5 Centimeters Per Second

"Everywhere I go, I look for you."

Much has been said about director Makoto Shinkai. He's often been heralded as "the next Miyazaki" (Variety Magazine). It says so right on the sleeve for his film 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007).

Are the comparisons really accurate or even fair to Shinkai?

Shinkai's recent film, Your Name (2016), was one of the biggest animated pictures to ever see release in Japan.




To be accurate, Your Name was the 4th highest grossing film in Japan of all time. It was the 7th highest grossing animated film of all time in Japan. Bigger yet, it was the highest grossing anime film worldwide ever. Those are no small feats.

It's clear Shinkai has been on the directorial march for a fair bit to earn that achievement too.

Despite the acclaim and the criticisms of Your Name, Shinkai continues to direct and create films that are personal to him.



His films speak directly to his style and his voice and they couldn't be more unique and special and, in contrast, to master director Hayao Miyazaki. Put simply, both animating directors are exceptional but both are very different, approach the medium differently and have equally different visions and narrating styles. Sure the comparisons by critics make for a nice little Japanese rivalry and perhaps a fiery little narrative to put eyeballs to the written word, but this writer finds the body of work by Miyazaki and Shinkai to be intensely personal and magical to both. Miyazaki has a firm grasp on telling a story narratively, like Disney, whereby Shinkai has been a visual storyteller more in tune with a kind of stream of consciousness and more obtuse writing in keeping with Japanese anime. In some ways Shinkai falls somewhere in between in his approach. Those with an appreciation for animation as an art form won't go wrong with either of their works. Just don't expect critics to cut Shinkai any slack or treat his name with the same kind of healthy respect.




Both directors share a delicate eye for detail and a love of animation, but after that the two part company and stand by their respective, unique works and styles.

Shinkai relishes the relationship in his pictures and captivates us with his world view on interpersonal and electronic communication be it intimate, or lost, or words simply unspoken. Here we see the separation and growth of love between two young people across time. As the subtitle to this film suggests, a chain of short stories about their distance (Cherry Blossom, Cosmonaut, 5 Centimeters Per Second).

Friendships and loves are often separated by the miles, but that distance in fact consolidates love in Shinkai's eyes. Absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say.



Shinkai told a similar story thematically early in his career (here). The stellar Voices Of A Distant Star (2002) told a simple, shorter story in a similar vein and it still captivates today. In fact, in many respects 5 Centimeters Per Second feels very much like it lives in that world like a prequel or a companion piece to Voices Of A Distant Star.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days (2004) followed suit with its own science fiction themes. Again, the atmosphere, the tone, the mood of the film was in keeping with the unique voice of Shinkai.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) may be Shinkai at his most playfully Miyazaki-esque. But it still retains the director's personal touch.




The relatively short The Garden Of Words (2013) and 5 Centimeters Per Second combined with his previous work, all offer a fairly balanced picture of what Shinkai is about as a voice in anime, and as an animator. It's a particularly impressive body of work which continues to see him evolve narratively while implementing evocative and gorgeous animation that is uniquely Shinkai.

Persistent Miyazaki comparisons abound are simply not accurate, fair to Shinkai or to Miyazaki. If such claims are intended to bolster or give Shinkai props on his level of quality fine, but to tear him down on anything that separates him from Miyazaki inaccurately dissects the upstart Japanese director and his own work. Shinkai stepped out from the shadows a long time ago. Perhaps if the late Satoshi Kon (Millennium Actress, Paprika) were alive comparisons might be made there.



Viewing the 63 minute feature film spotlighted here brought this writer to one general conclusion without delving into the themes of love and loss that one should experience by seeing his films. And that is Shinkai is an artist with a painterly hand.

Shinkai lovingly holds on static shots or, as the are called in anime, pillow shots. These gorgeous stills fill each and every frame and Shinkai does not distract with a lot of quick and unnecessary editing allowing viewers to see his world as he sees it through his eyes. The level of detail since he created Voices Of A Distant Star has also enhanced the experience even more.

5 Centimeters Per Second spoke to me. Damn all the criticism, because if this man sees the world the way he presents it in his films then his voice is needed now more than ever.



There is a beauty and a striking sense of love about these films that will endure and will draw viewers in with an open heart to the beauty in this world. We live in a dichotomous world of violence and peace, hate and love and ugliness and beauty and Shinkai always chooses to explore the latter.

Themes of love and loss, hellos and goodbyes, friendships and loves are enveloped within an animated painting. Shinkai's words are often poetic and simple allowing for the image of his expression to be moving poetry on its very own.



My recent visit to a local shopping center witnessed the push and pull of customers, unkind glances, impatient shoppers, short tempers, trash or wrappers knocking about street curbs. When I returned home Shinkai invited me into his world and for a little while the world was a much better place than I've seen lately.

