Mega Megane Moé
Hell and Heaven Moéltdown
12 Days
The 13th Day of Christmas 2008 – and the rest…
Dec 26th
“Well, I’m no demon.
I’ll play with you until morning.”
Yeah, those of you who know me from last year know I’m not much for stopping at just 12 Days of nonstop posting. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m cocky and want to see how far I can push myself. Maybe I’m an attention whore and want more posts than everyone else. Or maybe I am just really bored during winter break.
In any case, it’s more content for you, continuing with Day 13:
and the rest… – The Moments That Didn’t Make the Cut
Part 13 in the 12 Moments in Anime Countdown
Pretty much from here on out it’s a bunch of miscellaneous lists, much like omo’s absolutely massive list-in-list marvel, in which I shine the spotlight on a few different topics.
Today it’s simple … just some of the things I wanted to devote more tl;dr to, but didn’t. Spoiler-tagged for your non-spoilery convienence:
Akagi 25
Show ▼
Clannad 22 / Clannad 24 / Clannad AS 5
Show ▼
Haibane Renmei 13
Show ▼
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Any divisible-by-four episode
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 16-18
Show ▼
Itazura na Kiss 14
Show ▼
Kaiji 14-15 / 20 / 26
Show ▼
KimiKiss 20
Show ▼
Kure-nai 6
Show ▼
Lamune 9-10
Show ▼
Distinct lack of Nodame Cantabile
Show ▼
Shana II 15
Show ▼
Shugo Chara 25
Show ▼
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Zoku 2
Show ▼
Tokyo Marble Chocolate
Show ▼
True Tears 10 + 13
Show ▼
-CCY
Twelve Moments in Anime 2008 – #01: KimiKiss 24
Dec 25th
Well, one year of anime fandom and insanity all, subjectively, comes down to this.
With the gravity I’ve created for a situation like this, somewhat on purpose, somewhat or not, I suppose I should look back a bit on how this little ‘project’ (as I speak with my evil-genius mentality) has gone.
There’s definitely been a lot more participation – or honest attempts at – in the 12 Days countdown than last year, one that has probably seen the cynics in the crowd groan at how cluttered the otakusphere has suddenly become.
But luckily, the utter lack of controversial statements generated by this event seems to have kept them quiet. The most I’ve gotten is a few stray lines from lolikitsune chiding me for liking gleefully stupid shows, and that’s an honest opinion.
Because even if we disagree a bit on what was INCREDIBLY PANTSWETTING STOMACH-CHURNING (etc) AWESOME, the overall positive, warm mood is the same, which is rather fitting for the holiday season (and for keeping us sane in times like these).
And I think it’s accomplished something good; aside from jogging our memories about all the anime nearly set aside during the year – I know of more than a few that I grabbed from the cracks of my mind – I find that it’s a good form of viral advertising.
After all, I’m glad to see a few people have taken my typically overdramatic, hyperbolic rantings to be a strong reccomendation for a show; and I’ve had my interest peaked myself by more than a few (the multiple Genshiken citations, or even just a little thing like the Baccano! OP).
So I hope you all have enjoyed not just the twelve days most recent, but also this year (or section thereof) as an anime fan, or pretentious blogger, or search robot that surfs my site.
That said, let’s move to the final moment in the countdown…
12 Moments of Anime 2008
#01: KimiKiss Pure Rouge – 24
Hahaha. Did you expect that? I wonder if I did.
After all, it’s a moment from a show that I can’t even bear to rewatch anymore.
KimiKiss is funny like that, probably similar to School Days, in the questionability of its ‘9′ rating (essentially top tier) on my far-too-detailed rankings on MyAnimeList. Such of course is the problem of reducing a show to a number.
Objectively, KimiKiss was an exceptionally plain show, in that it was exceptional in both how plain it was and that the quality was exceptional as a result.
Subjectively, I went into what probably passes into my raving lunatic mode for KimiKiss, shipping couples harder than a Shugo Chara fangirl on crack (about now I should link back to my post praising Kairi).
Together, the two combined to make, when I look back at KimiKiss, an incredible emotion, that I doubt I can duplicate. KimiKiss sure doesn’t bring back instant pangs of feeling, the way that listening to Aozora or ebullient future does.
The ending theme, Wasurenaide, worked immensely well in the anime, but as a standalone, is just sort of a slow, touchy-feely song that might click, but only rarely. And the opening theme – aozora loop – is fairly forgettable altogether. A strike against it.
