A Date with 5 Centimeter Per Second - Part 1
So I got this Blu-Ray Disc from the cheapest importer (of the item) I know a while ago. I think I should write about that, right.
Unfortunately, I have not had the time and couldn’t plop the equally sexy BRD rip of the film on the PS3, so that will have to wait. Which is why there will be a part 2 eventually.
Not to mention I’m not sure if I want to end this journey just yet.
I’m probably going to tread a little into videophile land–that’s mostly unfamiliar territory for me, so please forgive me if I rear my ignorance a little more than usual. That said, the TV is a first-batch Sony KDS-60A2000; I listened to the film via the TV speakers (5.1 will have to wait till I get unlazy and swap my SPDIF cable over to the PS3… but it’s not really necessary for this film.)
Having already blogged all I wanted to blog about the film itself, its story, and its series of related themes and characters, I’m just going to say the one thing that stands out from watching it off BRD–the freedom to watch it however you want.
For example, my displayed is tuned more for the video look. As with most Americans, I get my HD feed mostly from cable or satellite, so the typical setting is optimized with that in mind. Looking at 5cm that way, the color vibrancy in the first handful of scenes of Okashou was almost too much. It makes good contrast with the dreary darkness in the train scenes.
However, unlike watching it on film, Cosmonaut’s subtle shades of blacks didn’t come across as well as I would have hoped. The twinkling stars as seen in the 35mm version was not absent, but the scattering sunset made it seem more 5pm than 7pm, you know? It is the scene where Kanae finds Takaki’s moped and climbs up the grassy knoll… I realize I can probably tweak my TV so it gets better black levels but I just haven’t had the time to go back and rewatch it on a more film-like setting. On the flip side, watching Cosmonaut in a brightly lit room makes some of the darker moments of the segment less brooding.
The BRD release comes with very little bonus stuff. It has the main feature and the One More Time, One More Chance music video (also in Hi-Def). The packaging is your straight-up BRD case, but besides a couple inserts there’s not much else.
When it comes to anime on high-definition, something that has come up in my discussion of the topic with others is just how does anime take advantage of the improved resolution? Anime in general is low-budget stuff, after all.
In 5cm’s case, let’s just say that this is as close as it gets to seeing Makoto Shinkai’s handiwork in your own home. In the ADV release of the DVD, one of the bonus features gave us a glimpse as to how 5cm was produced on Shinkai’s Apple Cinema Displays. At Hi-Def, you can see the same character cut out as Akari and Takaki chase each other down through their childhood neighborhood, complete with the less-than-perfect character cut-out and line inking, sort of as you would if you were looking at Shinkai’s monitors. Granted, it’s not a great thing to be able to see the imperfections on your TV, but it’s there, and it does add to the viewing experience. And that’s not to mention being able to really see the gorgeous detailed backgrounds that speaks so much, so loudly, throughout the film.
Sigh. Writing about it makes me want to go back and watch it again.
This is the main reason why I want to get a PS3. I really should one of these days.
>>At Hi-Def, you can see the same character cut out as Akari and Takaki chase each other down through their childhood neighborhood, complete with the less-than-perfect character cut-out and line inking, sort of as you would if you were looking at Shinkai’s monitors. Granted, it’s not a great thing to be able to see the imperfections on your TV, but it’s there, and it does add to the viewing experience.
Yeah, I guess that’s a problem with HD cartoons. I didn’t think it’d affect Shinkai’s stuff so much, but I guess it does. I know certainly don’t like it when people see my work at 300 dpi, given you can see all the colouring and shading mistakes, and the very jagged line art.
But I guess that’s better than Hokuto no Ken HD. I saw an HD boxset for that and wondered why. Do people want to see every single mistake in the animation? lol :V
I wouldn’t say it’s mistakes really. It is just stuff that you know it’s going to be there, with the production techniques he used. The character animation stood out enough as is from the detailed background.
In college, my painting instructor kept pressing me to be more “painterly” instead of the hyper-real stuff I was doing. I didn’t understand what he meant then, but I do now — being able to see the human touch, seeing a person use the medium for itself — is part of the whole point of painting.
So, in a way, being able to see those cut-outs is actually a draw, especially to someone like me who drools over storyboards and production sketches.