Heck Shinkai could illustrate beautiful trash, it's true, but there are a few too many people out there in a hurry that would be wise to stop, take a breath and breathe in the world of Shinkai. They should at least stop for the amount of time a cherry blossom leaf takes to fall to the ground, roughly 5 centimeters per second, to take a look around them.



Shinkai is indeed a welcomed voice in anime and in cinema with his eye on lost love along with his visual approach to storytelling.

This one may remain one of his most strikingly beautiful paintings... rather, moving pictures. A Shinkai trademark is to provide an authentic sense of place, Japan and location. The director's loving detail provided to every shot and image and backdrop of the great island nation combined with its special sights and sounds is a love letter to Japan herself. People who have been there will see sights and sounds come alive on screen not through a camera but through the imagination of animation.



5 Centimeters Per Second is cinema for the dreamer. And Shinkai is a dreamer who imagines reaching into the stars. He sees beauty there as much as he sees it in this world. One look at his films and one thing is certain, you'll want to live in it with him.

Writer: Makoto Shinkai.
Director: Makoto Shinkai.

Voices Of A Distant Star

"I just gazed at the passing clouds and the star-filled sky, and thought, 'These problems of mine are small things not worth taking note of in this world... I have a feeling that I am alone in this vast world, but I am here.'" -Makoto Shinkai [sleeve notes of Voices Of A Distant Star]-

Can you hear me now? The electronic blips from a cell phone keypad. The cold disconnect of an automated response. “You are out of your calling area.” These feelings of isolation and distance accurately reflect the heart of the film short Voices Of A Distant Star [2002]. Establishing shots and images speak volumes about the film's intentions.

The use of pillow shots in anime is one of my favorite aspects of the genre. Love those powerlines!

There is a tone of loneliness surrounding this “love story that transcends time and space” between two separated lovers. Director Makoto Shinkai knows how to manage an image and utilizes each passing frame of his short film to great effect building upon each moment with new emotions.

Voices Of A Distant Star was the film that truly ushered the arrival of Shinkai following his everso brief five minute opus She And Her Cat [1999; included on the DVD for Voices Of A Distant Star]. He would move on to lengthier storytelling with similarly stunning visual results in the ambitious The Place Promised In Our Early Days and even more beautiful 5 Centimeters Per Second. These films, beginning with Voices Of A Distant Star, were entirely conceived, produced and animated by the creative mind of Makoto Shinkai. In a quiet, minimalist, cerebral kind of way, the short feature film had gradually attained notice in the world of anime. Rarely does a film arrive with so little fanfare, yet leave audiences stunned, affected or moved by the sheer beauty of the production before them. This was precisely the effect of Shinkai's Voices Of A Distant Star. It was like the little film that could. The effort is a shining example of the kind of meticulous craftsman Shinkai would prove to be. A virtual unknown, Shinkai’s little independent film continues to soldier on gaining the attention of anime fans the world over.

Astoundingly Shinkai has achieved no small feat handling his own chores outside of the anime mainstream [if there is such a thing]. Shinkai has forsaken the big studio route in favor of a personal computer on Voices Of A Distant Star. Miraculously, his non-studio supported indie budget has single-handedly driven his success all the way to the bank while garnering across-the-board critical acclaim. Shinkai gambled in pursuing his vision and moved 5,000 copies initially, but ADV Films picked up distribution rights and turned production into 120,000 copies. The result is a short and sweet love story for dreamers.

It is an amazing, mighty little work with deep, emotional resonance thanks to Shinkai's attention to the spare, simple, beauty in character and an accompanying mood, emotion and atmosphere. It's a great example of achieving great things with a simple approach. It is a gentle, understated, pretty, quiet, poetic romance and makes exceptional use of Shinkai's singular focus. It is easy to see why Voices Of A Distant Star was the launching pad for one of Japan’s finest new and inspired talents.

The year is 2046. An alien race, an alien race, the Tarsians, are intent, persistent and unrelenting in their efforts to destroy the human race and plague the solar system. Earth’s defense is on offense as fleets head into the void of space in the hopes of destroying the enemy before reaching Earth.

Shinkai, like the great Hayao Miyazaki for whom he is tiresomely compared, establishes a heroine in the lead as his mecha-pilot. The female combat pilot has certainly been firmly established in series like Patlabor and Neon Genesis Evangelion with heroines anchoring works like Major Motoko Kusanagi in Mamoru Oshii's Ghost In The Shell. This turn is certainly not new to anime, but Shinkai takes a more emotional, tender route in his direction and style. It is distinct and certainly what sets him apart from others. His story centers on two fully realized characterizations. Lead character Mikako Negamine always dreamed of working for the United Nations and enlists into service as an ace space pilot. She leaves behind Noboru Terao, her one true love, so that she may join the war effort and pilot a Tracer in the Third Platoon to resist the Tarsians' offense. Her male counterpart waits back on the blue planet’s home front. The male/female juxtaposition is an interesting twist when considering the concept of spousal separation during wartime particularly during World War I or II when women often remained on the homefront.

