Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 06 (Fin)

After much cathartic yelling and crying last week, it’s all gravy as Miou, Haruki, and their friends graduate from high school on a positive, if bittersweet, note.

Miou and Haruki get the time they need alone together and write all their dreams on the chalkboard, emulating the promo art with one important difference: a tiny “I love you” Miou rights just out of Haruki’s sight.

The two also avoid closing that 10cm gap they’ve always had, knowing that if they did, they’d likely never let go. That is, they’d never give each other the time and space to realize their individual dreams. A very mature move by both, and one that pays dividends later on.

Much, much, much later on, as in SEVEN GODDAMN YEARS LATER. Sheesh, what is it with these Fall romances and their huge time jumps? And here I thought Just Because!’s month was a long time!

At any rate, Miou is a mostly content art teacher at her old school, Yuu proposes to Natsuki in one the most adorable scenes of the episode, and even Souta and Akari remain a strong item. Miou’s friends worry about Miou, but Miou said she’d wait for Haruki, and wait she does.

Fortunately, all her waiting doesn’t come to naught, as the moment Haruki wins a rookie director’s award in L.A., he’s on the first plane back to Japan to tell Miou first (though Miou already finds out through Natsuki).

Despite the well-known amount of, er, temptation in the Hollywood scene, Haruki kept his head down the whole time, and was there to work and realize one of his dreams. And he missed Miou as much as she missed him.

At the top of the steps where they always sat 10cm apart as kids, they confess their love as grownups, and finally, mercifully, close that infernal gap with a hand-hold and a smooch. Medetashi medetashi!

And that’s a wrap for Fall 2017! I should hope so; it’s literally Winter now, and frikkin’ freezing to boot. Thanks for reading! We’ll be back in action soon checking out the new shows Winter 2018 has to offer.

Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 05

Just as Miou has come out of her funk and started to work on her painting of love anew, Haruki develops a profound crisis of identity. He stops coming to school snaps at Saku, and decides he won’t be going to America after all, because he’s now convinced filmmaking was his brother’s dream, not his.

Miou pulls out the ol’ “I’ll wait as long as it takes at the usual spot” to draw Haruki out, as when the snow starts coming down, he worries, correctly, that she’ll be standing out in the cold all alone. There, in their usual spot, the two have it out.

While in the moment I was frustrated with how mean Haruki was being, one has to consider how emotionally unmoored he is, as well as frustrated with how Miou wouldn’t talk or even look at him for so long, only to need to talk now.

Haruki really does need to just cool it with the angst and listen, because Miou has to tell him she was the one Chiaki saved, and to apologize for keeping it from him so long, worried he’d hate her.

Haruki is too busy hating himself to hate Miou, but when he starts talking about what an idiot he is to confuse his brother’s dream with his own, Miou gives him the front of her right hand, breaking the 10cm distance in an instant.

She reminds him two brothers can have the same dreams, and that in all her time watching him, she could tell that Haruki’s dream of directing films was his own, and a powerful one at that, so he should really lighten up!

Miou also shows Haruki her recently completed painting, one of a guy and a girl looking out a window in the classroom. I assume it’s meant to be the two of them, and so the painting serves as a kind of confession of sorts for Miou. Haruki is cheered up, and the two head to his place to get out of the cold.

There, after cocoa, Miou remembers she has a DVD Saku told her to watch with Haruki. It is footage recorded right after Chiaki saved the girl Haruki now knows was Miou; Chiaki tells his little brother he’s filming one of the best scenes a director can film: a person’s moment of victory for having achieved something great (in his case, saving Miou).

Young Haruki promises his brother right there that he’ll follow his dream—yes, his dream of directing—making the DVD video evidence that what Miou said to Haruki is true, and he really does love making films. I guess that means he’ll be heading to America after all…which is bittersweet, since it’ll mean being apart from Miou.

Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 04

This ain’t ten centimeters!

Miou’s in a funk and a half, and really just wants to curl up and die, or at least switch places with Serizawa’s dearly departed brother, since she doesn’t deserve to live while he’s dead, and it’s all her fault for drowning. This is of course patently ridiculous…yet here we are.

