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Shelf Life - 5 Centimeters Per Second


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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:46 am Reply with quote
kokoro connect is not what it looks to be, being one of the most misleading anime title since madoka; while it looks like it's a body swap romantic comedy in the same vein as yamada kun's 7 witches, this one ends up being an anallysis on what defines a person.

The fact that it loks like k-on and the poor execution of some arcs don't really help it , tho.
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explosionforgov



Joined: 16 Jun 2016
Posts: 80
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:00 am Reply with quote
I sent in my collection last week too, did the email come in okay?
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:30 am Reply with quote
Quote:
My problem is with the rest of the episode, which feels short and underdeveloped. We don't get much of a chance to meet the significant new people in Takaki and Akari's lives


Like was said it the review, the movie is definitely a less is more movie and this carry trough the ending.spoiler[ Ultimately it seems like Takaki stayed hunged up on Akari and just doesn't have any new significant people in his life while Akari moved on.]

I vaguely remember Kokoro connection, mostly cause it shamelessly copy k-on character design, but I remember it wasn't very good.

Ben-to is very good, if you've watched last year Kaijo and want more of the same (with less focus on butts and boobs) look no further.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:52 am Reply with quote
I liked Five Centimeters Per Second and until I saw Garden of Words I would say it was my favorite work by Shinkai.
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LightningViper



Joined: 28 Oct 2016
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 12:22 pm Reply with quote
What a coincidence, just yesterday I stumbled upon 5 centimeters per second being shown on tv, which surprised me very much, as anime, besides Pokemon and Sailor Moon, ain't really that popular here.
I loved the first two stories, but the third one indeed left me wondering is that it, mostly cause I didn't really get what happened. I guess it's because the happy ending isn't the standard one, they found their happiness with others. Sort of, I still don't get Takaki's relationship with that Risa girl.
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sourpatchthekid



Joined: 20 Dec 2016
Posts: 64
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 12:33 pm Reply with quote
I highly recommend anyone who enjoyed 5 cm. Per second read the manga. It goes a lot deeper into the 2nd and 3rd stories than the movie had time to
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SaitoHajime101



Joined: 31 Mar 2013
Posts: 280
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 12:58 pm Reply with quote
Here is a small spoiler to explain a little bit, but as was suggested above, go read the 5 CM manga as it explains that 3rd part more.

spoiler[Takaki was seeing a woman for a long time, however ended up breaking up because Takaki was still unable to get over how his relationship ended with Akari. He was essentially afraid of it all and feeling the pain again.]

Here's my interpretation of the final scenes in the movie

spoiler[Takaki appears to have finally come to an understanding of his thoughts about Akari and his failed relationship. While he may not be able to correct past mistakes, his experiences will allow him to move on. Hence why he smiled and turned around after passing Akari, unknowingly, on the road at the same train crossing.]

The one thing to note about this Bluray release is the interviews on it are the old interviews from previous DVD release. The contents aren't new at all, but it is definitely a nice to have as people upgrade their DVDs to Blurays (potentially). I still wish this blu ray release had the ADV dub though, however Johnny Yong Bosch is always awesome to listen to!
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Ambimunch



Joined: 30 Aug 2012
Posts: 2012
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:33 pm Reply with quote
I am a little sad this is the new dub and not the first one, but might double-dip on this release since the movie is so darn good. I definitely agree that this film's value shines only if you can make a personal connection. As someone who had a somewhat rough life, I made the connection fast, and the movie then proceeded to hit me in "the feels", and hit hard.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Nice collection Ronald! I like seeing all of those LEs and whatnot. I used to have that Love Live Movie artbox too. I'm disappointed you have it turned backwards, smh Sad , but I understand in this case. lol
In all seriousness, very nice set up. Smile
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 712
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:01 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, I was not a fan of 5CMPS. As someone who has gone through very similar situations to the one presented in the film, I feel like it should have resonated more with me but it just didn't. I wrote a fairly in-depth review of this film on MAL (which if I could change the score of, I would), but I'll just briefly summarize that here.

