Alright, we've done REALLY well to this point. If we include They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in my recent Bondo Experience, we were 3/3 (TSHDT?, The Prestige, and Nausicaa). To me, a hit in compatibility is when both people can agree that the film is a good one. Expecting anyone to love the thing you love is pretty tough, but overlap in ideas of good quality is fun. All three are good movies to talk about, too.
So #4, 5 Centimeters Per Second, didn't work out. While there are certain haunting images and Shinkai and I seem to share a certain affection for the wonders of outer space, I found the narration and overall story arc to be painfully shallow. The second of the three parts was probably the hardest to bear as Kanae's words are a string of teenage melodramatic cliches, as is the story of a girl who loves a boy but cannot say it, before realizing that it would never work anyway. I feel strangely guilty writing this because obviously you love this film, but I also feel it would be disrespectful to totally avoid saying anything, as if you needed sparing from my opinion. At this point, I really want to know why it is you like this movie so much. Soooo...?
My third Shinkai. After Your Name rocked my world, Weathering with You Brought Me Down a little bit, even though I still think it's a good-to-very-good film based on the animation alone. Now, I feel like I'm in a place where three Shinkai films are enough. So for the time, I'm awaiting the host's thoughts!