Kanae Sumida (澄田 花苗, Sumida Kanae) is a main character in 5 Centimeters per Second. She is a classmate of Takaki Tōno during his years in Tanegashima and has a crush on him.
Background[]
Kanae and Takaki in junior high school
In Grade 6, Kanae adopted Cub, a brown dog she founded on the seashore, and named it after her sister's motorbike.
During her 8th Grade, she met Takaki Tōno, a newly transferred student, and instantly fell in love with him. In junior high years, she often accompanied him on the way to school and passed by a simple post office. She also tried hard to study so that she can enter the same high school as him.
In her first year of high school, she and Saki were the representatives of class 1-3 at the school's cultural festival committee, where she reunited with Takaki.
In 5 Centimeters per Second[]
Kanae reprimanded by Ito
In her final year at school, Kanae was unable to decide what she would do after graduation, worrying her teacher and family. She was also a surfer at a nearby beach, a hobby inspired by her older sister, but she could not focus on her practice because of her thoughts of Takaki.
Kanae often waited for Takaki after class so that she could accompany him. On the way, they sometimes visited a convenience store to buy something to drink. One day, her motorbike's engine failed and she must walk home on foot, so Takaki decided to walk with her. As she begian to cry and almost confessesed her feeling to him, they witnessed the launch of Elish probe and she realized that Takaki was seeking something beyond her ability to offer, so she decided to remain silent.
Kanee watched Takaki's plane taking off
On a windy, sunny day of March 2000, she was the only one knows that Takaki would move to Tokyo. Outside the fence of the airport, she watched as Takaki's plane took off.
In 5 Centimeters per Second manga[]
Ten years later, she worked as nurse and was pursued by a fellow surfer named Riyou. After visiting her brother-in-law who had accidentally broke his own leg, she had a reunion with her high school friends Saki and Yukko, discussing life and family issues with them.
A thunderstruck Kanae
After her older sister gave birth to the third child, Kanae was encouraged to go to Tokyo to look for Takaki, whom she was still longing for after all those years. In Tokyo, Kanae visited an area that Takaki once told her about, but could not find him. Resting on a bench, Kanae received a phone call from her sister, informing her the phone number of Takaki's parents she had obtained from his classmates. After her call to Riyou, she quietly thought about Takaki, but got surprised to see a certain person suddenly passing by.
Etymology[]
- The name Kanae means "flower, blossom" (花) (ka) and "seedling, sapling, shoot" (苗) (nae).
- Kanae's surname Sumida means "clear, pure" (澄) (sumi) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).
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