10/2/21: Valentine's Day movies

1) 5 Centimetres per Second (DO NOT WATCH THIS WITH YOUR WAIFU/HUSBANDO)

As Valentines rolls around, what better way to celebrate the romantic day than a depressing anime movie to remind you of the melancholy of your first crush/ relationship, or make you think back to the one that got away? 5 Centimetres per Second comes from a little-known director that you probably never heard of – Makoto Shinkai. Some of his lesser-known works include movies such as Your Name or Weather with You. /s

The movie is a romantic drama in the form of a 1-hr animated film, split into three episodes. It follows the main character from his early adolescence to adulthood, telling the story of how two people in a really close relationship slowly, but gradually drift apart with the passage of time. The setting and time period, being from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s instils a good amount of nostalgia and yearning. Seeing the characters in a pre-smartphone era, communicating primarily though phone calls and text, is refreshing.

And least of all, many important scenes in the movie happen either at the train station, on the trains and at train crossing (Shinkai really likes his trains I suppose). The trains add to the melancholy of the movie, and signifies many things – from marking the passage of time, being left behind at the station, and the inaction when at crossroads in life. 5 Centimetres per Second is a great movie if you enjoy a visual spectacle, beautiful renditions of scenery that holds up even 15 years later, and melancholic story that will leave you with a certain hollowness afterwards.

~ Hideyoshi Kinoshita <3

2) Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take on Me

Chuunibyou needs no introduction – a classic wholesome teenager lovey-dovey ball of sweetness. This movie takes place after Season 1 and Season 2, and *Spoilers* Rikka and Yuuta have already formed the magical contract of love. However, despite having done the lewdest of acts – hand-holding – these two shy cinnamon rolls have yet to achieve the pinnacle of a relationship – a kiss.

In the movie, Rikka faces the good-old anime trope of being forced to study overseas, but does not want to be separated from her cute boyfriend, Yuuta. Desperate, they sought the help of good friends, the yuri-bait couple Dekomori and Nibutani (best girl), and annoying childhood friend Shichimiya, and sleepy Senpai Kumin, thereby coming up with a plan – to elope.

This movie is packed with wholesome humor and bound to make you giggle like a dumb love-struck teenager.

>.< Felix Argyle

3) Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu (SPOILERS)

Love that transcends time – nope, not a generic Kimi no Nawa review, but a review of Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu, and a tribute to best girl Makise Kurisu.

To the average normie, Movie + Anime + Romance + Time travel would = Kimi no Nawa. But not for Makise Kurisu fanboys – to these connoisseurs with fine taste, that formula would = Steins;Gate the movie. If you are not such a connoisseur yourself, fear not. This article will enlighten you on why Steins;Gate is the best anime of the 20th century and why Makise Kurisu is bestest waifu. After the events of the Steins;Gate series, where Okabe senpai travelled through worldlines after worldlines to finally circumvent the evil organisation SERN, save the world from WW3 and rescue both his childhood friend Mayuri and bestest girl Kurisu from their impending deaths, tragedy befalls Okabe once more. Due to his constant travelling between timelines, he ended up in a state of fluctuation between realities and would eventually vanishing from existence. Although the clear solution presented to Okabe would be to use a time machine to travel back into the past to fix his fluctuation, he refuses to embark on this journey in fear that he would endanger his friends once more. To ensure the safety of his friends and his lover, Kurisu, he urged them to forget about him and vanished from existence. Subsequently, Kurisu and the gang realised that they had forgotten about Okabe’s entirely due to him being wiped from existence. The sole exception being Kurisu, who held the deepest feelings towards Okabe. Determined, Kurisu travelled back into the past with Suzuha (a girl from the future who operated a time machine) and met a young depressed Okabe. To keep him grounded in this world line, Kurisu gave Okabe his first kiss and implanted the concept of Hououin Kyouma the mad scientist into him. With this, Kurisu returned to the present and the movie ends with her being the best tsundere and rejecting Okabe’s request to have his first kiss once more.

4) Whisper of the Heart

My pick for the Valentine’s Day movie list is Whisper of the Heart. It was pretty difficult to choose one because there are so many around, so I decided to limit my potential choices to Studio Ghibli shows since we haven’t covered those before. I could have gone with From Up on Poppy Hill (a very sweet post-War romance) but I ultimately went with Whisper of the Heart.

It’s about this girl who really loves writing and has it in her head that she wants to be a writer. She keeps borrowing books from the library and keeps seeing that the same boy has been checking out the same books. Eventually, she meets this Prince Charming and they sort of start a relationship but it’s all light stuff. Anyway, the bulk of the movie is about both of them working towards their dreams (focusing on the girl) but it’s really imaginative with lots of great imagery as she struggles to write a story about this cat statue and it’s so fantastic! I think anyone who’s really put their heart and soul into writing or creating something would understand how she feels. As a romance movie, I like how the movie shows two people who obviously like each other just work on their own goals and passions, even if it might take them in different directions, but they can still like each other and make it work OK.

I should mention that the cat character makes its appearance in my FAVOURITE Studio Ghibli movie, The Cat Returns. (The theme song is the inspiration for Fish Leong’s Chinese version – 小手拉大手.) In fact, this movie and that movie were the only two not directed by a Miyazaki for a long time. It’s a bit sad that this was Yoshifumi Kondo’s final movie but it’s a terrific swansong. (It also gave us this iconic image that we now see on BG study music YouTube compilations.)

- Shiota Nagisa!