Every once in a while there is a film that catches you off guard. They might posses a moment that makes us glad that there’s a rewind button so we can re-watch a particular scene. They might leave us stepping back for a moment as the credits roll, processing what we just saw in either confusion. And then there are those that just leave us thinking; thinking about the experience that the film just put us through. Shinkai Matoko’s 5 Centimeters per Second is one of those films in that last category for me. It’s with a slight amount of shame I admit that until sitting down to 5 Centimeters this week, I had yet to see anything by Shinkai. The viewing of Voices of a Distant Star is one of the few times I missed an MCLA Anime Club meeting. (If memory serves, it was due to still being exhausted after staffing for an anime convention for the first time in my life and the meeting was the following Monday) Yet I’d always heard that the work of Shinkai was something worth seeing. 5 Centimeters did not disappoint.
Taking its title from the speed that cherry blossom petals are said to fall at, the film is broken into three sections of a boy’s (and eventually a young man’s) life. The first follows his life as he goes into middle school, and is separated from a friend who, like him, moves very often due to the nature of her parents’ work. The boy, Takaki, makes a journey by several trains to visit his friend, Akari. With the snow continually falling, his journey becomes more and more delayed on his way to see her. From Akari’s letters read through a voice over and Takaki’s own narration throughout this section we learn the origins of their friendship, and their struggle to preserve it despite growing distances. Hours later than intended, the two are reunited for what will most likely be the last time.
In the film’s second section, Takaki is now in his high school days, and there is another girl Kanae, who is infatuated and intrigued by him. Taken in by his kind nature, she finds herself struggling with trying to confess her feelings for him. Yet Takaki seems to constantly be just out of reach, as if there is something else holding part of his focus. Kanae struggles to come to terms with this.
In the final sequence, all three characters have gone their own ways, and are living their own lives, separate from one another. Akari is engaged to be married with an unnamed man, Takaki is working as a computer programmer, and Kanae is going about her own life as well. Yet despite all being in their own lives, the three cannot help but reflect on the past that seems to be nothing more than a dream now. As Yamazaki Masayoshi’s “One More Time, One More Chance” begins to play in the foreground of the films soundtrack, various scenes of the three characters lives are shown, both past and present.
First impressions of 5 Centimeters per Second are very tricky, at first appearing to try and send a message that all early love is doomed to be fleeting. And while there is a hint of truth to this sentiment, it’s far from the real essence of the film. Each character represents a different state of being. Takaki only looks at things as they once were; Akari as they will become; and Kanae as they are currently.
So what is the final essence of Shinkai’s film? It’s that chance encounters slowly shape people in ways one can sometimes not fathom when they occur. The past is gone, but it still has importance as it is what brings one to where they are now. The present will be gone sooner than one might expect, and the future is always approaching. Happiness lies in enjoying the present, and understanding its importance. Like the cherry blossoms and snow, everything has a familiar point of origin, but where the wind takes it remains to be seen.
