Please keep in mind before you read this that I am just some dumbass on the internet with an opinion that does not matter at all in the grand scheme of life.
I love media that leaves me feeling violently depressed for weeks after I finish it. Banana Fish? Great, absolutely destroyed me. Ride Your Wave? Made me cry so hard I couldn't breathe. Awesome. So, naturally, when I was seeing 5 Centimeters Per Second on everyone's "this made me wanna end it all" list, I knew I needed to watch it. Given what I had been seeing about it, I went into this film expecting a romance story with an ending so dismal I would be thinking about it for weeks. But what I actually got was super...bland. I get that this film was supposed to be a much more realistic take on love; it never works out in real life the way it works out in the movies. People grow apart, old flames never get rekindled, yada yada yada. In theory, I should have totally enjoyed this story. And I probably would've, if only I cared about the characters. The protagonists in this story are neither likable nor dislikable as neither of them have a speck of personality. Seriously, if you asked me to tell you one thing about them, I wouldn't know what to say because there was nothing there. In order for me to enjoy a relationship between two characters, I need to care about them as individuals, and I can't do that if they feel like cardboard cutouts. I had no emotional investment in any of it. Which it turn made this a super boring watching experience. When the movie ended, I was like...is that it? I feel like I kept waiting for this big moment to happen and it just never came. Now, I am willing to admit that my taste probably just is not refined enough for this kind of movie. It could be that there's some deeper meaning that I'm completely missing because I just didn't want to think that hard, and I'm fine with that. And I want to add that the art in this film is beautiful. It has this more sketchy style that I really like and that feels very unique compared to other anime films I have seen. And if you're someone who enjoys quieter, slower-paced stories, then I absolutely do not want to deter you from giving this a try because you'll probably love it. But the problem still arises for me that this isn't a character-driven narrative and therefore I do not find it as investing as I would have liked. I like interesting characters. I like interpersonal drama. I like relationships that I fall in love with so when they inevitably end it feels like a part of my soul is being ripped out. And this had none of that. This film has a melancholy undertone, yes. But if you're someone like me who enjoys viscerally sad shit, this isn't the film for you.
