The Garden of Words - Reviews

Introduction

Every so often, I receive a jarring reminder that time is passing by around me. It feels as though just yesterday I was attending a screening for, what was then Makoto Shinkai's newest film, Children Who Chase Lost Voices. Well, I guess it's time to face the facts: that was nearly two years ago. To be completely honest, the fact that Makoto Shinkai had not only been working on, but had completed another film was a real shock to me. After learning this, I immediately made my way to YouTube to find a trailer for this newest film. And I watched the trailer. And my jaw dropped.

By now, the name Makoto Shinkai is synonymous with production values that are absolutely through the roof. I think we may have reached a point where the aesthetic quality of his work is no longer even rivaled by Studio Ghibli. But I was still completely blown away by what I saw. I was convinced that what I was looking at was a trailer for one of the most beautiful animations I had ever seen. I knew instantly that Garden of Words was a film that I had to get my hands on. Now that I've gotten my hands on it, and had the chance to watch it, I have a lot to say about it.

The Review

To start with, I'd like to explain that I was cautiously optimistic of Garden of Words after watching the trailer. I have all of the respect in the world for Makoto Shinkai as a director and an animator, I've never been particularly impressed by his forays into the realms of romance and drama, and that's clearly what Garden looked to be. This is not to say that films such as 5 Centimeters Per Second are bad -- rather, I simply acknowledge that I am not, even remotely, a part of the targeted demographic for such films. So when what I had seen of Garden of Words strongly hinted at it being another romantic drama, this made me, admittedly, somewhat apprehensive. However, I now happily -- if somewhat confusedly -- admit that my fears were completely unwarranted. While it's true that Garden of Words is a romance-drama, there's something special about this one. Somehow, it was touching enough, and moving enough, to really tug at my heart strings and to melt (a bit of) the ice inside me.

The story is focused on Takao, a fifteen-year-old high school student who has a passion for designing and creating shoes. He comes across as someone who has talent and passion, but who hasn't quite found his place in the world yet. He's unable to focus in school, and he begins skipping class whenever it rains, so that he can enjoy the calming weather. As the rainy season arrives in Kanto, he begins missing days more frequently, choosing to instead spend his time in the public garden under a gazebo. There, he contentedly spends time sketching designs for his shoes; but he is not alone. The first day in the rain, he meets Yukino, a woman in her late twenties. At first they don't speak much to one another, but they soon form a unique relationship, meeting under the gazebo on each rainy day -- Takao skipping school, and this mysterious woman, presumably, skipping work. Every time they meet, Takao works on his sketches, while the woman drinks beer and eats chocolate. As time passes, however, they open up to one another and form something of a friendship. This peculiar relationship then, ever so slowly, motions towards becoming something more.

Now, in my personal opinion, the evolution of a relationship is something that's rarely worth hanging the entirety of a film's plot upon. It's usually not interesting enough to warrant that kind of treatment. However, doing so works for Garden of Words because the hook is three-pronged: One, the characters are likable in their imperfection. They are flawed, but we really want to see them happy. Two, the movie looks absolutely jaw-on-the-floor amazing. With the plot's focus on rainy weather, the beautiful artwork is allowed to shine under the spot light -- and shine it does. Three, with a duration of just forty-six minutes, Garden of Words has enough time to make us care about Takao and Yukino, to build emotional tension leading up to the film's climax, and to then end -- before overstaying its welcome like so many films in this genre are prone to doing.

I think, also, what helps Garden of Words, is that nothing in this movie seems forced. Even though we can see the seeds of something sprouting up between Yikino and Takao fairly early on in the film, it comes across as being very organic. There's nothing silly like love at first sight, or one of the characters falling head over heels for the other. Instead, we, as viewers, are given the opportunity to quietly enjoy the rain with two quirky characters who are struggling to face challenges in their own lives, while enjoying the other's company. The characters display open signs that romance is not the only thing in their life -- nor is it even the most important thing. They are not empty-headed love-birds, and that is a real breath of fresh air. Perhaps because of this, factors such as the age difference between the two characters don't threaten to usurp focus like they might in a lesser film. Here, everything comes across as being just a bit more low-key, and the film is all the better for it.

