Jessica

I legit cried. This movie touches topics that hit close home to me: isolation, early childhood bullying, and suicide. I found this extremely relateable. The pacing of the movie was spot-on, and the musical soundtrack complemented the realistic storytelling.

I wanted to rate this lower, but the movie emphasizes the realities of love: distance. Most individuals will hate the movie as it doesn't follow conventions and bring the typical quantities of levity as seen in most romance movies. I disliked this aspect of the movie and hated it, but I came to accept it later on (similar to the protagonist). A motif of the movie is cherry blossom leaves drifting away at 5 cm/s. We often associate the beauty of cherry blossom trees with how its leaves drift away. Without the leaves drifting away, there would be no beauty. Same can be said for human relationships. There is beauty, and pain, but that's is what life is. Thank you Makoto Shinkai.