Like its source material, '5 Centimeters per Second' is the mediocre piece of Shinkai's work in manga. Same issues with the story and characterization, but at least the art is consistent.

[Story - 4]

Same story as before: childhood friends try to keep their love alive despite the amount of distance between them. While I still dislike this story and its themes, due to how blatant and unrefined the execution is, I can admire that the pacing is a lot more suitable for a story with such melancholic ambience. I also appreciate that there is more thought given to portraying how more characters besides just these two deal with their lives, but that will be expanded upon below.

[Art - 9]

Artwork is as gorgeous as the movie's, if not even more so despite not being in colour. It definitely puts its own 'anime' spin on the character designs while staying true to the movie in terms of maintaining a cinematic feeling. This feeling, like the film, is conveyed through rather stunning, yet quaint, settings such as downtown Tokyo, the beach, etc. etc. Huge kudos to the artist, Yukiko Seike, for pulling this off with major success.

[Character - 6]

While I'm still rather annoyed with the characters, I'm glad that Shinkai decided to expand on their monologues. For starters, at least the male protagonist, Takaki, isn't as.....cringy as the movie made him out to be, as he actually has an arc of realizing he needs to let go. The female protag (Akari), however, is still woefully uncharacterized to the point of only being in the story to serve as Takaki's catalyst for angst.

However, the 2 other prominent women in the story get a LOT more fleshing-out here. Kanae's struggles isn't just with her feelings for Takaki, but with the general aimlessness of life that teenagers often feel. I'm not /quite/ pleased with the implications of her ending, but her arc is my personal favourite from this manga, as it feels so....universal as a life experience. Risa still feels a bit flat to me, and quickly vanishes as fast as she appears, but her dynamic with Takaki was rather enjoyable and thought-provoking since she helps Takaki come to grips with his inability to move on.

[Enjoyment/Overall - 5/6]

It's not as amazing or life-changing as everyone says it is, but 5CM/S is still somewhat enjoyable. I'd actually recommend this over the movie, as it just offers so much more depth than what the movie gave everyone. Feel free to give it a shot if you really want to see angsty romance; Otherwise, skip it over.