YMMV / 5 Centimeters per Second

• Alternative Character Interpretation: This essay suggests that, far from Akari and Takaki unintentionally drifting away from each other as physical distance becomes emotional distance, Akari was already prepared for their first kiss to be the last, a sign of farewell, and did not hold out the same hope Takaki did of wanting to fight for their relationship.
• Awesome Music: This is now pretty much a standard for a Makoto Shinkai film, as the bittersweet closing theme shows.
• Epileptic Trees: Due to the nature of the ending, this movie invites Epileptic Trees with regards to the future of its characters. At this point it becomes notable that, contrary to his reputation, Makoto Shinkai has never actually made a movie with a genuine Downer Ending. Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days both worked out in the end — but then, neither of those movies were set in the "real" world.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The director claims that the ending is supposed to be uplifting, because Takaki smiles as he walks away in the last scene, indicating that he has moved on. But most viewers see it as a Downer Ending because he Did Not Get the Girl.
• Fridge Horror:
  • When travelling to meet Akari, at one point Takaki remains stuck on a delayed train for 2 hours. The train doesn't feature a bathroom.
  • In the last third, Takaki and Akari cross the railway crossing just moments before two trains whiz past. Doesn't this world have the most basic of safety precautions?
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • As mentioned in the preface to the novel, one of the draft short stories Shinkai wrote while planning this was The Sky Outside the Window, which has rain as a central concept. Though it was rejected back then, now with both The Garden of Words and Weathering With You, he has gone back to the idea not once but twice.
  • In one more side's take on the second act, Takaki briefly contemplates the idea of two trains on parallel tracks passing in opposite directions, briefly connected but for an instant. This was first published in 2011, years before Your Name had something very similar happen not once but twice.
  • The manga's Chapter Nine has two panels showing the traffic lights at the intersection between Shinjuku Police Station, years before Your Name made them famous.
• Hype Backlash: The film is largely well-received for its atmospheric, emotive style, Scenery Porn that remains stunning more than 10 years later, choosing realism in depicting the fragility of a Long-Distance Relationship while avoiding the usual fairytale endings, and having deep meaning that needs to be slowly savoured and meditated on to properly appreciate. That said, there is a substantial minority of viewers coming in later, especially after the faster-paced and more narratively-dense Your Name made Shinkai a mainstream darling, who find it boring and reliant on melodrama and ambience rather than a well-developed plot and characters. This video by KrisPNatz comes to mind.
• Memetic Mutation: "Fuck trains", in reference to the very long time a pair of trains take to pass in the final scene, by the end of which Akari has already disappeared, preventing Takaki from reaching out to her.
• Signature Scene: Takaki and maybe-Akari crossing paths at the railway crossing when they are adults and the subsequent vehicle vanish.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some people are disappointed by Kanae's lack of presence in the third section, outside of a few flashback scenes in the montage, after her major role in the previous part and the lack of follow-up on where she is in the future. The manga artist apparently agreed with this, since they make a point to expand her role in the third part where she's shown working as a nurse.

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