And really, would I say that Yuumi Hoshino is my favorite anime girl of 2008 – or of ever? Hah. ‘Favorite’ is a tough word to use, just like MAL’s ranking system, but Yuumi is probably fairly out-moe’d, out-story’d, out-emotion’d, out-god-damn-it-why-is-this-girl-so-likable’d by many from this year.
On the moeblob end, Kotomi Ichinose, Chinami Ebihara, or Haruka Nogizaka. On the serious (although still moeblob) side, Chihiro Shindou, or some of the old favorites from VNs of past. I’d probably even give Eriko Futami the nod.
But I guess the difference is, Yuumi fought from the losing side, and I know I’ll always stand up for a loser. (Which is why I have so much self-confidence, rimshot.)
Still I doubt that I will be able to, for a long time, again crank out 2000-word episodic posts to the extent that IKnight makes amusing literary reference to my shipping habits.
And that’s what really impresses me about KimiKiss. It really is, from the meta right down to the content, one giant, ridiculous crush. Maybe that’s why I got behind Yuumi in the first place, maybe I saw something from my past…
And, out of either awe or nostalgia, I treasure such insanities of the mind. It’s really a passion I don’t feel often enough as an anime fan, to the point where it almost seems like I’m searching for an anime to drive me mad.
Since I want an anime that can make me FEEL. I want an anime to consume me. Wny, I cannot tell for myself, and is probably the subject of discourse for some high-level philosophy class. All I can do is return to a quote I cited once before, by Michael of Like Water, an anime blog of times past:
“In the end, anime is a hugely personal entertainment medium. It caters to individual fantasies, and makes you believe that you are the center of the fantasy (exemplified by harem anime).
This makes it very difficult to “dialogue” on anime the way you might a good fiction novel, or the way you would a great movie. You wrap so much of yourself into the story and the characters that you feel like you have your own private world with these people, and it’s something that others can’t take from you.
This is why anime is so addicting, and why people who enjoy it tend to watch so much of it. Who doesn’t want their own special world that others can’t even comprehend or touch? We can share it to the extent that we say what characters we like, or what particular moments touch us, but we can’t really share the depth of feeling that draws us to anime because it’s something that lies deep in us, something that we let few people touch.”
So, perhaps KimiKiss struck a nerve, maybe the same one ef rattled, and the most I can do to explain it is to bring a line straight from a bad porno: I don’t know what this feeling is, but it feels so right.
My pursuit of that feeling is what makes me give KimiKiss the top slot in this list.
If I wanted to really romanticize it I would say that one can’t really tell when it comes – only when it is. I mean, I have certain triggers, but it’s not always as easy a job as pushing some buttons. I like to think that way, anyway.
So I treasure these moments, or at least look upon them very fondly in retrospect, even if I can’t always understand them.
After all, KimiKiss is something from yesterday’s me, and even if today’s me cannot feel the same, the two of us are still linked together. (We are after all, the same person, how pretentious do you think I am…)
And after all it’s quite possible that magic might return again, just like how again I fell for the shonen romances like Midori Days, so I hold these moments dear, as a symbol of what I was and what I may be again.
In the end, the amount of actual content in this post devoted to KimiKiss is surprisingly slim. Such a happening is probably a result of just how The Yuumi Fighto Phase has transcended any rational logic, and how long ago it was.
I mean, shipping is fun.
Romance stories with two balanced heroines are great.
Shy girls are adorable and awesome.
And as always, I like me a good, touching story.
So perhaps KimiKiss was just the culmination of a bunch of coincidental circumstances. Maybe it had some extra touch that really clicked with the me from early 2008.
Whatever it is, it set off a spark that, although now dulled for KimiKiss, undoubtedly burns in the form of a passion for some other anime.
In that case, Yuumi’s metaphor of the ‘baton pass’ is quite relevant in a meta sense, with KimiKiss passing the baton of intense fanboy passion to another anime, perhaps ef.
And while it’s not in the spotlight anymore, just like with old crushes, I can look back on KimiKiss with that special mixture of nostalgia, warmth, and confusion – although I think overall the blend is more positive in a situation like this.
KimiKiss – or maybe Yuumi – came, it saw, it conquered. And then like most dominant empires, it slowly faded away, picked apart by time and by ambitious successors. But its mark still remains.
