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5 Centimeters per Second
(Byousoku 5 Centimeters)

First Review by Webmaster
(March 3, 2007)

Interview in Movie Pamphlet



External Links:
Trailer, Wallpaper Download
Official Website
(Yahoo! Japan)

Official Blog by Morizo
(Japanese)





Byousoku 5cm

Japanese Title: Byousoku 5 Centimeters
Japanese Title (Shift-JIS Encode): 秒速5センチメートル
Strainght Translation: Speed of 5 Centimeters per Second
Premiere Year: 2007
Running Time: 63 minutes

Other Main Staff
Character Design/Art Director: Takayo Nishimura
Background Art: Takumi Tanji, Akiko Majima (Note: I had listed her name as "Ryoko" but it was wrong. "Akiko" is correct. Sorry. Edit: March 24, 2007)
Music: Tenmon
Theme song "One more day, One more chance": Masayoshi Yamazaki



General Information

5cm imageByousoku 5 Centimeters (5 Centimeters per Second) is chaind three episodes of a boy Takaki Tohno and a girl Akari Shinohara. Its story is set on Japan from the first half of the 1990s to now. The storyline is based on real life in Japan, doesn't have Sci-Fi or fanfasy taste.

Mr Shinkai says about this work:
"We did thorough location hunting, and are trying to scoop this present real world up by the style of animation. Our daily life rarely includes eventful dramas, dramatic treachery or sudden revelations. Nevertheless, after all the world is filled with flavor and beauty here and there, and it is worth to live.
We try to depict such an aspect of real life by this film, and to make your familiar landscapes more shining than usual after finished viewing. We aim to make such works which cuddles up to your daily life."

The three episodes follows timeline of Takaki's life.



Story

Episode 1: Oukashou ("Excerption from long story about cherry brossom")

Takaki and Akari are in the 4th grade. They are living in Goutokuji, a town in west area of Tokyo. They are nice friends, and wanted to go to same junior high school. (The school is called Nishi-chu:West JHS in the film.) However, Akari moved to Tochigi Prefecture after graduation.

In 1995, Takaki has became junior high student (13 years old). They were exchanging letters, and one day, he went to visit Akari's town by train....

Episode 2: Cosmonaut

The stage is Tanegashima, an island of Kagoshima Prefecture (south end of mainlands of Japan). Tanegashima has space center of JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agancy. (Note: It was NASDA: National Space Development Agency in 1990s.)

In 1999, a high school girl Kanae is Takaki's classmate. She liked Takaki. He was friendly to Kanae, and she wanted to stay with Takaki, but she couldn't say She likes him.
Farthermore, they are in summer of the 3rd grade of high school, which is the time of the first dicision of their life path. She was paralyzed with indecision....

Episode 3: Byousoku 5 Centimeters

Takaki was using his computer at private room. He had resigned company, and was working at home. One day, he went out, and walked past a woman at a railroad-crossing. The realization came to him, and he looked back on her, but a train came and cut off his view....



Main Characters

Takaki Tohno (遠野 貴樹)
A boy, main character. He moved to Gotokuji in Tokyo a year before Akari. He wanted to go to same junior high school with Akari, but he couldn't because she moved to Tochigi. When Takaki was junior high student, he moved to Tanegashima. He belonged to Kyudo club in high school.

Voice: Kenji Mizuhashi

Akari Shinohara (篠原 明里)
She is a classmate of Takaki in elementary school. She moved to a small town Iwabuchi in Tochigi after graduating from elementary school. She liked reading books, and had some sympathy with Takaki.

Voice: Yoshimi Kondou (Episode 1), Ayaka Onoue (Episode 3)

Kanae Sumida (澄田 花苗)
A short-hair high school girl living in Tanegashima. She was attracted to Takaki at the first day when he came to her junior high school because "he looked different from other boys." She studied very hard to pass the entrance test to go with same high school with Takaki.
She loves surfing. Her big sister is teacher of her high school. Her family has a dog named Cub, and her motorcycle used for going to school is Honda Super Cub.

Voice: Satomi Hanamura



Trivia
Mr Shinkai said his most favorite episode is Cosmonaut (Episode 2). [July 22, 2007: Talk session for DVD release event in Akihabara]



Making Environment

Hardware
    Apple PowerMac G5 2.5GHz Quad
    Apple PowerMac G5 2.7GHz Dual
    Apple PowerMac G5 2.5GHz Dual
    and some iMacs

Software
    Adobi Photoshop CS2
    Adobi After Effects 6.5
    etc.

March 1, 2007 by Daike / Tokyo, Japan
Last Modified : August 10, 2007



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