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Posts tagged Five Centimeters Per Second
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.)
Emotional Sonic Boom: Five Centimeters Per Second, (First) Final Impressions
Apr 12th
I’m about as late to the Five Centimeters Per Second party as its main character was to his destination in the first story, so we’ll spin this off into a fancy, deep, vaguely pretentious post.
Five Centimeters Per Second was one of those anime that personally had a hype level that surpassed nearly anything else I’ve heard of. Where as Haruhi was the god (and her anime too) of second-mainstream anime – all the shows a person would be likely to encounter after their initial shonen or CLAMP phase – 5cm was something praised as one of the most moving romantic works in a long time … or at least in as encapsulated a story as movies have to be.
I’m not inclined entirely to disagree, as I was definitely entranced by the story and the visuals (oh, the visuals), but it didn’t quite nail the perhaps implausibly high expectations I set for it.
It was a bit of a tear-jerker but not as much as I first believed, the characters bordered on that line between enrapturing and just plain cheesy, and, well, the ending.
The ending, and, to a lesser extent, the whole progression of 5cm was something that didn’t quite mesh. There were some ‘click’ moments, like when Takaki spoke of his search for a philosophy, but lacking a bit of one myself, his story overall was something that left me stirred, but not shaken. (James Bond would be dissapointed.)
At least during my viewing of it, anyway. After reconsidering and writing out this post, in final revisions I find myself to be quite tsundere, if I shall kick a dead horse, for shows in the vein of this and True Tears. There’s quite a disconnect between feelings from watching it, and feelings from analyzing it.
(Movie spoilers, and possible incoherence ahead.) Read the rest of this entry »