5 Centimeters Per Second - Three heartbreaking stories about longing and lost loves

It was Akari Shinohara, the girl with whom Takaki Tono had become close friends in grade school, who first pointed out to him the speed of falling cherry blossoms as 5 centimeters per second. "They look like snowflakes," she exclaimed. He thought the world of her and tried spending as much time with her as he could. And even after she moved away to Tochigi, he looked forward to receiving her letters and phone calls, responding in kind and maintaining the hope that one day they'd be reunited. But circumstances changed. Takaki's family was preparing to move as well, and the distance between him and Akari would only become greater and greater. So, determined to see her one last time, he boarded the train for Tochigi and endured several hours worth of delays due to a relentless snowstorm, finally reaching Akari's station and finding her still waiting for him. But the impending conclusion of their time spent together kept weighing heavily upon Takaki's heart, the ephemeral nature of each second being succinctly captured in Akari's soft yet ironic reminder, "they look like snowflakes."

STORY #2: COSMONAUT

Still haunted by dreams of "that faceless girl on another planet," Takaki is now attending junior high school in Kagoshima. There he is befriended by a persistent admirer, Kanae Sumida, whose greatest hope lies in someday building up enough courage to tell him how she really feels. The focus of this chapter shifts to Kanae's narration of her own indecisiveness and troubled heart, no more clearly visualized than in her fumbling attempts at surfing. To her, Takaki Tono is "the most important person in the entire world," and she seems happy just to share the ride home with him each evening. And yet there is that nagging sense that she feels of being left behind, frustrating her efforts to move forward with her own life. Near the end of the last long and painful walk home, she comes to realize that, no matter if she did succeed at riding a wave, the enormity of the distance between her and Takaki could never be bridged. "Tono was never really looking at me. . . ," she explains, "always looking past me." And with that understanding, she closes the chapter brokenhearted. But for Takaki, the story is starting to pick up, as the face of the girl from his dreams is revealed at last.

STORY #3: 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND

13 years have passed since the last time Takaki and Akari watched together the cherry blossoms fall. Takaki is now an adult living and working in Tokyo. The girl he has been dating, Risa Mizuno, tries desperately to contact him, but in the end admits, "we must have exchanged over a thousand emails, but I doubt our hearts got closer by more than a centimeter." He tries immersing himself in work, but then the season of cherry blossoms returns, as well as thoughts of Akari.

For her part, Akari has managed to move on, preparing for a future with another man. Then a dream about the past reawakens old memories, and she too thinks about the time they shared as children. Takaki expresses a desire to move on, as well, but only finds himself still grasping onto something that is now out of reach. That "dream of long ago" they both hold onto, of watching together again the falling of cherry blossoms, remains forever unfulfilled. The words of the closing song, "One more time, one more chance," are set to a series of brief scenes which together sum up the hopes and despairs of all four characters.