Maybe not as personal as that of Five Centimeters Per Second.
Not as warm as that of Midori Days.
Not as mindblowing as that of Higurashi.
But, I never really lost myself in 5cm, or Midori, or Higurashi. At least not verbally. I was rocked by them, and I still am when I look back, but I never really got a chance to express that. Not in 80 (now 90) kilobytes of text (protip: three-fourths the length of narcissu) like I did for KimiKiss.
I think that’s worth something.
-CCY
(And I hope everyone enjoys Christmas, however they plan to, and I’ll see you back here tommorow for more fun…)
Twelve Moments in Anime 2008 – #02: the two tales of ef
Dec 24th
“Seventeen years it had taken him to learn?what kind of meaning was hidden beneath the walls of text. O cruel, needless pretentiousness! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the world of logic and sensibility! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved ef.”
Why make sense when you could make awesome?
i Can try to explain why ef is probably disproportionally HIgh on the list of sHows that I consider completely and utterly soul-ROcking and world-shaking, but I‘ll probably Sound like a Maniacal, idiOtic pÉrson.
For really, the reason why ef makes me so, so happy inside – aside from the story – is the reason it will turn so many people off.
Somehow the one thing in anime that
entertains me more than I really believe that it should is
named
pretentiousness
and
i’m not ashamed at all
Ef features a lot of other
notable things that make it stand out as well that
effectively make it a well-
rounded package full of so much awesomeness that a
grain (or rather a truck full of) of eccentricity only makes
you (or at least me) love it more
Well, anyway, I stare down the barrel of the eleventh episode of the second season, with the impending closure of the story growing closer every day (and I’m just about in Aniblog Lockdown as a result), and I can think of nothing but praise for ef as a whole.
Granted, it’s praise with strings attached – I fully understand that ef is a hit or miss show. Sometimes it jumps into the deep end
jumps into the deep end
jumps into the deep, deep end
jumps into the deep, deep, deep end
jumps into the deep, deep, deep, deep end
jumps into the deep, deep, deep, deep, deep end
jumps into the deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep end of unintelligability, pretentiousness, insanity, of repetitiveness and overly long camera shots and really strange directive choices all those deep choices which have meaning but sometimes you see a wall of text in German and you just have to ask
WHY
and in the end it’s just a visual novel adaptation. No amount of good story can save it in the eyes of some. But why focus on the negative?
“The command of the old despotisms was Thou shalt not. The command of the totalitarians was Thou shalt. Our command is Thou art.”
ef is something I treasure for many the same reason as Higurashi. It hides within the cozy, familiar genre of visual novel adaptations (here, more of a romance story – stories, rather – than a harem show), a core that is far different than that of many of its brethren.
006 [the]
007 [pretentiousness]
003 [don't]
002 [I]
005 [just]
004 [mean]
008 [either.]
001 [And]
Rather, what impresses me a lot about ef is that it’s not just a story about some generic no-face guy coddling with and sucking up to (and then later, sucking off or whatever euphemism applies) a bunch of screwed-up girls … rather, everyone in ef is … well, screwed up, in their own way.
And while this may not be the style for everyone, I rather enjoy the sort of balance that this lends ef.
Like in Kodomo no Jikan, the question of belivability comes into play, and while ef stretches it a bit, especially if you come at it from a ‘plausability and realism’ standpoint.
But I think that the above point in addition to how ef plays itself across, makes it work very well as a ‘dramatic’ type of story, closer to the Higurashi or sola end of the scale than, say, KimiKiss or (maybe) true tears.
It’s a story where everyone has a story to tell, a work with a lot of incredible coincidences – the Shiori-esque may say ‘miracles’ – which all build together to make a brilliant emotional climax to it all. By removing the limiter of real life, probably even going past Owen’s concept of ‘hyperrealism’, ef can charge at full speed. It can will into existence, in the hearts of the viewers, characters like Chihiro and Yuuko.
For even if they do have astoundingly weird, almost supernatural, problems … in the end, a lot of what their troubles boil down to can be surprisingly down-to-earth. Maybe not the bluntness of a Five Centimeters Per Second, no, but as they say, the language of love is universal, even if it is obscured by strange memory defects and funny black-and-white camera shots.
