秒速５センチメートルアチェインオブショートストリーズアバウトゼアディスタンス - 5 Centimeters Per Second

Byousoku 5 Centimetre sat in the back of my mind as something to watch for the better part of a year until finally watching it with my partner a few days ago. There are a couple of spoilers in this one.

The first thing I noticed about it was the realism. The incredible, intricate detail of Japanese life. It reminded me of an opinion I had held before spending time in Japan that the Japanese were influenced by anime, but in fact (clearly) it is the other way around. This anime is perfect, from the odd safety and politeness to the gleaming trains and platforms, to the towering cities and empty countryside. All of these aspects are so real that it actually hurts a little, and of course, the whole thing is an exercise in nostalgia, in painful remembrance, so it's fitting that the visuals would be breathtaking.


Like this one. To start the middle chapter, Cosmonaut. Set on an island, in a community style the likes of which I never experienced, this was an interesting foray into island life, surfing and a different kind of Japanese. The introduction of a mobile phone seemed perfect, and made it seem, in fact, as if the two lovers of the first chapter would be together forever.


Which of course made the actual ending utterly gut-poundingly sad. I have never in my whole life wanted two people to recognise each other more than I have in this one moment on the train tracks.