After watching Makoto Shinkai's Weathering with You, I fell down the rabbit hole and became religiously obsessed with his other films. His other work, notably Your Name, Voices of A Distant Star, and Garden of Words center the themes of distance, longing, and loneliness. I'd like to add that as I write this review, I, too, am going through my own internal heartbreak and self reflection as I say goodbye to my own unrequited love and all feelings attached with that.

5 Centimeters per Second heavily relies on beautiful art and scenery to paint emotions that otherwise would have not been visible to the audience. Scenes of the empty fields with gusts of winds blowing through the grass, waves crashing down the beautiful ocean, and stars and galaxies glimmering in the night sky show how vast and wide the world could be. And yet, with the right amounts of fate and destiny our two protagonists, Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara, are able to meet and fall in love. As the two move around, we are able to see their worlds and how strikingly different they are.

Our heartstrings are pulled as we see Tono experience his longing for his first love all while technology advances, but their communication does not. We see the inevitable downfall of their relationship as they miss chances to relay their feelings. This particular theme hits hard for many people, especially millennials who now have to heavily rely on algorithms in dating apps in order to make meaningful connections. How do we form relationships without having to meet face-to-face? How do we close the distance between us just by text messaging? These are all questions Tono, too, has to ask himself to cope with his crippling loneliness.

Though set in the 90s, the themes of this story are timeless and Makoto Shinkai uses that to his advantage. I saw someone in the comment section say that 'sometimes the greatest types of love are the ones that can't go anywhere'. That's a hard pill to swallow as both a Makoto Shinkai fan and someone with a broken heart. Maybe this review is my attempt to come to terms with my own reality, knowing that even with all this advanced communication and technology that we truly could never really be together. Maybe the greatest part of this love is being able to be strong about not being able to go further, preserving the version of the person we love the most.

Perhaps we can find each other falling in love in our next life.