(Part of a 12-day series fondly remembering some of the best moments in anime this year. Participants include: lolikitsune, lelangir, FuyuMaiden, Zeroblade, Nazarielle, ghostlightning, TheBigN, ETERNAL, Mike, A Day Without Me, digitalboy, Josh, otou-san, Culchann and Pontifus, IcyStorm, Cokematic,
koneko-chan, and miz, and you’re welcome to join too!)
Maybe you don’t know people who have experienced the exact same hardships as those in ef (whose hardships often read like a checklist of things to get screwed over by), but whose heart doesn’t ache when there is someone you want to help but can’t, someone you could have helped but couldn’t, something you could do but won’t …
Perhaps it’s a complement to Five Centimeters Per Second, hammering home that pang of regret. Equally so with that underlying message of being true to oneself, what with all the people hiding their true feelings / thoughts / faces / etc.
And despite all the stuff ef tries to heap on top of it, somehow, it ironically boils down to something that simple. The Power of Love, almost.
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
Like you see with so many hardened people. They swear not to love again. They push people away because of their own pain. Take your pick of excuses: they don’t want to hurt others, or they don’t want to be hurt.
But inevitably that’s not really what they truly desire, is it?
Just like every slice-of-life show tells you, there is a little bit of love inside of everyone (world is wonderful in the eyes of wonderful people, etc), and that shell cracks. All it takes is the right person.
In the end – or at least, the feeling I get from the 11th episode of the second season – ef really is, somehow, that optomistic. It just arrives at that conclusion after a much, much more emotionally painful ride than the normal visual novel.
I really appreciate both sides of the coin. I like an anime that can make me feel strong emotion (I won’t say ‘cry’).
And ef can affect me. I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone else out there but even when I’m hating it (hi melodies episode 10) it’s still hitting a nerve somewhere. Maybe, it’s the power of the first season rolling over, combined with hype, to almost subconsciously will me to feel something, but damn. I think they could overlay ‘ebullient future’ on a montage of Hitler dying and I would get that feeling in my stomach.
Yet, somehow, ef can uplift you too. Somehow, I just don’t think it chooses too. I mean, take the 11th episode of melodies. It’s almost unreal in how upbeat the tone stays throughout the whole thing. Or what of the last episode of memories? It’s because there has been so much suffering that the happiness becomes that much sweeter.
Am I going to pick a moment from ef? Maybe. It really depends on what you’re looking for.
As said, for the happiness, there is Melodies 11 and Memories 12.
For the emotion, Memories 10-11, maybe Melodies in the middle half.
For the insanity, it’s around every corner.
I think by this point ef has transcended the boundaries of anything I can rationally talk about, evidenced by the fact that my ramblings on it are diverging off to positive infinity rather than converging on something sensible.
I don’t feel as instantly compelled to watch it immediately on download as do I with One Outs or Toradora, but this is probably just an effect of the emotional preparation I almost have to do to watch something like ef. It’s not something to be taken lightly.
Doesn’t everyone have a series like this, though? Reason can only carry you so far, at least when you enjoy being charged with emotion and passion as much as I do… which is probably why I love ef.
-CCY
(was tempted to pretentious it up more, but really lacked the time and the sanity, and somehow I feel you all will thank me for it)
12 Moments of Anime 2008
#02: ef ~the two tales~
Twelve Moments in Anime 2008 – #03: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 13
Dec 23rd
(Part of a 12-day series fondly remembering some of the best moments in anime this year. Participants include: lolikitsune, lelangir, FuyuMaiden, Zeroblade, Nazarielle, ghostlightning, TheBigN, ETERNAL, Mike, A Day Without Me, digitalboy, Josh, otou-san, Culchann and Pontifus, IcyStorm, Cokematic,
koneko-chan, and miz, and you’re welcome to join too!)
Why did it take so long for someone to make Higurashi … and why did it take me so long to finally watch it?
I mean, I really fail to see why anyone would not be interested in Higurashi. It has:
1) cute girls
2) cute girls dying
3) cute girls dying to the hands of other cute girls
4) cute girls dying to the hands of other cute girls multiple times in a freaky Groundhog-Day-like-scenario that will leave you on the edge of your seat time and time again, ripping your fingernails out
Although, to be honest, those who are allergic to one piece or the other, may find less to like in Higurashi, as well as those who particularly care about a show’s art budget.
