Anime Discussion Thread - Page 1517

With the first part, you get a story of 2 naive children who truly believe they may be able to eventually be together forever. They've experienced so little in life and jump into infatuation and child love at finding their simple similarities which no one else shared with them which only fueled their attraction to each other. The idea of finding a like-minded person, especially one of the opposite gender, when no one else could understand you is the pivotal point of their relationship. However, "fate" or rather reality pulls them apart physically and this slowly pulls their hearts apart from each other as well. The letters back and forth are their only connection, but they both treasure these moments more than one can imagine. The long train ride, delayed again and again by the weather is like the realistic barrier of their ever-growing distance. Yet because of their still young and innocent minds and their powerful attachment to one so similar to each other, they are able to, for a single night, break this barrier and meet again. But with that single kiss under the barren cherry blossom tree, reality strikes hard and a small crack in their relationship appears which will eventually trigger their inevitable separation.

The second part with Kanae takes a step in a slightly different direction portraying another kind of naive love while still continuing the sad tale of Toono and Akari. Kanae is a girl who is helplessly in love. Always timing her meetings with him, always so quiet and shy yet always watching the man she thinks she loves. Frustrated with herself and her inability to convey her feelings to her "ideal guy," her loss of ability to surf can be seen as her struggle against naivety. Believing she is right, believing that what she feels is true love; believing that she can surf and knowing that she has that ability yet there is a barrier. The day she surfs again is the day she comes to a painful realization of how the man she loved has never once looked at her. What she thought was a possible growing affection was merely a continued meaningless personality of kindness. He was a person who was always looking past her and she had herself convinced he was at least looking in her general direction. Thus they are the opposite of Akari and Toono - close physically but their hearts could not be farther apart. She says she will love him forever - and she probably will, but this was a love of admiration and infatuation. It was her first experience with such powerful emotions and the years she spent investing in them caused them to grow to the point of affecting her as a person; they become a meaningful part of her existence so while the feelings themselves are for someone who she perceived existed but did not, they are too important to ever let go of.

Then we have Toono who is now being portrayed as an apathetic yet kind person. Successful in school, popular in school, yet a boy who is still looking deep into the past. When he looks at a person, he does not see his classmate but a past classmate. Everywhere he looks, he sees Akari, the girl who once, and still does, meant the world to him. But that is no more. The exact circumstances are unclear, but the letters stopped. The distance was far too great and their hearts were no longer in the same place. Time is the most powerful and unstoppable force that can change emotions, feelings, beliefs, and relationships. He is always writing text messages but never sending them. What he writes and who he wishes to send them to is unknown, but it is a clear indication that he once again is isolated like so many years ago before he met Akari. He longs for companionship and a person who can understand him, and this does not necessarily mean Akari. Anyone would suffice but as no one does, Akari is the only one on his mind. These constant thoughts of her fill his mind as much as he fills Kanae's, but the effect is something far different. Rather than growing a love out of something that does not exist, he is multiplying one that did, if but for a fleeting moment under that tree. With nothing else to do with his life, with no one else to talk to, the amount of emotional investment he has in Akari reaches something that can only be done over the course of his few but long years. But he knows the truth: he will probably never see her again, and if he does, she won't feel the same.

The final part of this story is short and straightforward but leaves the open-ended interpretation of the true moral of the story. Toono has been living an average life of an average person with an average job and average relationships. He recently quit his job and is ignoring his pseudo-girlfriend. Despite his relationships with women, he is still stuck in the past and no surprise there. He spent his entire youth with eyes for only one girl, now a woman. He watched her, waited for her letters, thought of her, always. She was the one who understood him, but now she is gone from his life, leaving his heart as an empty void that can't be filled. Akari on the other hand is now engaged but clearly has not forgotten him. A dream of that day from reading that undelivered letter: she remembers him fondly, but not as a lover. She has come to terms with her naivety at some point and realized she needed to move on. She realized that what they had was not real love - it was child's play. But for Toono, if you deal with child's play long enough, it can become reality. The final scene by the train is a final confirmation of reality. He recognizes her, he knows it's her for he has only seen her every day of his life. In his mind, he watched her grow up and knows every feature that she will have. The trains pass as he turns. He cannot look away because he has waited for this moment since that fateful day they parted. But she can. Regardless of whether she did recognize him, regardless of whether she didn't, it doesn't matter. He is a memory to her. A good memory, but still just that. She may turn out of curiosity, but she will not give more time than that. The trains are done passing and only he remains, standing, looking at nothing. He leaves, knowing that this is reality. He has always known this reality as well, ever since that day. Reality struck them both that day in the cold winter; Akari eventually listened to it but Toono did not and this was the result.

The moral? Ambiguous and open to interpretation. I say it's a story that depicts the naivety of young love. Physical distance is something that will easily tear it apart, if slowly. To me, it's not so much about moving on but the process of learning about "true love." Your first few "loves" give emotions you aren't used to feeling and so it is very easy to become overly infatuated in a person. It is only after one gains experience in dealing with these emotions that one can begin to differentiate between "fake" and "real" love. This is not to say a first love may not become a real love, but it doesn't start out so meaningful. 5 Centimeters per Second, in my opinion, is thus a story depicting several different results of dealing with such naive love and effects of distance on them. 1) Toono dedicates his life to it and ends up unable to truly love a woman; 2) Kanae comes to terms with reality but her love for Toono is an essential part of her existence; 3) Akari moves on, understanding that her past feelings were but those of a child's, and eventually becomes engaged to a man who will bring her happiness. 3 different people dealing with first love 3 different ways resulting in 3 different lives.

Of course, you are free to interpret it any way you please. Some do think it's about moving on. Some say it's about settling for 2nd best. Some say it's about never giving up. I know one guy who says it's about traitorous women getting run over by trains because of karma. Regardless, it's a beautiful and meaningful story of love and distance.

I kid. This shit is pretty bad. Probably better than IS though IMO.