I really don't think the three-act structure works. Each part is fine on it's own, but you put them all together and the whole thing kind of falls apart. The first part is beautiful, and really epitomizes the feeling of longing that the film is all about, while making the protagonist incredibly sympathetic.

But then the second part comes along and the choice to portray the MC from part 1 as a solitary, distant, detached figure makes him feel completely alien and destroys pretty much all the goodwill that was built up towards him in the first part. The girl's story stands on it's own pretty well, but as the film then transitions to focus back on part 1's MC for the last part, that doesn't really matter.

Part 3, which builds on the emotions of the first two parts to function (which, as I mentioned, have been blunted by this point), does not work nearly as well, which brings the whole movie down. The third part is even worse than the first two artistically, as well; whereas the first two parts each have a definite visual theme that unifies them (the fact that it primarily took place at night and the brilliant lighting that was used well because of it, and the vast open spaces and the sky at dusk, respectively), the third part had no visual unity whatsoever. It was still well-drawn, but it was boring and significantly less impactful.

It's sort of the opposite of the saying "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts"; I think the first two parts can each stand on their own as separate short films, but their combination (and inclusion of the third part) ruins the package for me. I really wanted to like this movie, but I just didn't.
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rtil



Joined: 22 May 2005
Posts: 93
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:44 pm Reply with quote
from a structural standpoint 5cm is a bad movie. like most of Shinkai's work it relies heavily on simply being a pretty movie and it was memed because of "feels", but in reality the film is painfully hollow and unsatisfying. and despite having pretty backgrounds the character art and animation is extremely amateurish, especially considering Shinkai's more recent work.
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Razor/Edge



Joined: 05 Jun 2015
Posts: 607
PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:17 pm Reply with quote
I'll add my voice in with those that say to read the 5cm Per Second manga. I really loved the movie up until the ending. It felt jarring and so sudden that I didn't really feel any sort of closure. The manga fixes all of that and fully flushes out the last part of the story. It was really good and wrapped up everything quite nicely. Plus the manga's art is beautiful. Naturally it doesn't quite live up the anime, but still it's probably some of the best manga art i've seen. The attention to detail and the backgrounds show that the artist tried to follow Shinkai's visual style and I was very impressed with the results.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 3:55 am Reply with quote
If Akari was actually that important to Takaki, he would have never lost contact with her. Guess it is sour grapes on his part.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:33 am Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
If Akari was actually that important to Takaki, he would have never lost contact with her. Guess it is sour grapes on his part.


Your assuming he's the one who lost contact with her, she might have grown distant. And it's not that simple, what was he supposed to do, run away from home?
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:44 am Reply with quote
So the failings of 5 Cm per Second are all mine for not connecting to the characters and not Shinkai for successfully creating a story that is, in his own words, about nothing happening?

There's almost something about focusing so much on the past or future, you lose sight of the present but that's not what the third short's about as that once seems to conclude that you can't rely upon a "romantic chance encounter" to resolve your own life. Ha, irony.

Because this is fiction and in reality, everything happens. Simply focusing on the bittersweet ignores the fact how wondrous the world really is, in both its capacity to be cruel and kind. And this is where I hate the ending because it is so narrow. He moves on, sort of, as they failed to ultimately connect, I guess? Good for him... or not, are we supposed to care either way?... but what were we doing for the past hour?

As the ending went to musical montage, my rage I felt from first viewing was as sudden as it was palpable. Death, marriage, love and life and all that in between could happen but... nothing? We the audience have to settle for nothing?
But hey, it's pretty.

I've yet to see a Shinkai work I actually like, the closest is The Place Promised in Our Early Days which seems to negate the vistas and art in favor of... um... plot... kind of... but that one seems to instead follow the ABe style of storytelling in as being as weirdly abstract as possible. Little Science as possible but not much in the way of Fiction either.
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