Watching—'The Garden of Words'

The Garden of Words is the fourth feature film that is directed by Makoto Shinkai. Shinkai also took up the writing of the film alongside various other positions including editing, art direction and back ground art. This ability to operate in multiple areas of the filmmaking process is reminiscent of Robert Rodriguez. The film was produced by CoMix Wave films, who have been in collaborations with Shinkai since the early 2000’s. The Garden of Words is a 46-minute anime that came out in 2013 (which at the time of this writing is six years ago).

The narrative is about a 15-year-old high school student, Takao, who has aspirations of being a shoe maker in the future. He has the propensity to skip the first period of school on rainy days to go to the park and draw shoes on his notepad. On one such day he meets the 27-year-old Yukino who is skipping out on her job in the park sharing the same space as he is. As the months progress they develop an unlikely bond.

The Garden of Words is one of those films which I end up watching once every couple of months. It has a certain allure to it that many other anime does not possess, the calming piano-centric original soundtrack, the highly detailed and highly rendered visuals that is the staple of a Shinkai film, the emotions of the characters and just how relatable their lives are. All these reasons have me returning to the film after all these years.

The film makes sure to let the viewer know that the focus is solely on Takao and Yukino. There are instances when characters are introduced only to never turn up again, characters whose sole purpose seems to be to provide exposition for both Takao and the viewer. There are moments when it feels as if there is a lot more story left out in the final version of the film than there was on the script. Examples of this being the circumstances regarding Takao’s mother, what happened to his father, and Yukino’s personal relationships prior to the events of this film which are hinted at. That being said, at no point do you not know what is going on, the viewer is privy to these pieces of information if one is paying attention through the film by way of subtle lines of dialogue or objects in the background.

This is also not the most exciting of films with regards to what happens in the narrative. A majority of the film takes place in a single location between two people talking. There is not a lot of excitement. However, while watching, it it is difficult not to be entranced by the film. The atmosphere is inviting, yet at the same time it feels as if we are intruding upon the privacy of these two individuals. Seeing the two of them interact and seeing their relationship grow is incredibly satisfying to watch.

As mentioned earlier the visuals are outstanding, the detail that is squeezed into every frame of this film is incredible, and the combination of both 3D and 2D animation works in perfect harmony with each other. That being said, there are a few moments where it is quite obvious they reused the exact same shot at different points in the film. Understandably so, as it would take quite a while in rendering time to construct frames at such high detail all the way through out. There are hardly any moments when the screen is completely still unlike some 2D anime where corners are cut in order to save time on animation despite being a feature film (looking at Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale).

The music is composed by Daisuke Kashiwa, with The Garden of Words being the only anime he has worked on to date (as of the writing of this article). The music is entrancing and fits the anime like glove, blending in to the background as the characters are pushed to the forefront of the film. Throughout the film, the music itself evolves as does the characters, and nowhere is this more evident than in the climax of the film.

What I have found most curious about this film is that as I have grown older and my way of thinking has changed, so has the way in which I see this film. The first time I saw this film, I related quite a bit with Takao and his mentality as I was closer to his age. Now that I am nearly 25 and only a couple of years shy of being the same age as Yukino, I find myself relating to the way she thinks a lot more. It manages to portray the two age demographics in a faithful way that is relatable.

This is a film that I highly recommend and is available to watch on Netflix.