DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaKotonoha no Niwa
MOVIE DramaKimi no Na wa.

REVIEWS

• 

  Netherax

  98/100
  In a single word: elegant. Opinionated review of a masterpiece.

  In a single word: elegant.

  This short review will simply be an expression of my take on the movie. It may be helpful in deciding whether or not you want to watch the movie, which I would highly recommend.

  Kotonoha no Niwa (Garden of Words) is a short movie about a schoolboy, training to be a shoemaker, who skips school on the morning of rainy days to sketch shoes in a garden and his experiences with an older women he meets at the garden.

  The main theme of the movie is rain, which it handles exceptionally aesthetically. The meetings of the two main characters in the garden is dictated by days it rains. Part of the narrative involves symbolism using rain. The atmosphere created by rain in this movie is wonderfully mesmerizing. For me, it successfully created depth beyond what you I have come to expect from experiencing an anime.

  As it has come to be expected from a story written by Makoto Shinkai, the story of this movie is emotional, compelling and realistic. Unlike most anime, you experience the story rather than being told it. There are many occasions where the story is told by actions and things not said. Overall the story is quite modest and doesn't tackle the issue (The potential romance between the characters, who are quite far apart in age.) presented head on, instead leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions. I personally like this decision as a direct approach could have detracted from the feeling of ethereality/mystery/beauty I experienced if the issue was handled immaturely. The storytelling approach could be described as terse - a lot is left to interpretation. I strongly believe unambiguous closure would have ruined the story.

  Visually this movie nothing short of amazing. I would even hazard asserting that this movie is the one of the best looking anime in existence and will remain so for a long time. Even if the story doesn't interest you, the visuals and the atmosphere make this movie worth watching.

  Audio quality is pretty much the same as the visuals. The musical compositions used enhance the atmosphere very well, sitting masterfully on line between lackluster and diminishing ambience.

  I am not a regular anime critic, nor am I somebody with a vast amount of experience analysing plots or stories. However, that does not mean it should be taken lightly when I came to a conclusion about my opinion of this movie, that opinion being that this movie is objectively perfect. Subjectively? Everybody has their own take. I personally love rain so that contributes to my perspective of the movie. Could the movie have been developed more? Potentially. Does the fact that it doesn't try to be more detract from the experience? Not at all.

  I have been very hesitant to give the movie the score that I did but I simply cannot fault it at all.

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• 

  CryingLad

  60/100
  Beautiful visuals and animation, lacklustre story.

  [This review will contain Spoilers for the movie!]()

  
  
  A movie with an okay story and amazing visuals.

  [(SPOILER AHEAD) STORY:]()
  The whole premise of the show is that an upcoming shoemaker "Takao Akizuki" meets an older lady when he skips school to go to a garden. He meets her only on rainy days at the garden. They bond together during those meet up and become really close, until the rainy days stop.

  He soon finds out that she is in fact a teacher at his school who is getting not the best treatment from the students. He goes to her house and begs to change and open up. That's basically it. I'm not sure what the ending is supposed to symbolise or mean, and I watched the ending like 2 times just for this review. My guess is that its something about maturity and growing as a person to overcome those things we are scared to go through. Ever since that last scene with the teacher the student character attended school much more often and even made some friends instead of going to the garden every day.

  

  
  

  [CHARACTERS:]()
  There is really only 2 character that matter in this whole movie.

  Takao Akizuki - The guy who keeps going ot the garden each rainy day and meets up with the mysterious woman. He falls in love with that gal, even after he finds out she is a teacher. He feels like your generic student who would do anything for their love interest. As we seen during that fight scene.

  Yukari Yukino - The mysterious woman who always goes to the garden on rainy days and meets up with the upcoming shoemaker. She is calm and collected, like a mature adult (Cause she is one). Nothing much about the character, it feels like a normal adult.

  

  
  

  [ART/ANIMATION:]()
  Now this is where the movie really shines.
  The animation and art style is amazing, just like "Your Name."

  It's smooth, especially the rain, so pleasing to look at non stop.
  The character design is also really good. All of the animation and art-style aspects feel realistic.

  

  
  

  [MUSIC:]()
  The OST is also really good. Its calm and beautiful and reflects those peaceful rainy days really well. Really good for calming down any day.

