5 Centimeters per Second

Film: 5 Centimeters per Second

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Release Date: March 2007

5 Centimeters per Second is the third feature film from director Makoto Shinkai, and a departure from the science fiction and fantasy based films he made prior to it. Shinkai has earned himself the nickname “The New Miyazaki” in anime film circles, and it isn’t hard to see why. There is a similarity in their artistic styles and they frequently share otherworldly settings, combined with characters who are both bizarre and relatable.

But 5 Centimeters per Second is none of those things. Far from being a band of colorful creatures on a far-reaching mystical quest, it is a movie grounded in the utterly mundane, the exceedingly realistic and ordinary. And that is precisely why this film excels in a way that few others do, because it unmasks the beauty of the every day world and the people who populate it in a fashion that it could not do were it stretched out over some bigger story.

The film is broken up into three parts, titled Cherry Blossom, Cosmonaut, and 5 Centimeters per Second, and tells the tale of Takaki Tono as he progresses from the beginning of junior high through to adulthood. But rather than being slogged down in the details and recanting each action and event that takes place as it grows older, the film instead offers us three short snapshots of three different faces of Takaki’s life. And that is all that we need, because the stories are so well-told, the snapshots so painstakingly framed, that we know everything we need to know about the characters and how they feel without ever needing to be told.

Assisting this is the nearly immaculate beauty of the animation in the film. Shinkai’s ability to create backdrops that are both dreamy and grounded, mirroring the feelings of characters in situations that will stay with them both as real memories and as fleeting dreams, is exceptional, and may even surpass the legendary Miyazaki. The details of the characters and their settings are so strong that this film would rarely struggle to tell its story even if it possessed no dialogue at all.

But where the film succeeds most grandly is that it tells a story of love and loss that is both piercing and reassuring in the same stroke. At its hardest moments, it is devastatingly sad, filled with the sort of ache that anyone who has been in the situation will immediately understand. But in its brightest spots, it offers a few rays of hope and a vision of love not lost, but endured, survived, and cherished. If there is a villain to be found, it is time itself and its march forward, where each beautiful memory becomes farther away and each person must adapt to a new and sometimes colder world. But Shinkai shows us a glimpse of a brighter future, of new chances and new beginnings, to make new memories to hold onto, and it is a testament to his vision that he accomplishes all of this without ever needing to preach it.

At just over an hour, 5 Centimeters per Second is a quick watch, and one that you’ll wish lasted longer, even if it twists your heart. I wholeheartedly recommend it.