The title 5 Centimeters Per Second comes from the speed at which cherry blossoms petals fall, petals being a metaphorical representation of humans, reminiscent of the slowness of life and how people often start together but slowly drift into their separate ways
Makoto Shinkai had expressed that, unlike his past works, there would be no fantasy or science fiction elements in this film. Instead, the feature film would attempt to present the real world from a different perspective. Makoto's film gives a realistic view of the struggles many face against, time, space, people, and love.
4 team members of the team were so inspired by the movie and story that they decided to marry their partners during production of this movie, according to the director.
In 2009 a Chinese animation company Liuzhou Lan Hai technologies Ltd. admitted to plagiarizing several backgrounds from the film to use in their own animation series.
Four months to the day after the DVD release in America, ADV Films announced they were discontinuing release of the film.