“Garden of Words” is a 46 minute long film by Mako to Shinkai, he is also the director of the ‘5 Centimeters Per Second’. The protagonist of this story is a fifteen years boy named Akizuki Takao who wishes to become a shoemaker. It’s raining and he would rather be in a garden which has a shelter where he can work on shoe designs instead of going to school. One day he meets a woman called Yukino Yukari who is seated in the shelter. To begin with, there is no communication between the two but because they come to see each other frequently they get used to each other and start talking. Takako begins to chatter on how his dream of becoming a shoemaker is very realistic and even offers to create a pair of shoes for Yukari, while pretty much all Yukari is willing to divulge on herself is that she has taken time off work due to some personal issues that have arisen at work. And indeed that is when halfway through the movie does Takao get to know the name and the face of his secret admirer.
The proficient authors neither define the themes nor expect readers to catch them without their assistance. However, love and maturity turn out to be the prominent concepts in this Literary work. Like all relationships, when latter marriage couples increase their level of closeness to one another, they also engage in mutual caregiving. However, their relationship attributes such as the age difference make it strange because relationships between a teenage girl and an adult man are frowned upon by other people. The narrative also depicts the perspective of Takao and Yukari concerning each other’s lives. For example, Takao is bored being a student which is why he wishes to be in the adult world, which is the world of Yukari. On the other hand, Yukari is an adult with an empty adult life. She never matured and feels like a teenager when she is an adult. This creates an interesting contrast whereby one wishes to suffer in the other’s world while both worlds no better no worse.
Let’s shift our focus to the two protagonists. The interactions are lovely to watch and the conversations are appealing. However, it feels that it is one sided as Yukari does not have much to say. In my opinion, I feel that that is how I feel that that is a wasted chance. In fact, she only does that because she is a rather quiet and reserved character and in their last meeting in the rain, she goes as far as reciting a poem, which is supposed to be character development but I feel it only contributes to the opacity of her. I think that the character of Yukari on the other hand being more courteous and quiet is a disservice to the serene mood that the show seeks to evoke. The visuals and music create a rainy and still environment that brings a calming effect. Here, it is just the two of them, and Yukari and Takao are all alone which makes it a good time for them both to demonstrate however, this opportunity is counter acted by showing too little of who Yukari is. I have this impression that the film needed both characters in order to develop the plot and not only Takao to sustain it.
About the visual information, it is known that Makoto Shinkai implements visual rather than textual aids, therefore in his works the characters do not explain through text the exposition. As a result, animation and other visual elements of this work are not less important than the characters themselves. For instance, showing the rain in the films is associated with the notion that something bad is going to take place. But this is not the case for Makoto Shinkai, as when it rains, it is a relief that the characters appreciate as an escape from the norm. The elegance of the garden during the rain makes rain beautiful, and this is where our characters perform at their best.
His films also do not have much of the dialogue and thoughts expressed as he relies on the visual images of the setting to convey the feelings. Nature is lovely: right from the rain falling one water drop after the other, to the trees swaying in gentle breezes, its all very lovely. Decent wallpaper apiece in fact. For those who have not watched any of his films, one theme is quickly discernible. Though this method works quite well in this film, I appreciate that due to the fact that Takao and Yukari in this scene are only positioned underneath a shelter, there was a need for some more dialogues and elaborate details of the characters because I believe that more could have been voiced out by the characters. Although, Technically, Shinkhai was just trying to introduce a more subtle style when it comes to his characters, I think there’s not enough light on the part of the characters.
In regard to how the film ended, I consider it to be slightly depressing. There is a quite realistic style in ‘The Garden of Words’ and of ‘5 Centimeters Per Second,’ which is why none of them has a happy ending. ‘The Garden of Words’ on the other hand, unlike ‘5 Centimeters Per Second’, does not let the audience feel any sense of hope in the end and ends quite suddenly. I don’t see any rising action in relation to the ending and it does not have a high point or we call it climax as well. Their characters also do not develop a lot and their ties remain stagnant. This is the way in which this film is also tragic just as his earlier film, but this leaves the audience absolutely discontent.
In his previous work “5 Seconds Per Second” the two central characters (whose names are Takaki and Akari) always had a good relationship until they were parted which made them care for each other so much that we feel the urge to root for them once again. This is because the train scene in that movie only highlighted the level of love that Takaki had for Akari and the lengths he would go to just to catch a last glimpse of her. In this one, “The Garden of Words,” on the other hand, there is minimal progression of characters and their romance. And just when we begin, if not already, to care for the characters the movie ends which makes it difficult for the audience to feel sorrowful once the closure of the film is over hence the little progress developed.
To summarize, “The Garden of Words,” one of the best painting of anime and atmosphere created in it, is still survived from the main weakness of such threats – it can not let us love or pity the characters enough. Overall, It’s an enjoyable and brisk film (running time 46 minutes) but, it does contain other certain shortcomings which spoil the experience and make it less memorable.
Watch Garden of Words on Kimcartoon
