to them,but no....We don't see Akari anywhere.It's like this is not about her anymore.We see a very sweet young girl who falls for Takaki,but is very shy to confess her feelings,so he lets him leave the island without giving "their thing" a chance.He is obviously caught up with something,we see him texting so you think that Akari is on the other side of that cellphone and that,at the end of the school year,they would as planned meet...maybe?....But no...again!!He texts to nobody.He sits all alone,no friends,no girls,writing texts about dreams with a faceless girl,sending them nowhere and wastes all his time on this island.And we get to experience this in a very slow way.In the end I wonder,what is this movie about?We do not end up with two lovers.We do not see their difficulties,they just move apart.We do not see what happens in their lives.And the few hopes I reserved for part 3,crumbled to dust in the end.Again we only see glimpses of Takaki in various different places and clothes and backrounds,on a balcony,in a station,on board a train,walking on a pavement etc.,and some even smaller parts with Akari.She suddenly wears glasses.Did she try to contact Takaki?Cannot be sure,we see her using her cellphone,speaking of the letter she wanted to give him back when they were younger but not sure.We are always moving back and forth,past-now,dreams-reality,thoughts-feelings in an abrupt way so it was kinda hard to keep track of what had actually happened...Did they ever meet again?No....So despite their supposed great feelings,no effort was made,from either side,to meet again in contrast to what you have might expected.So they just let go of each other.Akari apparently got engaged,we see her wearing a ring and all,and Takaki ended up a loser.Dirty house,depressed,all alone,no job and all that for a girl he did not even try to find at any point during his entire life.Certainly life is what happens while you are too busy making plans,but still,after a certain age,using the given technology and keeping in touch,they could move closer to each other,they could try for the same(or close- by)high schools or universities or at least try some kind of contact,anything at all would be accepted by me.But none of that....So did I miss something here?Was there a greater deep latent message behind all these slow mini-stories with the many and various backrounds,weather conditions and deep silences?I think not....I believe this movie tried to portray what happens when life gets in the way,when you are just not that lucky and the circumstances become almost impossible for your desires to become actual things and parts in your life.But it leaves too much stuff on the viewer.You have to assume they split apart and lose all contact,you have to assume all other things in between,you'll have to have similar experiences in your private life or seen or heard about similar stories in order to get it.Is it sad?Yes,of course it is sad...Because I assumed most of the story in a very sad way.Was there any romance?It's supposed to be a romance/drama story but for the most part we just see beautiful landscapes and people moving through time in silence.Silence can be quite deafening some times,but when a story consists mostly of silence,can be rather tiring to me.It gets a 6/10 from me.Because of it's beauty I am lenient.Besides that,I really like the second part.It displays perfectly how fears,shyness and lack of "perfect" moments can scar you for life,if you don't have the guts to "grab life by it's horns" as they say.A younger part of me could relate to the surf girl.I can say that it actually hurt me a bit.Other than that,I found myself expecting something that was never delivered.Too bad...cause there was a great potential.And before you hastily try to object,think about this...What do we know about the protagonists?What Takaki and Akira like?What are their dreams and desires for the future?What do they want to achieve?What defines them as unique personalities?What do they do or eat or drink or think before they sleep?Do we know any of these absolutely necessary things in order to have an image of a person in your mind that clearly separates them from everyone else?......The answer is again "No".....And that is certainly a really sad thing about this movie.I am not sorry for my not popular opinion.To you,reviewer who said"I'm sorry for my unpopular opinion",don't be...

paulg-67221 This is a beautifully animated film. It tells the story of Takaki and his struggles with love through three chapters of his life. (I have checked the spellings of character names but there may be errors as I don't speak Japanese.) The story is excellent and made me feel sympathy for the characters. However, due to the story's tone, this film is not appropriate for young children. The film deals with mature themes such as love, devotion, time, loss and heartbreak. I do however recommend it for teenagers and adults.The first chapter is great. Takaki travels across Japan by train to see Akari (his best friend from elementary school). The train is delayed multiple times due to snow. By the time he arrives, there are no more trains that day so they spend the night together and share their first kiss. (There is a lot more going on in the chapter but this is a quick bare bones description as the other chapter descriptions will be.) The second chapter is also great. Takaki is now in senior high and his friend Kanae has feelings for him which he does not share. Throughout this chapter Kanae struggles to tell Takaki her feelings. However, this chapter is tragic, after witnessing a satellite launch she realise that Takaki will never love her back so she decides not to tell him despite how much it hurts.The third and final chapter is disappointing. It shows Takaki in his 20s struggling with his feelings for Akari. While the chapter doesn't end in a happy reunion (it ends with the two hoping to meet again) this is not why I was disappointed. The reason I was disappointed was that this chapter is too short. While the first two chapters were about 20-30 minutes each, this one was probably 5 minutes long. Because of this, this chapter's story wasn't developed to the standard of the first two chapters. This film is just over an hour long and I feel had it been around 80 minute long, this chapter could have been fleshed out a bit more.Despite my disappointment with the third chapter, the first two chapters are strong enough for me to recommend this film and give it an 8/10.