I really thought that Takaki and Akari would get back together in the end. I was fucking wishing it to happen every inch of the way as soon as chapter one came to a close. Instead I see Akari engaged and returning to Tokyo to be with her fiancee and what seems to be Takaki's life literally going down the toilet. Man, Makoto Shinkai seriously smacked me in the head with that one...

The images that accompanied the song was beautiful though. At least we see how each got on with their lives since they parted ways at the end of chapter one. Seeing how they couldn't keep up with their letter-writing had me feeling some sense of inevitability, but I still had to force myself to believe that they pretty much broke away from each other...

Akari was left happy but Takaki was lost. That last part where they almost meet at the train crossing tore my heart out. Shit....

......depressed.......LOL....

.....did Akari deliberately not stick around at the end? Seems kind'a fucked up to suggest this I know, but hear me out....

The first time that scene plays, when Takaki and the then unknown woman pass each other by on the train tracks, you only see Takaki have a reaction. When the trains have passed and you see no one on the other side, you too are left wondering if that woman could possibly have been Akari (at this point we weren't aware of Akari's whereabouts until a little later).

The second time that scene plays during the song, One More Time, One More Chance, you know the woman is Akari as you see her on the balcony watering her plants, seeing the cherry blossoms flying in the wind, then leaving her home to go to the place she used to frequent with Takaki. When they pass each other at the tracks, you see them both have a reaction when passing....

However, only Takaki stayed to see if the woman was Akari or not. Just as the trains approached, you can see that Akari also started to turn towards Takaki - so I'm sure she wanted to see who he was. Why did she suddenly decide not to bother? Could she have been afraid that it was him, and didn't know how she should react? Could she have thought that suddenly having him back in her life could jeopardise the happy life she's built for herself? What do you all think?

Well, I think that she really did leave there deliberately more or less. She might have recognized that it could have been him, but then shrugging it off like "It couldn't have been him" and then left, OR she could have been 99% sure and left because she didn't want to remember. Having a happy life she just didn't want to ruin anything and took the easy way out of it. It's not like I think I'd do anything different though. I think it'd only bring pain/insecurity and second thoughts if I meet one of the greatest loves in my life while being happy with someone other.

But I guess since they were so small and they had been away from each other for so long maybe it couldn't have left too much of a lasting impression on them, I mean, watching the end now again I could see Takaki smile while walking away from the railway crossing. It's possible he only went back to the places of his childhood just for nostalgia and felt happy thinking about it. It's great to see that he's walking away smiling, probably willing to move on.

Oh, in the end I thought it was just a nostalgia thing on Takaki's part, just reminiscing about Akari, that her actual physical presence isn't there.

Every time I get to my room and shut the door, I feel a stabbing pain in my heart as if all the bones in my body are breaking through my skin. And I wonder when it was that I became burdened with something like this. I was living alone, and the nights felt long. When I couldn’t find anything to occupy my time, I would walk to the nearby station and pretend I was waiting for someone. When I got tired of that, I walked back to my room as slowly as possible. I had friends at high school, but I found that other than when I was wearing my uniform, I really didn’t want to be around them. Come to think of it, in a city of more than thirty million people, there wasn’t a single person I wanted to see or talk to.

I remember they both stopped on their tracks and started turning towards each other as the train came by. So Akari did indeed feel something, perhaps sensing his presence; but she no longer had a reason to wait and see if that person really was him, since she has long since moved on with her life. There wasn't anything she could gain by finding him again - perhaps she just wanted him to remain a memory, a cherished moment of her childhood that can never be gotten back.

....when he smiled at the end, I was kind'a thinking he too had smiled only because of the nostalgia. Maybe he thought it was her but seeing no one there at the end, thought it was just his imagination and turned around and walked on. I'd like to think that just thinking about it made him a little happier. Of course he didn't know if it was really her or not, only we the audience knew for a fact. Thinking about the ending now makes it a little less depressing I guess. :D

I suppose they "met" at the cherry blossom tree at the end as they promised, even if she wasn't there physically.