The Garden of Words

I have no words that can describe how in love I am with this movie. I stumbled upon it randomly, thought the art looked lovely, and decided to give it a view. I'm so glad I did. The artwork and animation is just breathtaking. The landscapes and city scenes are almost photo realistic, attention being given to the tiniest of details. I would consider it on par with Studio Ghibli at least. I consider myself very critical when it comes to animations, and it takes a lot to really wow me, but this took the cake. I came with no expectations, and left wondering why this movie isn't more widespread and the need to tell everyone I know to watch it. Though the film is only 46 minutes long, it feels like a feature length film. I was captivated for every second of it, and will be watching it many times in the future.

Too long, didn't read? Watch this movie.

I've always had mixed feelings about the works of Makoto Shinkai. Movies like 5 Centimeters per second are visually striking and evocative, but they are also essentially illustrated radio plays, where the story is told through words.

Garden of Words, surprisingly, is a movie that lets the images speak. While there's still a fair amount of narration, much of the story is told through its gorgeous visuals.

Thoughtful and touching, this movie proves I was right to keep watching Shinkai's films in spite of continual frustration and disappointment. I did it because I knew what he was trying for could work beautifully if he just learned to allow silence, and now he has. I hope this is a sign that he has matured into the animator I always hoped he'd be.

This movie is technically brilliant.

It's colour pallet suits it's mood. It is animated immaculately. It is a marvel to watch. It has this natural element to its shorts and it has inserts of random elements of nature that just looks insanely good. It is so impressive.

It also has a very pretty score that works well with its subdued mood.

The story is where I start to find issue with the movie. It is such a short film and I think there is so much packed into it that it gets lost somewhat.

I don't love the romance of the story I honestly think it would have been better being about friendship and two lonely people finding a friend in each other. I think that would have been much more poignant. The romance added this uncomfortableness to it which sort of flattened the story.

The other issue is that the story is very unclear in areas. I think if the film was stretched out a little and had its run time at an hour rather than 45mins, it would have benefited tremendously. It would have had a little more time to flesh out the storylines. They all seemed crammed in and I got a bit lost.

I think this is an incredible movie and with tiny changes it would have been amazing.

Within the first few seconds, you know you're in for a treat for your eyes. The animation in this movie so well done and pleasing to watch. It's one of the better animations I've seen, at least when it comes to the environment (the people are animated pretty much just like most other anime movies). There are so many details and work put into this.

We meet the boy Takao quickly through his narration. It's both beautiful to listen to and at the same time kind of funny, since he is only 15 and he makes it sound like an angsty diary entry. He like the rain, and shoes. He skips school to go to the park when it rains, where he meets a woman. They seem to have the same idea of going to the park on rainy days. He finds out eventually that he wants to design shoes for her.

The movie is unintentionally funny in its fixation in shoes and feet. In one way, it almost framed in a fetishized way, on the other hand, its very sweet and beautiful to watch.

The movie is very short, so there is not much time for character development or to let the story unravel in a slow pace. I don't know myself why Shinkai didn't make it longer (time or money or both probably), but if he could've made it longer, he should have. It has lots of promise, and would be way more interesting if it could tackle their relationship more, especially based on the massive taboo on age difference in Japan. It misses out on some really good opportunities for telling a deeper story.

There's a climax where there is a lot of feelings and crying going on and it is, unfortunately, bombarded with really loud emotional music. The dialogue is intense and almost violent, and at the same time kind of silly in a strange way. The music almost drowns out the dialogue and there is anger and sadness and love and it all happens so fast and in an intense way it's hard to know what to feel.

I really wanted to like this movie more than I did. It has a lot of potential, the animation, again, is gorgeous, the story is cute, but with not much substance (of course it has some, it tackles some issues of the woman, Yukari, for example, but not deeply enough. Everything is told so fast you'll almost miss it). I do want to see more of Shinkai (this is the first one I see), because I have no doubt he has made things better than this, and I look forward to see it.

I've seen most of Makoto Shinkai's anime. When I first saw 5cm per second, I was amazed at how well the emotions of the characters dwell in the environment around them.

Garden of words is no exception. The refined use of environment and ambient effects (sound, music, weather etc) contribute greatly to the film's story. There isn't much to say about how Makoto does it and if you're going to like the style but give it a watch and you'll know.

Overall, Garden of words is a really good piece of art. It's definitely filled with Makoto's signature style and a definite recommendation to watch.