Anyway…

@Mike: well, it’s pathetic even from our standpoint, right? Just because someone can relate doesn’t make it less lame. Takaki really fucks up bad by not taking a step back and looking at the big picture. He had male friends, why did he not confide in them and invite a “CLENCH THOSE TEETH?” Because he’s a pussy.

@TheBigN: no, I didn’t mean that his soul was crushed the moment he smiled. His soul was crushed over long years of working and living in solitude (as he pretty much tells us in the third part right before the One More Time, One More Chance AMV). I refuse to believe that his smile at the end is an indication that he’s “over it,” if anything, what he has realized is how pathetic he is. I’d contend that he’s laughing at himself.

Maybe that realization can help him heal in the future, but it’s gonna take a lot of ARIA watching to cure this man’s wounds :P

Except it isn’t. Just because he finally comes to terms with how things are doesn’t mean that he’s at his lowest point. That was before he realized that life goes on, and so he shall as well. And I’m sure he feels a lot better than he did moping around.

Unless you were talking about that moment before the realization. :P

I haven’t been a relationship, or have longed to be in one, so I can’t specifically relate to the situations that the characters in the film experience. But Shinkai manages to present in a way such that though I don’t feel exactly what everyone else is feeling, those feelings (like how it seems that all of the world is against you) are general enough that most can understand. He really wasn’t able to do that for Beyond the Clouds or Hoshi no Koe, which is consequently why I rank this much higher than those two. :)

One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is what happens when I show this to people who didn’t grow up as shy introverted geeks–they don’t get it, they find it kind of pathetic how the main character acts. It works best on people who have been through similar experienecs and feelings…like me. :-p

… but really, there isn’t, and you’re just being fucked with.

I think the ‘one more time, one more chance’ sequence of the third part is one of the finest sequences ever created in anime.