Back to Stosyl's Profile Stosyl's Profile

The first 80 minutes are nothing but a Season 1 recap and some fanservice of the girls in swimsuits.

I can at least say that SOME new perspective is placed on the events of the show by being shown from the character's viewpoint.

The final 20 minutes make for a cute story.

This could easily have been a 25-minute OVA, but instead it forces you to sit through a highlights reel for over an hour first.

I was 14 when I saw the first part of the anime on TV. It was melancholy and beautiful, and I loved it immediately. I didn't know there was more to it until five years later, when I watched it again. After watching part 2 and hearing Kanae's story, I cried harder than I had ever cried since I was a child.

After that I had to read the manga. The art is AMAZING, much more satisfying than Shinkai's anime, and there is a lot more development to the characters that allows you to understand where they are coming from better.

The epilogue that is part 3 ... in the anime is also much more expansive, so there is a lot more about what happens to the characters in adulthood. If you were on the fence about reading it, that in itself is enough reason to do so.

More than anything else I have ever seen, this manga perfected the portrayal of unrequited love: from the anxiety of trying to admit your feelings, to the lightheaded joy of finding that your crush has the slightest thing in common with you.

It made me cry all over again, and Sumida Kanae has become one of my favorite characters in fiction. I find myself opening it and re-reading my favorite scenes dozens of times. If anyone asked me my favorite book, I would have to struggle not give this manga as my answer.