Still, for the rest of us, Higurashi is a particularly compelling watch, as I learned this year, if only because it takes a genre which is particularly one-track – the genre of things adopted from visual novels – and turns it on its head.
12 Moments of Anime 2008
#03: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 13
For Higurashi, isn’t really a visual novel anime in the same way Kanon or Shuffle is; there’s only the slightest hint of romance in any way, and scoring a girl isn’t the main objective.
In a sense, it’s almost more novel than visual novel; a novel visual novel, in both senses of the word ‘novel’, which I am whoring out far too much. Like Konata’s father, it is more true to say it is “ALSO a visual novel” rather than a visual novel.
That is, it has that familiarity of the moe-moe visual novel that will draw the usual crowd of fans to it, but the twisted, bloody story that lays within may be a shock to them. It’s a psychological thriller with a candy-coating of moe layered over it.
So although I imagine that the violence and insanity present in Higurashi are not even close to the levels of that in more action-packed, one might say more manly genres of anime, the fact that it lies within a more ‘innocuous’ container makes it a brutal, rollercoaster thrill ride.
And perhaps such rollercoaster thrillrides are common in the drama-heavy genre of visual novels … but I can say that for most people – or at least me – there has never been a ride like this.
Part of this is due to the fact that Higurashi takes great fun in dismembering its cast of characters over and over.
I’ve found that the Anyone Can Die trope is woefully underused in works of fiction, and painfully misapplied in many works that it does appear in (hello, dark angsty fanfiction).
This is because character death is a quick way to increase interest in a show, one way or another. It evokes emotion, it changes character dynamics, and it lends quite a bit to a show’s mood.
So a good work in which many good people are cut down in good time – say, Battle Royale – can leave you on the edge of your sesimultaneously fearing and hoping for the wellbeing of your favorite characters.
Higurashi takes this concept, and twists it delightfully.For in Hinamizawa, death is almost hilariously cheap. The reaper is holding a two-for-one sale and the citizens are snapping it up as quick as he can dish it out. You can hardly take a walk without coming across someone with their throat clawed out.
I mean, in the first season there are world-ending deaths every 4 episodes.
So you would think the value of a life (or a death) in Higurashi would be less than that of the quickly-falling U.S. dollar, especially since everyone has this tendency to come back to life next arc.
But somehow, Higurashi is still curiously compelling in its madness.
And while part of this can be attributed to raw, morbid glee in watching everything fall apart and watching the bodycount pile up, there’s more than that.
Rather, it’s the Groundhog-Day esque scenario that Rika and Hanyuu lead us through that keeps people on the edge of their seats.
While seeing the same scenario repeat over and over seems dull, the way in which it is played out, and the way the pieces unfold, is captivating.
Maybe my intellectual side likes the challenge of a mindbender like Higurashi; while not on the same level of a Kaiji or an ef, Higurashi at the least will send you reeling as you search for order in the madness.
Although I cannot speak from experience just yes, I imagine Higurashi to be a quite rewatchable show, if only to see all the subtle hints you missed the first time around.
Such a rewatch may almost be a natural extension of the show, given the dynamic nature of the characters; for unraveling the motives behind each character (and frequently, their periods of insanity) is a great source of enjoyment.
Maybe it was just me that was switching alliegances and sympathies like Makoto Itou does women; but the way the story repaints and recolors its characters is quite intriguing.
For in Higurashi, there is very little black and white; it’s hard to find a truly evil character, as opposed to the many driven mad by particularly unfortunate circumstances.
As such there’s a lot of sympathy for and a strong bond formed with each character, which just makes the constant descents into murder and madness that much more powerful (although in what way, I can’t tell) to the viewer.
And so Higurashi drove me through the spectrum of emotion. For two months of lights-out 1 AM watchings, I was captivated.
I melted over Rika’s demeanor and gaped at her maturity and determination. Satoko’s plight made my stomach churn. The multiple faces of the Sonozaki twins made me contemplative. Rena won me over with her memetic powers. And just sometimes, Keiichi’s idiotic, hotblooded speeches would fill me with manliness.
And Miss 34 (insert obvious joke), oh, Takano! How am I to begin to make judgment of you?
Today’s moment, the thrilling conclusion to one of the more drawn-out arcs of Higurashi, exemplifies one of the more gripping climaxes of the series.
