Chapter 4

AFTERWORD This book, 5 Centimeters per Second, is based on the animated film of the same name, which I directed—meaning I wrote the novelization for my own movie. However, I took care to write it in such a way that people who haven’t seen the movie will be able to enjoy it as well. Those of you who haven’t yet seen the original film, rest easy and pick up this book anyway… That said, there are places where the movie and the book complement each other, and other places that are intentionally different from the movie, so if you read the book after seeing the movie—or watch the movie after reading the book—you may end up enjoying both of them more. The movie 5 Centimeters per Second premiered in March 2007 at Shibuya Cinema Rise. I began writing the novel at about the same time, and for approximately four months after that, I traveled around the country giving stage greetings and working on this book in hotel rooms. That novel, which was the initial form of this book, was published as a monthly serial in Da Vinci magazine. As a result, audience members sometimes told me what they’d thought of both the movie and the novel, in the theaters. It was a happy time for me. Images convey different things than the written word. In many cases, visuals (and music) are faster, but there are sentiments that have no need for visuals. The experience of writing this book was exciting, and it got me thinking about those different modes of expression. Now and in the future, I think I’ll probably keep on making visuals and writing when the visuals aren’t enough, or possibly vice versa. Maybe even create literary visuals. Thank you very much to everyone who read this book. August 2007, Makoto Shinkai