Director: Makoto Shinkai
Cast: Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi Hanamura, Ayaka Onoue, Risa Mizuno
5 Centimeters Per Second is a 2007 Japanese animated drama film directed by Makoto Shinkai, told across three interconnected chapters that trace the slow unraveling of first love against the relentless passage of time. At 63 minutes, it is one of the most emotionally concentrated animated features ever made.
What is 5 Centimeters Per Second about?
Takaki Toono and Akari Shinohara grow up sharing a quiet closeness in elementary school, but a transfer separates them before either can say what they feel. The film follows Takaki through three distinct moments in his life: a snowbound train journey to visit Akari in middle school, a lonely chapter working near a coastal launch site while someone new tries to reach him, and finally his adult years in Tokyo, where distance has become a habit and the memory of Akari lives in the spaces between ordinary days. Shinkai builds the story through accumulation — small gestures, unanswered messages, cherry blossoms falling at their own unhurried speed — rather than dramatic turns.
Cast & crew
Director Makoto Shinkai, already known for Voices of a Star, wrote and directed this film as a meditation on longing and drift. The voice cast includes Kenji Mizuhashi as adult Takaki and Yoshimi Kondou as Akari, with Satomi Hanamura, Ayaka Onoue, and Risa Mizuno rounding out the three chapters. The performances are understated and precise, matching the film's reflective register.
Context & significance
For Persian-speaking viewers abroad, 5 Centimeters Per Second carries a particular resonance. Distance from home, the gradual loosening of bonds that once felt permanent, the way years reshape what we thought was fixed — these are feelings the diaspora knows intimately. Shinkai's film does not frame this as tragedy but as the ordinary texture of growing up and moving on. It belongs to a strand of literary anime — alongside his later works — that treats emotion with the patience usually reserved for prose. The film is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, making it fully accessible for viewers who prefer either option.
Where & how to watch
5 Centimeters Per Second is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles. Watch on your browser, TV, or phone with no VPN needed and no geo-blocking. Subscribe and cancel anytime.