Although the 13th episode of Kai may be more shock value than anything – featuring 4 headshots in a row among others – it still was an episode memorable for going beyond insanity. The type that leaves me curled up in a bed 15 minutes later, unable to sleep. (akin to the fingernail-ripping scene)
It was not just the perfect storm of the episode itself, but that culmination of momentum from the slow buildup of previous episodes, that climactic feeling of “it all comes down to this”.
And how quickly that momentum was reversed as well, as the insanity-induced rampage begins… you can’t help but laugh at it all.
Ahaha. Ahahaha. Ahahahahahaha!
Higurashi drove me insane every night, and I loved it every step of the way.
Isn’t that what love is, after all … a local insanity of the mind, in the best way possible?
-CCY
Twelve Moments in Anime 2008 – #04: Five Centimeters Per Second
Dec 22nd
(Part of a 12-day series fondly remembering some of the best moments in anime this year. Participants include: lolikitsune, lelangir, FuyuMaiden, Zeroblade, Nazarielle, ghostlightning, TheBigN, ETERNAL, Mike, A Day Without Me, digitalboy, Josh, otou-san, Culchann and Pontifus, IcyStorm, Cokematic,
koneko-chan, and miz, and you’re welcome to join too!)
I, uh, ugh … tissue, please? Sorry, something in my eye, just a speck of dust…
It’s just … like … augh, and why? And then … I can’t. I can’t write about this movie again. It’ll snap my heart in two if I do.
OK, but in all seriousness, I’m looking up at the clock and I’ve got to admit that even I fall behind on these moments sometime. I’ve now got 45 minutes to fix up and get ready this post, and as such I will just take today off as a breather, and work towards banging out three piles of kickassery for the next three days instead.
Luckily, I’ve got a previous post on Five Centimeters Per Second which can be referenced for some of the reasons why this movie moves me so much. I’ll try to rant a little here as well, as a second viewing may have changed how 5cm affects me slightly, but I think, for now, the old post will be the more coherent source.
(500 words later I find this is all lies. I managed to get out something decent after all, so I’m pleased. In any case, consider the old post at least a supplement.)
12 Moments of Anime 2008
#04: Five Centimeters Per Second
Strangely enough, I remember both times I watched Five Centimeters Per Second, which may be the first clue to how much of an impression it left on me.
Amusingly, both times were in positions that would prime me to be perfectly blasted by the emotional effect of Byousoku 5cm. Not as if I hadn’t been feverishly anticipating it both times; the first type because of all the hype generated by various bloggers, and the second from all the hype generated from … well, the first watching.
It’s a very rewatchable substance, naturally, one because it’s relatively short and lends itself to such, and two because you expect something much different out of it the second time around; after all, the ending that is eventually reached, is not the ending that one would imagine the first time through. At least if you’re me (who couldn’t predict the ending to AIR).
It’s almost ironic, that in one situation – if you’ll allow me to pull back the curtain – I was in the position of the typical, horrifically lovestruck teenager, watching the movie with a few close friends, one of which I had a particular infatuation for, in a situation not unlike that of the second story. Although I don’t think she, like Takaki, had eyes for another, but who am I to know. Enough similar to churn my stomach ten times over.
And the second time, was at college, when I was equally fortunate to enjoy the tension of a long-distance relationship, one that had me questioning whether, over the dozens of phone calls, our hearts were getting closer or drifting apart. This lies closer to the third story in 5cm, naturally.
So maybe it’s all my fault that Five Centimeters Per Second is too damn awesome.
It’s my fault because I’m a foolish teenager who likes mushy anime and wants said anime to make him feel deep emotion, a mental state that is quite easily exploited by down-to-earth, beautiful (yet brutal) stories like this one.
And if that’s a sin, I’ll accept it with open arms.
But of course, one could also say this is the exceptional strength of Five Centimeters Per Second, in that is IS down-to-earth and that it doesn’t sugarcoat things. Sometimes people will wait forever. Sometimes they will move on. But, always, things move forward – as my friend very nicely analyzed from the title, “although five centimeters per second seems slow, before you know it, the cherry blossoms have all fallen, and you can never get them to go back up.”
It’s the same with life. Time goes on. Slowly, but surely. It’s up to you to make the most of it.
I think an anime that can make me feel this much, that can tell me this much, is certainly worth something, is it not? I can only hope it is the same for you.
-CCY
(Although it probably doesn’t hurt that the animation in 5cm is worship-worthy.)