5 Centimeters per Second

About

Takaki and Akari meet as elementary schoolers in Tokyo, bonded by the quiet recognition that they are the same kind of lonely. When Akari's family moves away, they write letters — then the letters slow, then stop. Years pass. Takaki carries the weight of that first love through high school, college, and into a career that feels like sleepwalking, never quite able to close the distance between who he is and who he was when he loved her. Shinkai's story moves in three chapters, each separated by years, each measuring the growing gap between memory and life. The title refers to the speed at which cherry blossoms fall — and the speed at which people drift apart. This is a story about the particular cruelty of a love that never ends and never arrives.