Oh, god. This is the saddest thing I've read all year, and I've read some stuff that was a trip. I walk away asking, who hurt Makoto Shinkai so badly as to make him create this story? The kicker is how this story is so real. It's a story of people who fail to connect with one another, and it asks the question: how fast do we have to move to understand and hold onto those we love? It gets is emotional heft not from overblown romantic gestures, but rather in its portrayal of the everyday experience of love and loss. I loved it. But I would not read it again if you had a gun to my crotch. Wow. I thought this was going to be really good. I mean, they hailed this guy as another Miyazaki and how this is a "defining" work, I thought I would be blown away. This book is seriously just about some flaky animu relationship that goes badly and is 2deep4u. I wanted to say, "Congrats Shinji" at the end, but honestly it wasn't even half as interesting as Evangelion. Basically the lead character is a personality-less jerk who falls in love with a derpy waifu who cooks good. Then they can't see each other because they move. Boohoo? Follow up with about 200 pages of him going through some crappy relationships with other would-be waifus who just adore him for being .... mopey and lame? Not just adore, I mean, this one chick stalks him for 5 years--AND STILL nothing happens. I thought someone would die or something, I was hoping something interesting like that would happen. But nothing. Just a lot of DEEP thoughts and emo relationships. NOTHING happens. Really boring.
What do You think about 5 Centimeters Per Second (2012)?
Beautiful story of lost love and the havoc it creates throughout the years.
—flowerhead