Garden of Words is not without its flaws, but most of them are technical, and all of them are minor. There are, for instance, issues with the film's sound effect and voice-over volume levels. On more than one occasion I found myself reading subtitles when I couldn't actually hear any words being spoken. Upon ticking up the volume, I'd discover that a radio or intercom was present in the scene -- but I'd then have to lower the volume again, when a character's whisper would be channeled to me as a low scream. I feel like this is worth bringing up, as its the film's biggest flaw, but it's still nowhere near problematic enough to keep this from being the best animated film I've seen in years. I've already stated that it is one of the best looking ones, but I now find myself wrestling with that concept. Is it, instead, the best looking animated movie I've ever seen? I'm not sure I want to be locked down to such a bold statement, but it sounds plausible at the moment. I certainly wouldn't dismiss the notion.

Final Words

I applaud Garden for having the prudence to tell its story in a timely manner. And yet, part of me can't help but feel that it was all over too soon. I really can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly engrossed by a movie. It's not uncommon to get lost in a good film-- but that's not what happened to me while watching this one. I consciously absorbed every frame of this production, listening to the rainfall, paying attention to the way lighting is casted on the people and objects, appreciating the line art, and listening to the intonation of the characters' voices. I was enthralled from the very beginning, and became more so as the film progressed. And while I won't divulge how the film ends, it is not one that ever runs out of gas. It picks up steam the entire way, and ends strongly, which definitely counts for a lot.

I feel as though my praise for this film could not be made any clearer. I consider this to be a modern classic, and to be Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece. To grant context to my opinion: I view this as being on near-equal footing with films such as Princess Mononoke, and Ghost in the Shell. 

Final Rating: 9.25 out of 10.0

Sooo this movie....watched it randomly this past weekend wth the gf, and i went into it with virtually no expectations except hearing it was good, but was it???

Well just from all the train shots i could tell it was from the same director/animation team that did 5cm per second, hoever this movie was just sorta....meh...

Anywayyyy onto the review...

**Contains spoilers**

Story - 1/10

Could hardly understand what was going on here....all i picked up was:

-Teenage boy skips school to go to a park in shinjuku on rainy days

- meets an older/middle aged woman there drinking beer and eating chocolate

-they become friends

-he wants to make shoes - makes her a pair

-it turns out she was a suspended teacher or something at his school, he finds out

-he professes his love to her, but she suddenly grows morals and rejects him at first

-he gets mad at her and yells in the stairway

-she cries and hugs him

-THE END

Animation - 9/10

Animation is great, though thinking about it now i can't remember anything really great they used it on....

Sound 7/10

catchy for a bit but not to my taste lol

Charachters - 4/10

Again... just like with the story i have hardly any idea on who the charachters are...i didn't check the movie running time but everything seems pretty rushed charachter wise...and pretty much everything else

Ovarall - 6-10

While enjoyable for a quick movie or random anime fix, its not that great...or at least in my opinion :P

***Spoiler free review***

One superficial gripe I have with movies in general is how short they tend to be. I have always enjoyed books, manga, and long running shows because of the added time to build upon characters and expand the plot. I however must retract my superficialness for the animated film Kotonoha no Niwa as it has pulled on my heart strings to their breaking point.

Story: 8/10

At its core, Kotonoha no Niwa is a mature love story between student Takao and skipping work Yukari. They end up meeting on rainy days in a very lush park in the Kanto region of Japan. They began to mingle a little bit inching closer and closer to each other when all of the sudden the rainy season ends. I think that a lot of people might not like the ending of this film since it does not follow the typical good ending of most Japanese anime but I found it very fitting.

Animation: 10/10

Drop dead gorgeous oh my god what the f#$@ that isn't real rain!!?

I cannot believe how pretty this anime was the characters just shine in the rain and the amount of detail of each shot really shows.

Sound: 9.5/10

The voice actors did a really good job but the real winner was the soft piano and strings in the background. The score fitted so well with what was going on screen.

After looking back at Kana Hanazawa's profile (voice actor for Yukari) I noticed why I liked her voice so much; she plays Kosaki Onodera in Nisekoi.

Characters: 9.5/10

I loved the scenes between these two star-crossed lovers. Pretty much everywhere in the world a relationship between two people of their status might be looked at as wrong but it works well here. There was real emotion behind every decision and resolution.

Overall: 9.25/10

If you cannot tell I freaking loved this movie. It has a somewhat bittersweet ending but I loved it nevertheless. This movie really made me rethink what a 45 minute film could accomplish. Highly recommend to everyone.

