Kurogane’s Anime Blog

キタ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━ !!!!!

Arrived earlier this week, but wasn’t around to get it. Now I can finally make a “merchandise show-off” post, hahahaha!

The version I ordered is the Limited Edition one, and all in all it cost me almost 7000 yen, which equates to around RM200 locally. My father was definitely not very pleased about it… but oh well, I’ve done my part to support the industry!

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I just finished it. While the ending was out of my expectations, Makoto Shinkai has truly embodied his theme of “distance” extremely effective. Extremely. Yes, he definitely is an awesome storyteller. When the movie finished, I was truly left speechless with the ending… the movie… the whole works, practically.

As I expected, Oukashou dealt with the “physical distance”, Cosmonaut dealt with the “distance of feelings” and eponymous Byousoku 5cm dealt with the “distance of time”. I especially liked Byousoku’s 5cm, which ended the movie in a truly unexpected way, but brought to life the theme it embodied effectively.

In other words, another masterpiece by Makoto Shinkai, and his best work, to date, for me. I shall await impatiently for his future projects.

P.S. Takaaki uses a Logitech MX Revolution!!! God, I have desired for that mouse for a freaking long time. Also, he’s using a 30in Apple Cinema Display. And that’s your random geek trivia of the day.

P.S.2: I ordered the limited edition DVD of Byousoku 5cm, marking my first ever purchase of an original DVD. My dad is so going to kill me when he sees the bill come next month…. or when the DVD arrives by next week :D~~.

The MX Revolution

Oukashou is the first part of Byousoku 5cm and introduces our main characters Takaki and Akari, both of them good friends who have to be separated due to various circumstances and decide to meet each other one year later before Takaki has to move to an even further place. With Oukashou, Makoto Shinkai has clearly outdone himself.

To me, Oukashou is neither good because of the detailed art nor because of the simple yet touching plot, it is good mainly due the talented direction of Makoto Shinkai who manages to effectively communicate his intended theme of separation due to distance through the narration and feelings of Takaki. Throughout the journey Takaki undertakes, Makoto Shinkai has effectively conveyed the feelings of an individual being separated from their important person very well and in a very deeply moving way too. I couldn’t resist shedding a tear at the moment of Takaki’s arrival and realizing that Akari has been waiting for him.

To end, to quote TripleA, I definitely will say that “This is anime.” is a very apt expression to describe the quality of Byousoku 5cm. The next story, Cosmonaut, will be dealing with the theme of “distance of feelings”. おたのしみに.