Of course, Miou doesn’t tell any of this to Akari or Natsuki right away, but they don’t like her in this troubled state and do all they can to support and cheer her up. Such nice friends!

“My finger camera…broken?!”

Miou’s sudden disappearance from his life, compounded with the notice that he’s won the chance to study abroad in America, is also weighing on Haruki. Frankly, both protagonists are real mopey pains in the ass this week, and it was most unpleasant to watch.

I’d like to think I’d have the patience of Miou and Haruki’s friends, but some one can only snap at you, or tell you they’re no good, so many times before one has no choice but to throw their hands up and say “You know what, fine! You’re right! Now go suck someplace else!”

“There you go, quit being a whiny little brat and paint something!”

While Haruki sinks deeper into the muck, even questioning whether he really wants to be a filmmaker or if he’s just carrying on his brother’s dream, Miou thankfully comes to a sort of epiphany when Natsuki begs her and Akari to help her out at a community art class.

Echoing the cold open where a Lil’ Miou wowed her preschool-mates with her drawing, Miou interacts with an ornery little boy and gets him to cooperate and even have fun, then moves from person to person giving tips and encouragement. She clearly has a knack for talking about and teaching art.

“Let’s do this, canvas.”

She also later realizes she can’t keep the secret about Haruki’s brother inside forever or it will eat away at her like a sickness. So she comes clean, only it’s nothing to “come clean” or even blame oneself for; Natsuki can’t stress it to Miou enough: It’s not her fault, and staying away from Haruki out of fear he’ll hate her will only make him hate her.

Natsuki and Akari agree both Miou and Haruki are at their best when they’re on good terms, talking and hanging out together. So even though Haruki can’t see any future with Haruki in it (especially now that he’s headed for America), that isn’t going to stop her from imagining that future anyway—starting on the canvas, which she returns to with newfound desire to fill it with her vision of “love.”

Besides, Haruki may not end up going to America anyway. He just needs a reason to stay.

Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 03

Miou and Haruki had started to grow just a little bit closer to one another, but the sudden revelation that Haruki’s brother died saving Miou throws their intercept course, as it were, way off, until Miou is suddenly sprinting in the opposite direction.

Even when Saku tells Miou Chiaki was always frail but nevertheless risked himself to save others. Miou living a good life for his sake is “how it should be”, and Miou shouldn’t feel any shame for being the one who was saved.

But she does. She blames herself for Chiaki’s death, and doesn’t see how she can even face Haruki, let alone talk to him, let alone close that 10cm distance.

So Miou suddenly disappears from the center Haruki’s life. She doesn’t get near him or talk to him, and flakes out on the painting competition.

Haruki wonders if there’s anything he did or said to cause Miou to change like this; and he can’t come up with anything, which only increases his frustration. That frustration makes it difficult to focus on editing the film.

When he finally catches her on the rooftop at lunchtime, Miou attempts to retreat wordlessly. Haruki bars her way, and tells her she has to tell him what’s wrong or he won’t understand.

Since there’s no way Miou can tell Haruki what’s really wrong, all she says is that “she’s no good”, and he shouldn’t talk to her anymore.

Haruki’s friends are worried about Haruki, and can immediately tell he’s distracted from the quality of his work. Haruki is mad, because he’s helpless to discern what’s wrong with Miou. Without revealing him the secret he and Miou share about Chiaki, Saku only tells Haruki that Chiaki would have “done what he believed was right.”

All well and good…Haruki doesn’t know what to do! That night Haruki reminisces about how kind and loving his big bro was, and how strong and brave he was, never letting Haruki see him so much as frown, despite his body continuing to deteriorate.

Honestly, I feel for Miou. I don’t know how you’d comfortably broach the topic to Haruki of who saved her from drowning and what happened to that person. I guess you simply don’t do it comfortably. It’s not a pleasant thing to do, but it’s the truth, and I’m of the mind that truth has to come to light if there’s going to be any future for Miou and Haruki.

Both Miou’s secret, how she handled it, and the sudden notice that Haruki has won the chance to study in America, conspired to make this episode feeling very somber, even fatalistic. Here’s hoping next week will bring a ray of light to cut through the gloom, if only a bit.

Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 02

“Summer, Fireworks, Color of Love” is this week’s title, and it pretty succinctly sums up what we get. If you’ve heard of these themes in romance anime before well…you’re not alone! But what this show lacks in original themes, it makes up for in solid execution and attention to detail, and variety.

We get looks not just into the budding romance of Miou and Haruki, but see how close Yuu and Natsuki are without officially dating, as well as Souta’s attentions towards Akari. The plot of making one last film together, starring a character who is an art student in love, is pretty hoaky, but super-charming if you can switch off the cynicism.

In her desire for her art (and not Akari’s) to be chosen by Haruki, Miou puts undue pressure on painting the perfect canvas, and ends up unable to paint anything at all. Haruki seems to get a bit jealous when he overhears that Miou will soon meet the man who saved her from drowning.

But they largely set aside those issue when the six friends gather for a fireworks festival. Natsuki sets things up so Miou and Haruki are alone, while Souta’s in the right position to catch a stumbling Akari, breaking the ice. All three couples have great chemistry and it’s fun to watch them interact.

Everything seems to be ruined when Miou faints and she and Haruki end up with an obstructed view of the fireworks, but they find a platform to get a better view. Haruki tells Miou he’s looking forward to seeing what art she comes up with (adding to the already high pressure of that project).

When he awkwardly offers to grab something for them to eat, Miou bravely, finally closes the 10cm distance by grasping his shirt. The two come this close to kissing, but are lamely interrupted by a couple of yappy dogs. LAME, I say. At least they can laugh about it.

Then the next day the thing I knew was coming came: Miou learns the man who saved her life is dead. Not only that, he’s Haruki’s big brother, Chiaki. She goes home, and rather than paint what love looks like for Haruki, she defaces the painting of her memory of being saved, ashamed that he lost his life, and Haruki lost his brother, all for her sake.

Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 01 (First Impressions)

What’s this, eight weeks into the season? A new high school romance comedy-drama from Studio Lay-duce (formed from ex-Bones members) that, at least for the moment, does not involve love polygons or an obsession with communication through the LINE app.

Instead, we have a built-in compatible couple in Aida Miou (Toyosaki Aki) and Serizawa Haruki, both creative people born in the spring. There’s mutual attraction, but due to the contrast between Haruki’s flashiness and popularity and Miou’s modesty bordering on self-loathing, the two find it difficult to get any closer than ten centimeters together.

Gimmicky title aside, this first episode efficiently establishes both Miou and Haruki as good decent people who are novices when it comes to romance, and the dynamic between their different outward personalities and a kind of inner connection that draws them closer together.

The fact that coming closer happens so organically, before they realize it, a friend of Haruki plasters the chalkboard with playful slogans. Miou does not like the spotlight, or even appearing in Haruki’s camera lens, but Haruki wastes no time telling his buddy that this kinda thing is not okay, while telling Miou not to let it get to her.

The network of friends, which consists of three girls and three boys, doesn’t seem ripe for any kind of conflicts. Miou’s friends assume she and Haruki are already girlfriend and boyfriend, even though they just go home together most afternoons because they’re “headed in the same direction.”

Of course, as we watch their chemistry unfold together, it’s clear it’s not just practicality that drives their after-school walks. Haruki likes Miou and Miou likes Haruki, but Haruki wishes Miou wouldn’t criticize herself so often, using the phrase “somewhat like me” like it’s going out of style and having no confidence. Yet for all his bombast, Haruki isn’t any closer to drawing nearer than 10cm from Miou. It’s something they’ll have to figure out together.

While hardly a groundbreaking or risky show, 10cm is thoroughly competent and enjoyable, with a minimum of the teen angst that tends to sour these kinds of shows. It also has the benefit of a totally stacked all-star cast including Toyosaki and Suzumura Kenichi, Kamiya Hiroshi, Tomatsu Haruka, Kaji Yuki, and Asumi Kana.

I don’t care what you’re making, if you get this amount of talent behind it it’s bound to be good. Looks like this will be only six episodes total, so I don’t see the harm in checking it out, late in the season though it may be.