Enjoyment: 10/10

I apologize for the short review it is 3AM here and I wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot what I wanted to say.

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer

I'm starting to feel like Sideshow Bob constantly walking into rakes with these Shinkai films. Lured in by the beauty and let down by the cliche and weak storytelling.

Story - 3/10

Despite the term "original" often thrown around for this movie, it really was anything but. It's a very common boy meets girl story, boy finds out a secret about girl, boy professes love and is rejected. There was nothing ground breaking, nothing unexpected and nothing that would put this above any generic love story. 

They also did a major disservice to the viewer by pulling the "and then I went on summer vacation" route. Basically admitting they only had thirty pages of script, a beginning and an ending, so the middle arc will just be rushed through with this badly used element.

Animation - 10/10

There are only a few bad things you can ever say about the animation in Makoto Shinkai's creations. They are art at it's finest, and GoW is no exception. As the series starts you think you're looking at a video, with some of the most lifelike scenery I can remember. The centerpiece of the art was water. Puddles, raindrops and lakes reflected like glass or shined like a bar of silver.

I enjoyed the different look to the characters as well. It was nice mix of realistic with just a hint of cartoonishness. 

Sound - 5/10

The music itself fits the pace of the movie and does a great job of not distracting from the story itself. On the theme front I was left a bit underwhelmed, as I think a film/series in anime really could use a signature piece, and this one had none of note.

The atmospheric sounds where standard to this type of anime, but they did strive to get the sounds of rains and puddles right, as it's the backdrop to the plot.

As always I come at these listening the English voice track and here I was disappointed. The voices were okay, but often they felt squeezed into the time. Men's voices were sped up and sounded inhuman, while other voices were overlapped and inaudible. Also I think they skewed a bit too old for Takao's voice, though he doesn't look his age of fifteen, he sounded like a older man in his thirties.

Characters - 4/10

The characters were pretty standard fare, but also not very thought out. Our main characters we learn almost nothing about and the supporting characters don't support much.

We know little of why Takao, at Fifteen, wants to be a shoemaker. Was his father a shoemaker? A boyfriend of his mother who was nice to her kids? Generally a young teen would have a reason they strive for something so early in life (granted the way they show him ogling Ms. Yukino's feet before ever speaking a word to her is a bit worrisome.)

As for Ms. Yukino, we get a slightly better picture of her late in the film when her identity is fully revealed. I guess one can say her childlike eating habits (or rather just juvenile of beer and chocolate) can connect with why she was so easily bullied by the students, as she's still a gentle and somewhat young minded person. But her attempted seduction of Takao kind of flies in the face of her character, who is bullied into leaving school over rumors of an inappropriate relationship with a student, so her reaction to that is trying to have an inappropriate relationship with a student.

The supporting characters that play the biggest role are Takao's brother and his (the brother's) girlfriend. They basically are there to talk about Takao when he isn't in the scene and to question his life choices when he is. The unnamed brother can be seen as the one who Takoa looks up to when it comes to love, as he has a rocky relationship with his girlfriend (as does their mother with her boyfriends) and Takao then torpedo's his own shot at a relationship, possibly mimicking those around him.

Other than that the rest of the speaking characters are there for a scene or two just to point out that Ms. Yukino was a teacher, explain what happened to her and show that Takao loves her.  A large plot point pretty much rushed through in a few minutes without much thought put into it.

Overall - 6/10

The best way I can describe the film would be "College Thesis." The pacing, story and dialogue were the same as many films I've had to sit through between school and festivals. It feels like the writer had an idea "A boy skips school on rainy days and meets a girl" and thought that was enough for a film, so he just threw in filler hoping to get an A+ or an award because people will be stuck on the beauty of the cinematography.

The film falls under the category of "Art for Art's Sake" where the piece of work isn't created to entertain or amaze, but instead just for the creator to shout "I'm an Artist!" while only checking the boxes for superficial art.

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To be honest, This movie is a ÷ 2 version of Kimi no na wa. I'm not saying it's bad, the vibrant colors that Shinkai Makoto uses always amazes me. BUT the really shit part about that movie is that it leaves a hole in your heart, not physically but mentally, the satisfaction you get from other movies is not a thing in this movie and that's what made the overall result a lower mark than usual.

ReLuNa ^o^

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