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Parents' Guide to

5 Centimeters Per Second

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Tearjerker anime about first crushes, unrequited love.

Movie NR 2007 63 minutes
5 Centimeters Per Second Movie Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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Is It Any Good?

Our review:
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Kids say (1 ):

This is a tearjerker coming-of-age anime about unrequited love and missed connections. 5 Centimeters Per Second is filled with beautiful images and insightful observations about how people who are once very close can slowly drift apart. It's likely to be a little too emo for older and more cynical viewers, but for more sensitive viewers and for kids having their own first experiences of crushes, angst, romance, and heartbreak, it's a strongly relatable movie about the sadness of experiencing how someone you know can eventually become someone you knew.

Such themes are mawkish and sappy in less experienced hands, but the great writer-director Makoto Shinkai conveys a richly rendered world of loneliness, disconnect, and things unsaid and unexpressed through trains, rocket launches, city streets. The only bummer note is at the end, with the requisite anime balladry that overwhelms the sincerity of the movie that had managed to keep it from coming across as too mushy. Nonetheless, the quality and creativity of how the story is told ultimately win out.

Movie Details

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