Through time, Mikako yearns for her provincial home and the arms of Noboru. Though she cannot see him Noboru nourishes her survival giving her hope for the future as she fights through electronic communications. Modern day love letters in the form of e-mail text messages are sent back and forth to one another on cell phones. Incrementally, the electronic mail takes days, weeks, months, eventually even years to reach Noboru the further Mikako reaches back into the vastness of space. The endless distance is a symbol to the strength of their growing, unconditional love. Mikako’s desire to return to him drives her. He too is lost without her. Inevitably Noboru moves on with life despite the pain, as Mikako is separated by the span of eight years. She breaks down, as any soldier would, from the ache of loneliness. Shinkai is a master of manipulating emotion and his writing is clearly from the heart. It would be a quality he would cultivate further in later films.

“I just wanna get something to eat, at the bus stop, with you… I just wanna see him again… tell him I love him,” she cries alone in the recesses of black, cavernous space. It is an intimate, romantic film surrounding two lovers torn apart by war, space and time. The memories nurture their survival, but their yearning desire to be together juxtaposed by their physical distance begs the question to all of us: how long would you be willing to wait for someone? Could you do it?

The film underlines these substantive existential and philosophical questions. Mikako asks Noburo if the mere singular thought in and of itself of one’s existence is enough to sustain love. If it were so, it would be remember, “I am here.” That poetic sentiment is real and is at the heart of Shinkai's short picture. He conveys real feeling in this mighty little film better than many in recent memory. Isn’t that sentiment, the knowledge of existence, what connects us to friends and lovers past and to those we love present? To at least know they are out there and they live. To know they live and they exist still and that their lives, which touched our lives endures somehow transcends the physical. The connection to these people is what sustains our existence emotionally. This is the affecting power and sweet truth of Voices Of A Distant Star and Shinkai understands this depth of emotion inherent in human nature. He knows how to deliver it through film in image, character and music.

Visually, Shinkai serves up a deft blend of 2D and 3D digital animation. His matte-like backgrounds are spectacular. The director's transition was quite natural moving from his exposure within the graphic designer world of the video game industry to animation easily. His keen eye for detail is striking and beauty is unveiled in the simplest things. He is a master of light manipulation thanks to a love of computers. His strength in animating his vision is drawn from his knowledge of technology and how to attach and utilize these resources to great effect.

The coloring is lush with picturesque greens and blues. It's like the vast world of a painted watercolor-flavored vista come to life. Warm, soft, inviting colors are awash in the memories of a beautiful once upon a time; of things remembered lovingly. The welcoming, nostalgic, sometimes photo-real locations complement the story as Mikako and Noboru reminisce of the special places spent together.

The film, like his first short She And Her Cat, is loaded with stills in what the Japanese often refer to as pillow shots. The quiet and tranquil images offer a window into a character's world that even words need not describe: the train tracks, the skyline, a school classroom. Each snapshot is so detailed Shinkai is able to bring the world of Voices From A Distant Star to life without uttering a word. Artists like Hayao Miyazaki and Hideaki Anno have employed similar effects in their works to great effect. These artists offer some of the best anime has to offer. These affecting, simple images drive the film along injecting further poignancy into a story.

When Noboru or Mikako recall, “summer clouds and cold rain, quiet snow, I remember good things like these,” it is Shinkai speaking those sentiments. He recollects those moments strongly from his youth in the liner notes. “The distinctly prominent outline of the scenery from those times remains strongly impressed upon me. I’ve packed in as much of my feelings from those times as possible into Voices Of A Distant Star."

Shinkai's auteur-like hand often evokes the power of a gifted filmmaker like Hayao Miyazaki often striking the comparison. Three films later the comparison has become tiresome and cliched. He offers something entirely his own just as the late Satoshi Kon, too, was a unique visionary. There are certainly plenty of wonderful trademarks to look forward to from Shinkai, but before he is annointed the next Miyazaki let's see a little more than a couple of films.

