5 Centimeters Per Second
April 24th, 2008
I can’t shake Five Centimeters Per Second. Toono’s experience as an adult — I identify with it. Feel it as my state. The details of how we got there are very different and appear far less breathtaking, but we wind up in a similar place, going through motions, not knowing how long we’ve been on auto-pilot. It’s a common story. That wont sit well with some viewers who look for extraordinary things in the stories they watch and/or read. The rest of this might be spoilerish.
Some dismiss the story in 5cm by saying if Toono just sent Akari a damn letter, he’d be happy with her. Maybe, if life were tidy, but I can see how it happened to Toono, because it happens to everyone. How many of us even know where our first friend or love is anymore? One day becomes two, becomes a week, a month, and several years later the people you talked with everyday are gone. Obviously, people change and distance is created, rehashing the past gets old and people have to go their own ways. There are new people. That’s just life, but it’s still sad.
The musical montage at the end is the perfect description. The lyrics to that song hit the underlying emotions, that wish to reclaim what should have been — if only. I get a little raw as the images flash of checking a mailbox for a letter that never comes, scanning a crowd looking for someone who isn’t there, the involuntary search for the other one, the desire to find them again, to hold them and to release those emotions that never got out now that time and distance made it so clear that there was no reason why they drifted apart until they stopped hoping for each other.
I remember the first time watching 5cm at Otakon, how I felt like that second train was so cruel. Surely, had there only been one train shooting through the crossing she’d be standing there when the rail arm lifted. It was a murderous train, the metaphor of two trains passing each other for a brief moment in time, the gravity generated by their passing pulling one toward the other, before speeding off in different directions pretty clear. I now think of that second train as being so kind, giving Toono that moment of clarity to move on.
That said, I wish he ran after her.
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21 Responses to “5 Centimeters Per Second”
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April 24th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
It is peices of animation like 5cm that make me love anime.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Watched 5cm for the first time about two weeks ago, and I’d pretty much agree 100% with what you thought.
It’s the ‘right’ ending, oh so real, but still not the one that I as an optimist wanted … and that’s probably better in the end, as it’s anime like these that, like Vodak said, restore my faith in the genre as almost a sort of two-way street. It doesn’t just cause us to consider the character’s situation but also our own.
Personally I thought the montage confusing, but that’s because it was my first time and I was expecting more from the third story. A rewatch will probably clarify its message for me.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:16 am
I had not even heard of this until just now when I read your post. It’s not often things like this slip under my radar, thusly I will have to go about and pick it up for a good watch.
Given your sidetrack, the show must be pretty deep in order to provoke such usually estranged thoughts. I tend to love that kind of content, I love it when my brain is picked, or even better, stimulated to think things that usually get overlooked.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I just rewatched 5cm in hd and it indeed brings much more justice to the art and animation.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:21 am
The best feature-length animation ever, as far as I am concerned. Thanks for emphasizing the life and psychology. What I always see is one great haiku after another. Now I can see that it takes us closer to real human life, as it also takes us closer to the spiritual reality all around us.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:55 am
I watched this movie a while ago and even now, just thinking about it makes my heart turn. I held the feelings the movie made me feel for a good two to three weeks after i watched it. It really is a masterpiece that captured the experience of life that everyone goes through. Even now, my heart feels…
April 25th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Once my R1 DVD arrives, I’m ordering the Blu-Ray version (even if I still don’t have a Blu-Ray player).
April 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
“That said, I wish he ran after her.”
Same here. But then again, as you’ve said, that’s life.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Perhaps that’s what makes 5cm that much more… “human”.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I do remember thinking the montage to be kind of sudden the first time I saw it, but I liked how it took me off guard. The images felt right to me the first time though, since I knew those scenes beforehand by having gone through them myself. It’s nice to be taken by something like 5cm every once in a while.
And a Blu-Ray release of this might even push me across the line to get a PS3.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
>(^ x ^)<
April 28th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I saw this film a number of months back and it really hit me then, and since has stuck with me as one of my favorite films ever (anime or otherwise). I even bought the novel for it, which I plan to make my way through soon lol. Loved the film and loved how you described it in your post.
btw are you guys talking a domestic bluray release (anything with english subtitles) or imported from japan?
April 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
As far as I know there isn’t a US release for a Blu-ray version, yet. Don’t know the specs of the Japanese release if it has English subtitles.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Yep, one of the most beautiful/sad animes all-time.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
see… the distance problem gets dismissed you have a thing called the email.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:07 am
Mail, email, same difference really. The effort to send either trivial in a modern society.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
The thing with this show it looks like the first part was set in the 80’s. So email is not really a factor.
Anyway, watching the R1 DVD on a 1080p TV (upscaled too) and damn does it look gorgeous.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
[That said, I wish he ran after her]
Perhaps that is the beauty of the show because it did not happen.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Most definitely, The Sojourner. It’s that untidy end, but still hopeful that makes it such a great piece.
To go with Mick Jagger, “we can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes — we get what we need.”
And Nork, stop torturing me! I’m trying real hard to hold off on going HD until the end of the year…and you’re not making it easy with comments like it looks gorgeous. ^^;
May 4th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Fare game with all the nice pics of your figures. >:D