Shinkai III: Killing Me Softly

I admit that I'm a sucker for sappy, sentimental movies, so Shinkai's "5 centimeters per second" go me hook, line, and sinker. This work showcased even more sophisticated animation and visuals than his previous work "Place Promised in Our Early Days". However, "5 cm" shed the storyline and plot that weighed down Shinkai's poetic bent in "Place Promised".

Practically every scene looks beautiful and amazing. The character designs are simple, but effective against the soulful backgrounds and incredible landscapes. There is none of the foil-shine from early CG fractals; these are digitized oil colors. He managed to capture the smear of dusk clouds, the blaze of the sunlight, the glare of the train lights, and even the subtle motion of falling snow.

My personal siren Hillary Haag played the lead female role Akari and completely pulled me into the sweetness of the first story and led me to the kill by the end of the third, short vignette. I knew what was going to happen when the trains passed by each other in the last scene, and I had to ask "carve my heart out with a spoon, why don't you?" And so they did. Sappy stuff gets me everytime.