Have you ever seen something so pretty and so touching that it made you want to cry? I don't usually label myself as the sentimental type, but the trailer for Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second) (mirror) evoked those emotions so easily. I think it's a combination of the amazing art and a fantastic piano piece. A very similar piece (if not a different part of the same song) is also played in the teaser trailer, which is equally beautiful. I've got it playing in the background right now because it's such a serene, almost sad song. If you haven't yet seen these trailers, you must go download them right now.
For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it is acclaimed director Shinkai Makoto's latest work that features three short stories titled Oukashou, Cosmonaut, and Byousoku 5 Centimeter. They all revolve around a boy named Toono Takaki (voiced by Mizuhashi Kenji) and take place from the early 1990s to the present day. The first and third stories, Oukashou and Byousoku 5 Centimeter, will have two different voice actresses (Kondou Yoshimi and Onoue Ayaka) playing the part of a girl named Shinohara Akari. It seems that Takaki and Akari got separated at the same time they graduated from elementary school, and the Oukashou part is about his reunion with her. The second story Cosmonaut is about Takaki after that reunion told from the point of view of a classmate named Sumita Kanae (voiced by Hanamura Satomi) who has feelings for him. The third and final Byousoku 5 Centimeter is the title work that depicts the wandering of their souls once they've grown up. The movie's theme song is going to be Yamazaki Masayoshi's One more time, One more chance from his 1997 single by the same name (Watch a live version on Youtube).
Byousoku 5 Centimeter, which has a running time of approximately an hour, will premiere in early spring of next year at the Shibuya Cinema Rise.