Book Report and Review: 5 Centimeters per Second Novel by Makoto Shinkai

Book Report and Review of

5 Centimeters per Second Novel by Makoto Shinkai

Author: Makoto Shinkai

Publisher: Media Factory, Japan.

Release date: November 16^th, 2007.

Pages count: 79 pages

Main Characters:

·         Takaki Tohno

·         Akari Shinohara

·         Kanae Sumida

·         Sakaguchi

·         Risa Mizuno

Introduction on novel and author

5 Centimeters per Second novel was released on 16 November 2007 in Japan. It was Makoto Shinkai’s first novel. Makoto also took the photographs used in the novel’s cover. Other than novel, there are also comic and animation movie of 5 Centimeters per Second. Makoto Shinkai’s name is well-known in Japan because he is a talented artist. He is an animator, director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer.

Summary

Takaki Tohno and Akari Shinohara are both transferred students and are having problem making friends with other students in class. They have similar interests and attitudes by chance, so they are getting along well. They like reading books, sharing knowledge to each other, having conversation, and spending break time together. Their strong bond is formed because of those. They think that two of them is enough to be the reason enduring all hardships that will come in the future. Akari moves to Tochigi unexpectedly, so they attend different junior high school. They are drifting apart. Letters are exchanged every month to ease the absence, yet they still miss each other’s presence. Takaki cannot forget the moments he had with Akari.

Due to his parent’s job, Takaki will move to Kagoshima. They would be further apart than they are now. Takaki let Akari know, and they decide to meet for the first time after their separation. He prepares a letter confessing his feelings for her, but a strong wind blow it away on his way to meet her. Moreover, snowstorm delays all the trains. It is almost midnight when he arrives at the destination. They meet, eat dinner, have a meaningful kiss, and spend the rest of the night together. Takaki departed by the first train, and sadly that’s their last farewell.

The story followed by Kanae's point of view, a girl who likes Takaki for 5 years long. Eventually, she knows that Takaki loves someone else. Kanae gets the idea from Takaki’s gestures that he never looks at her. She gives up then. Takaki’s serious romantic relationship after Akari is with a colleague at work. They date for six months. It ends because the girl realize that Takaki does not love her as much. After that, Takaki is having a relationship with Sakaguchi. They date for three months. Both of them desperately try to think of some way to make themselves love each other more, yet later they continually try to hurt each other. His last relationship is with Risa Mizuno. For three years, they both put in all their feelings and do everything they can to build up their relationship, yet their paths split along the way. Being with Mizuno makes Takaki realize just how tired he is and just how lonely he has been.

After breaking up with Risa Mizuno, Takaki choose to quit his current job. He is desperate to find a place where he belongs to because he feels he has not found the place yet. He remembers Akari when she said “I am sure you will be all right, Takaki-kun,” and he wants to hear it once more.

The setting moves to Akari Shinohara when she finds an old letter which is a love letter she wrote for Takaki fifteen years ago. The letter reminds her how she really loved him back then, but now she is engage to someone else. Deep down her heart, she still prays that Takaki is doing well.

The epilog is on spring season, and streets of Tokyo is filled with cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are so memorable for both Takaki and Akari. Takaki walks toward a railroad crossing, and he notices a woman walking pass. They walk in opposite direction. Takaki has the urge to turn around, and he has a feeling she would turn around too. Their eyes meet. Unfortunately, a train passes along the lines and cuts their line of sight. Memories strike him hard, and the woman is no longer there after. The story ends with Takaki’s decision to move on.

Analysis

Romantic relationship is the most meaningful element of life, providing a source of deep fulfillment. Couples would try hard for their relationship to work out. But in reality, every romantic relationships does not always work well. Relationship is involving 2 individual persons with different characteristics and minds. Love, concern, happiness, sadness, anger, disappointment, affection, and exhaustion are things you would feel when you are in a relationship. So, relationship does not always sound good. Takaki Tohno’s relationships in 5 Centimeters per Second novel speaks about it just right.

Takaki Tohno who has given all his heart for his first love in elementary school is later doing the exactly opposite of his true feeling. His action does not agree with his feeling. He has been hurt by a bitter separation with Akari, and it is carried away to his next relationships, for he cannot overcome the pain and wound from the past. Takaki Tohno is going through few relationships, yet his feelings for his partners are toxic because they are corrupted by past event. He still dates them, while in fact, he does not love them all along. The factors on why his relationships never work out well are implied, but they are easy to catch. The signs are pretty clear because of the repetitive pattern.

After analyzing all the relationships Takaki Tohno has with other female characters, I can conclude two factors that cause failure in all those relationships, and the two factors lead Takaki Tohno towards failure to establish a strong and long-lasting relationship. Those factors are that he is unable to move on from Akari and his habit of comparing his relationship with Akari and his relationship with his other girlfriends. I can see that Makoto Shinkai, the author, does not mean to let the readers’ feelings too carried away with his work. But he wants us to learn that as long as we live, we would feel hurt. To overcome our own wounds, so they will not get carried away to the next relationship.

Comment

Makoto Shinkai did say in his novel that his works, basically, give meaning to what is "loose". For him, losing is something that cannot be avoided from anyone's life. Loss is something that must be get through in many ways. I realize that when there is a loss, there will be changes that appear even though sometimes it is not necessarily in accordance with what is missing. What Makoto said, from my point of view, of course, conveyed loss in a deep sense. Where losing something at the beginning will have an impact on the life's journey later. Makoto once said, first love is a curse that will become a pattern we relate to other people so on. Takaki's failure to establish a relationship is inseparable from what he felt about Akari, his first love.

This novel has the power to describe the story in detail and in sequence through easy-to-understand words. I can catch what Makoto wants to convey in broad sight. This novel seems far from any lacks. I feel satisfied after reading it even though I feel pain in my heart.

Author:

Arum Ratnaning Ratri

2211416050

English Literature 2016

Universitas Negeri Semarang

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