  

  
  

  [OVERALL OPINION:]()
  I don't hate this movie, I liked the animation and the OST. But the story is not something I put that much care into, it just didn't connect with me that much. So don't let that 60/100 scare ya, this is a good movie, but just more on the boring side. If that makes sense.

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• 

  shoehaze

  75/100
  Easily one of Shinkai’s best works, but leaves you wanting more.

  Story

  The Garden of Words tells a nice enough story, but with a runtime of only around 40 minutes, it kind of bites more than it can chew. The film centers on Akizuki, a 15 year old aspirant shoemaker who often skips school to design shoes, and Yukino, a 27 year old woman who skips work for reasons I can’t spoil. We get to see how the two of them come to rely on and seek refuge in one another as they avoid their problems in real life. The characters as well as the events surrounding them were pretty decent, with some gut-wrenching and heartbreaking scenes. I just wish these were further built upon. Their struggles and their weaknesses were introduced well, the movie just fails to properly elaborate on them, with good development sprinkled throughout but not actually given enough time to mature and live up to its full potential. In short, I was acquainted, but not properly attached.

  But that’s not to say the plot/premise is bad, just lacking. I love how it’s more reflective and personal instead of being super dramatic and in your face like Shinkai’s more popular works. I also love how it puts less emphasis on romance but more on one’s reliance on other people. We get nice bits where the characters talk to themselves for a while and that actually further builds on their development. It’s just that I wanted more. It really had some nice elements that had vast potential. The only problem is that it’s just over before you know it and never fully utilizes that potential.

  Animation

  This movie’s animation is easily some of Shinkai’s best, and acted as the film’s primary saving grace. It puts more emphasis on beautiful scenery and use of color rather than amazing/spectacular fantasy visuals. We see a glimpse of Shinkai’s skill in creating weather effects before he made Your Name and Weathering With You, but unlike those movies, the visuals here aren’t really meant to leave you in awe but are more for contributing to the film’s overall tone.

  The main attraction here are the previously mentioned weather effects. I loved when they just do their thing, but also how the weather evolved. Instead of just continuous rain, it also gets heavier/lighter, thunder would suddenly appear, etc. I also loved how it interacted with nature, like when the rain bounced off lakes or when sunlight was met with insects. These made the whole experience feel more natural and realistic in the long run. They also served the scenes well, matching their tone and mood to further enhance the experience.

  There’s also the gorgeous cityscapes. The film somehow manages to not only make Tokyo look beautiful in its depiction but also alive. It’s filled with nice little touches such as lights on skyscrapers turning on and off and bustling crowds with each person doing their own thing. When combined with the weather effects, it was admittedly pretty breathtaking.

  The visuals are also amazingly detailed. Apart from its beautiful and eye-catching scenery, the animation also shined in its close-ups, such as when there were shots of food being carefully cut up and cooked, or when a foot is being carefully measured and traced to make a pair of shoes. This is coupled with some really fluid motion so that these shots did not only look gorgeous but also feel smooth. These scenes are what really got me more invested into the film, and how personal and intimate it was (or supposed to be).

  Voice Acting

  Acting In its voice acting, The Garden of Words also shines. It was more appropriate to the film’s more reflective themes like when there were parts when characters monologued quietly and personally, as if they were really talking to themselves. In dialogue, voice acting was also decent; emotions were properly displayed, especially when the two main leads were quietly talking to one another, as if they were having a private conversation that we as an audience were not meant to be participating in. The whole thing felt more genuine in the long run because of these. I also liked when there were brief moments of silence that allowed for me to take in the scenery and the mood of the moment.

  Music

  For music, the film makes use of some great instrumental pieces that serve as a nice cherry on top. In its more quiet scenes, you could probably hear a piano or a maybe some strings in the background. You might not even hear music at all, which allowed for me to take in the dialogue and get more invested in the story. When things get more intense, the music follows accordingly, and we’re greeted with a full orchestra of instruments, and it really worked well with the movie. The music itself doesn’t stand on its own, unlike the later work by Radwimps, but it doesn’t need to. The main purpose of the music here was to support the movie itself, and given the tone of the movie, the key here was subtlety. At that, the music definitely succeeds.

  Overall

  The Garden of Words, in all its flaws in plot and character development, still manages to be a worthwhile bite-sized anime movie in everything else. The animation is one of, if not the best I’ve seen from Shinkai, the voice acting is pretty great, and the music is a nice compliment to the overall package.

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