As a designer Shinkai imagined mecha with some fresh concepts. Mikako appears in space inside a transparent cockpit. Externally the Tracer units harness a unique propulsive engine system that allows for quick, aggressive movements in zero gravity. The metal chassis is backed by an automated force-field array that is initialized instantly when engaged by enemy fire. Tracer flight and defensive abilities are only rivaled by their sheer firepower from laser-generated sword and rapid-fire machine gun cannon to six motion-seeking missiles or tracers. Shinkai’s bullet-riddled, delayed impact, Tarsian blood-bursting destruction is splendid, simple, but decisively special. The enormous bi-ped units depart from a cosmonaut space freighter known as the Lysithea. The starships, having applied Tarsian technology, have allowed the human race to take the offensive beyond Earth. The battle intensity is heart-pounding and captured with staggering intimacy. When Shinkai’s massive Tracer units land on foreign planetary soil they lumber slowly with the kind of weight and real hydraulic power one might expect from such a colossal machine. Voices Of A Distant Star suspends disbelief by giving credence to its science fiction. The mechanisms feel real just as the solitude and isolation feels real. The sense of physical and emotional realism infuses the film with depth.

If you’re engaged by off-camera dialogue, over a single shot of cel animation a la Neon Genesis Evangelion, then it’s a good sign you'll revel in this mesmerizing play. Shinkai produced Voices Of A Distant Star with a power MacIntosh G4/4000 MHz implementing Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and Lightwave 6.2 3D CG. A number of filtering effects were applied enhancing the gentle energy of the story with blurred or grainy imaging for touching scenes. Only the music, sound [exceptional work by Pastral Sound] and voice dubbing were outsourced to complete the project. One thing Shinkai teaches the aspiring artist, regardless of the desired medium, is that the tools are out there, limited only by the power of imagination. Shinkai believed in the pioneering, independent spirit of filmmaking in anime. His work is free of the ties binding artists within the studio model [Gainax, Sunrise, Gonzo, Madhouse]; a new wave of anime filmmaker. The notion of the well-funded studio as the only way to bring creative expression to fruition is no longer true. He understood the studio was not the pre-requisite absolute to success. He focused on the art and less so the economics. Make no mistake, execution is imperative and Shinkai has achieved an extraordinary feat in writing and directing his dream. For more on this process, storyboarding, the making of, reflections by Shinkai, an interview with Tenmon and an explanation of terms be sure to grab the exclusive Voices Of A Distant Star/ The Place Promised In Our Early Days.

Speaking of Tenmon, Voices Of A Distant Star is supported by a spare, tender, ambient score by the musical composer, a friend formerly working within the gaming industry himself. Shinkai and Tenmon worked closely during storyboarding to synchronize the animation and music. “Sometimes I had to change the animation between these lovers." The music truly underscores and heightens the impact of the film. Tenmon’s opening ballad, Through The Years And Far Away (Hello, Little Star), is vocalized by Low and effectively and beautifully captures the emotional anguish and longing tone of the film. Sometimes J-pop theme songs can sound like poetic gibberish, but not here. Tenmon intentionally kept things simple with a heavy emphasis on piano. He veered clear of synthesizers at Shinkai’s request due to the director’s inherent aversion to their overuse in film often leaving a dated or hollow sound in their wake [Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind]. The score is entirely in keeping with the film’s atmosphere and themes.

Ultimately, the crux of great filmmaking is writing. It’s essential and must be fostered in young artists. Shinkai, Kon, Miyazaki, Anno all deliver, not just delicious animation, but strong writing. Voices Of A Distant Star is essentially a training ground for Shinkai and his writing strenths would be more pronounced on his more recent works, The Place Promised In Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters Per Second.

Shinkai even won the award for Most Valuable Newcomer at the Tokyo Anime Fair. So, is it fair to compare Shinkai to Kon or Miyazaki? Time will tell, but judging by the fruits of his distinctly stylized labors, he’ll be putting his money where his dreams are for years to come.

Voices Of A Distant Star may be short, but it is an essential viewing experience. You’ve heard the cliché big things in small packages or less is more, well here it is. With Voices Of A Distant Star another substantial talent is born, finds that distinct, director's voice and shines. Are you still out there?

Voices Of A Distant Star: A

Writer: Makoto Shinkai

Director: Makoto Shinkai

DVD Extras: The film short She And Her Cat: Their Standing Points [1999] is included. It is presented in black and white and is equally attractive in its simplicity. It is loaded with pillow stills referencing the feline’s world and the love it has for its owner from the cat's point-of-view. The short is a fancy feast for the eyes. ;) The gentle strike of Tenmon’s piano is a highlight once again. Shinkai was honored with two esteemed Japanese Grand Prix Awards for it. The short is semi-autobiographical of his own life at the time and composed on a shoestring budget via hand-drawn illustrations, photographs and some 2D/3D digital animation.

Several cuts of Voices Of A Distant Star are enclosed including a Director's Cut with voice work from Shinkai himself and his then fiance. An interview lends insight into his thriving independent spirit versus the studio system.