5 Centimeters Per Second

Five centimetres per second – that’s how fast cherry-blossom petals fall to the ground. Makoto Shinkai’s cult anime is one of the most beautiful cinematic love stories ever told. Divided into three chapters, it follows Takaki as he grows up and experiences first love, heartbreak, and longing.

Takaki meets Akari when she joins his class at primary school. It quickly becomes clear that two kindred spirits have found each other. They share passions, sensitivity, and a tendency to daydream. They quickly become friends, and in time begin to develop deeper feelings for one another. However, Akari moves away, disrupting their budding romance. Years pass, cherry trees fade and bloom again, and Takaki and Akari gradually drift apart. New friends, university, other relationships, and eventually the responsibilities of adult life enter Takaki’s world, but nothing can make him forget his first love. Will he ever meet Akari again and tell her what he has kept hidden for all these years?

Following the release of 5 Centimetres per Second, Makoto Shinkai was rightly hailed as the successor to Hayao Miyazaki. Both filmmakers see extraordinary beauty in simple, seemingly insignificant things: small gestures, fading trees, or the sound of the wind on a snowy night. This distinctive sensitivity, combined with a breathtaking, fairy-tale-like animation style, has become Shinkai’s hallmark. He is the creator not only of 5 Centimetres per Second, but also of Your Name and Suzume.

Did you know that…

…cherry trees, known as sakura in Japanese, bloom for just two weeks each year? In Japanese art and culture, they symbolise renewal, but also transience and fleeting nature of life.