Shinkai, Amazon and Media Factory have all updated their sites with the cover that will be used for the novel. I was actually expecting to see it on Shinkai's site first but Amazon actually had it much earlier. In fact, trying to find more info about the novel hadn't been that easy and Amazon was kind of the last place I expected to find any.

There appears to be some discrepancy between the dates, though. Shinkai and Media Factory has it as November 16th but Amazon has it as the 14th. I guess I'll go with the publisher's date!

So what do you think about the cover? I think it's a bit plain because it's mostly covered in white. The large text says it's Makoto Shinkai's first novel and it is. Don't get confused with the "Place Promised in Our Early Days" novel because that was actually written by another author Shinta Kanoh (script for Code Geass Sound Episode CDs!) and not Shinkai himself. This is probably the reason why I read about how the book had a different ending compared to the movie. The novelised version of "Voice of a Distant Star" was also written by Kanoh.

I'll still be getting this book of course, for all the uncut material in part three of the story. Apparently it was supposed to be the longest part of the movie but after all the cuts, it ended up being the shortest. It also seems I was right about the university part of the novel which is when Takaki meets new girlfriends. Shinkai has also written on his site that Mizuno (who is very much his type) gets more coverage too.

On another note, the English trailer is up on ADV's official site for the movie now. I hope they aren't the voices for the characters because they sound a little off but having said that, the Japanese voices weren't that great either TBH.