When I was in my junior year of college I used to eat lunch in a resource centre twice a week because it was never crowded. There was a group of seniors who used to do the same thing, and one day I sat at their table. While there was not a lot of rapport to start, we found some common ground over upper-level coursework and I began eating my lunch with them. Over the course of the semester I came to talk a lot to a woman who was almost always there, whether the others were or not, and our conversation became quite enjoyable. Eventually the semester came to an end, she graduated, and I never saw her again. We had been talking twice a week for ~3 months and I had never learned her name nor seen her outside of the resource centre.
I'll admit that I'm a little non-standard when it comes to social interactions (e.g. never asking her name), however I share this anecdote to say that this kind of thing does happen in real life. Moreover, you can really connect with someone while knowing almost nothing about them and I found the development of Yukino and Akizuki's companionship to be spot on. Fortunately, I don't think either my compatriot nor I had as much baggage as these two characters (and, unsurprisingly, there was no big climax in my story).
Nonetheless, there is a certain kind of beauty in these ephemeral friendships that fall together from (temporarily) shared schedules and this is captured perfectly by Mokoto Shinkai.
I'll admit that I'm a little non-standard when it comes to social interactions (e.g. never asking her name), however I share this anecdote to say that this kind of thing does happen in real life. Moreover, you can really connect with someone while knowing almost nothing about them and I found the development of Yukino and Akizuki's companionship to be spot on. Fortunately, I don't think either my compatriot nor I had as much baggage as these two characters (and, unsurprisingly, there was no big climax in my story).
Nonetheless, there is a certain kind of beauty in these ephemeral friendships that fall together from (temporarily) shared schedules and this is captured perfectly by Mokoto Shinkai.