5 Centimeters per Second [Paperback]

Love can move at the speed of terminal velocity, but as award-winning director Makoto Shinkai reveals in his latest comic, it can only be shared and embraced by those who refuse to see it stop.

Takaki Tohno quickly befriends Akari Shinohara when she transfers to his school. They grow closer to each other due to similar interests and attitudes; for instance, they both prefer to stay inside during recess due to their constitutions. As a result, they form a strong bond.

Upon ending their school year, Akari moves to Tochigi, due to her parents' jobs. The two keep in contact by writing letters, but eventually begin to drift apart.Praise for the animated film by Makoto Shinkai:

[Makoto] Shinkai has been hailed as the next Hayao Miyazaki, and his dreamy mindscapes often equal or surpass the anime maestro in breadth of detail and depth of emotion. - Ronnie Scheib,Variety

In5 Centimeters[Shinkai's] imagination may not leap to Hayao Miyazaki's strange and wonderful heights, but he is better (blasphemy!) at piercing the veil of the everyday to reveal a poignant, evanescent beauty most of us notice only in rare moments...Is he really the new Miyazaki? He won't become one by imitating the master, but at 34 he is the anime world's bright new hope. That and a brilliant minor gem like 5 Centimeters per Second are enough, for now. -Japan TimesMakoto Shinkai is a Japanese film director, animator, and writer. A native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan, he studied Japanese literature at Chuo University. He traces his passion for creation to the manga, anime, and novels he was exposed to while in middle school. Considered one of the best animators in the world today, he is often called the next-Miyazaki . Shinkai developed his abilities as a video game designer for FalCom, where he worked on the cult-classic role-playing gameY S. Shinkai is unique as an animator as he cut his teeth by producing almost all elements many of hl³’