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So today marks the 5th day of Animation Nation 2007. I hurry myself down to catch the 1st screening of 秒速５センチメートル by Makoto Shinkai along with umehiko, Windbell, Zero and others. I’m was very eager to watched it in the big screens and once again, I got mesmerised by the stunning animation and terrific plot. Don’t mind me since I’ll be expressing my own personal opinions. Feel free to disagree with me and debate if you wish.

Not only that, I’ve came to a kind of self-realisation and also saw many things potrayed in the show that I could caught the first time I watched it. And so Byousoku 5cm is seperated into 3 parts, involving the characters, Tohno Takaki, Shinohara Akari and Kanae Sumida. Tenmon’s music was also terrific. I love his music alot.

The title for the show means ”5 Centimetres Per Second” and it resembles a metaphorical representation of human, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but eventually drift away, slowly into their seperate ways. A depressing and harsh reality in life but it’s something that we all have to live with.  In fact, I myself have gone through that phase before. This also includes late realisation of feelings, regrets and how each action plays a part in an effect.

Takaki and Akari were close friend that were brought together  due to the fact that they were similiar in a way. But due to their families, they had no choice and eventually grew further and further apart as time went on. They were soon seperated but yet had deep feelings for each other and was able to maintain contact with each other by sending letters. Unfortunately, as time continued to move on, their contact with each other began to cease. Eventually, they got seperated even further as they move even more away from each other. However, their memories of the times they have together are still clear.

However, Takaki being faithful to Akari didn’t realised that there were so many other opportunities out there and didn’t realised that Sumida has the same feelings for him as he have for Akari. In the end, Sumida realised that Takaki would never look at her and eventually gave up, reluctantly. To be honest, this is a very common scenario in life, when one only sees things in their own perspective and fails to understand or realise that there are other ways to see it. Because Takaki shut his doors out and in this case to Sumida, she ends up being a silent lover and not being able to do anything.

In this film, it was brought into another level, piercing the veil of the everyday to reveal a poignant, evanescent beauty most of us notice only in rare moments.

If there’s something to ponder about, it might be on what’s the turning point for a relationship to go from one that’s romantic into a platonic one, or vice versa? There’s fear in all of us, that’s for sure. One example would be the fear of rejection. Would the one I love be able to accept me? What if I get rejected? Will things ever be the same again? Would I regret not to make a move, or regret after I made it? Could I be thinking too much about myself that I eventually make myself believe that I’m acheiving something that was not what I wanted in the first place? All this these tend to hold us back as for every action, there’s a consequence to be faced.

Now, sit back, relax and reflect back for a bit. Is there something that you really want to do? One advice would be, no point hindering onto the past. We all live the present and strive for the future. How about me? Let’s say, I realised that I see myself in all 3 of the characters and have finally come down with a decision of my own. Now’s the time for me to move on base on what I feel. It might be better to regret doing that not doing as they all commonly say, but of course, it depends. Either way, we have to live on with it.

And check out this music video. I love this song since it’s very meaningful.