User reviews

Although I don't make reviews of movies (only read and maybe comment with friends), Shinkai's movies just force me to. My first comment was of, in my opinion is this director's best work to this day, 5 cm per second, and so this is going to be my second comment.

With that long introduction said, I must say this movie surprised me, with a scenery a OST worthy of the highest regards (like Shinkai has us used to) and a character development spot on. Not the deepest analysis in each character (he couldn't do that in 45 min) but deep enough for the audience to understand them and know what they are going through which is the whole point of the movie. All this wrapped up with a spectacular climax. Although you feel the climax coming, you don't expect a climax like this, with that much energy, sentiment, and art, all in 2 min long.

To finish, a little opinion on Shinkai, I have seen all his movies and I sense that him, with this movie, just realized what are his strong points: not huge movies with 8 characters and lots of themes (a ground where Miyasaki flourishes) but little situations where few characters stand for being truly humane and how they confront problems that,at that time, mean the world to them and shape them for the future. He's a director that likes to test new grounds (part coming from being a young) but he's also getting reaching his full potential. That's why "Voices from a distant star", "5 cm per second" and this movie are his best work to date and "Voices from deep below" and "place promised" being his not so good movies (although I liked them).

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.

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.

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.

Promoted as a feature-length film, Shinkai Makoto's Garden of Words surprisingly only lasts 46 minutes. However, it was enough for the director to portray human emotions as well as understand the purpose of relationships.

The word "love" in modern Japanese is "ai", but in the ancient language, it was actually written as "koi", which is a compound of two other Kanji means "solitude" and "sad". Though Garden of Words is set in modern times, "love" in this film will be portrayed in its original meaning, which leads to a story about longing and loneliness, as well as suggesting an unhappy ending for love.

At the center, there is Takao, a 15-year-old student who wants to become a shoe-maker. On rainy days, he often plays truant in a Japanese-style garden and learns to make shoes there. By chance he meets Yukino, a mysterious woman much older than him, and whenever it rains, the two of them meet each other in the garden. Over time, their relationship deepens and the mystery surrounding Yukino finally reveals itself on a dry day.

Similar to Shnkai's previous films The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, the most impressive thing about Garden of Words are the vibrant & unique visual elements. In this latest film, he continues to develop his own unique style. Clean and cute, a little bit cheesy even, Shinkai uses excessive glare and light pink tones, and the result is a bombastic impressive 46- minute picture.

The park's natural setting, with green trees drooping into the water, the wind stirring the small rocks, creates a space ripe with romance and poetry, which helps ease anxiety. Although the scenes in the school, Yukino's house, train station etc were beautifully drawn, the brightest points in the painting of Garden of Words are the natural moments when two people sit in the park together and enjoy the stillness of emotion.

Garden of Words delivers a simple, soft love story, though many would argue that it is taboo. The director knows how to manipulate love, make it as natural as rain, by arranging the meeting at a far away location from where they work/study, only meeting on rainy days to make their feelings vibrate. Eventually, when the truth of their fate is revealed, the audience completely accepts it, because their love for each other is full of sincerity and cultivated diligently through the rainy days.

Garden of Words is a triumph of visual style over substance. It can be very predictable, can be very cheesy when two people are hugging and crying at the end. But the movie creates honest and fresh emotions, accompanied by an impressive visual expression. Garden of Words is not simply the binding of the last two people through some lines of Japanese poetry that they read to each other, It is also the shining of unique storytelling style with images.

And with the blink of an eye, a small gesture is enough to say everything about human emotion, words probably are not needed anymore. Garden of Words gives you a unique experience, exploring the visual and aesthetic language of love.

Trung Rwo

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.

It's hard to describe an emotion. I think that, for that very same reason, is hard to describe this movie. The way I feel when I watch Makoto Shinkai's movies is indescribable. The way he captures the concept of time and space is something that I've never seen before and that's exactly why I absolutely LOVE his movies.

The reliefs and textures in his images make me feel that I could stretch my hand into the screen and perfectly perceived the distance between the different layers. The sense of loneliness, the sense of the time passing by can be easily felt and the music... it's like if the movie was created to fit that music instead of composing the music to fit the movie.

It's truly a masterpiece.

When I was in my junior year of college I used to eat lunch in a resource centre twice a week because it was never crowded. There was a group of seniors who used to do the same thing, and one day I sat at their table. While there was not a lot of rapport to start, we found some common ground over upper-level coursework and I began eating my lunch with them. Over the course of the semester I came to talk a lot to a woman who was almost always there, whether the others were or not, and our conversation became quite enjoyable. Eventually the semester came to an end, she graduated, and I never saw her again. We had been talking twice a week for ~3 months and I had never learned her name nor seen her outside of the resource centre.

I'll admit that I'm a little non-standard when it comes to social interactions (e.g. never asking her name), however I share this anecdote to say that this kind of thing does happen in real life. Moreover, you can really connect with someone while knowing almost nothing about them and I found the development of Yukino and Akizuki's companionship to be spot on. Fortunately, I don't think either my compatriot nor I had as much baggage as these two characters (and, unsurprisingly, there was no big climax in my story).

Nonetheless, there is a certain kind of beauty in these ephemeral friendships that fall together from (temporarily) shared schedules and this is captured perfectly by Mokoto Shinkai.

The animation is no doubt too beautiful but the story is absolutely nothing special. In fact quite cheesy and makes you wonder what is all this. The only good thing is that its short and the music at the end is beautiful and many scenes are extremely beautiful to look at.

The cinematography in this film is gorgeous, but much like Fireworks that's where the movie stops delivering. from swirls of breathtaking colors in a sunset to a camera angle that looks from the ground to the sky as rain falls toward the viewer, you can tell that the director had many great visual ideas and then hastily threw together a story around them, always being sure to include every pretty establishing shot. It's almost as if a canopy of impressive animation, interesting camera angles, and dynamic lighting are being held up by a couple of flimsy 2x4's in the form of underdeveloped and/or superfluous characters, (Takao's mother didn't have to be in the film for one and only one 15 second scene) a flimsy storyline, and an ending with bizarre dialog which makes you feel as though a rug was pulled out from under you or maybe your dvd skipped because it was dirty. This scene in question comes in the form of verbose verbal vitriol spewed from one character to another undeserving one that not only does it make you uncomfortable in your seat, but it makes you lose empathy for this character that you spent the whole movie relating to! I feel that this film could have benefitted from more time at the typewriter on the part of the director, or to slim this down to a short film possibly with no dialog a la The Red Turtle.

With it's short length of only 45 minutes, it's hard to call this a full movie - although don't let that deter you, as it's still better than most that I have seen, anime or otherwise.

When you hear about this movie one of the things that get repeated mention is it's visuals, and I concur. It's probably the most well made anime from a visuals standpoint.

The story isn't bad either, for only 45 minutes it sets up and tell a surprisingly deep and moving story. It is simplistic storytelling, but still very powerful. It is somewhat reminiscent of one of the director's previous films, 5 Centimetres Per Second, in that it uses a similarly "simple" story but one that relates strongly to emotions and situations felt by normal human beings. I also think this is a great movie to show people who normally don't like anime, as anime very often have different storytelling than I think many are used to. This one is more grounded without many of the "fantasy" elements that most anime's have.

The plot summary on IMDb do just fine setting up the story so I wont bother explaining it, it would just be redundant.

Just remember the technical brilliance of '5 Centimeters Per Second', the same director who curved this movie as well. So the expectation usually will be high for anyone who watched this filmmakers earlier movies. The movie was too short, not even it crosses an hour mark, but only a just below the 50 minutes.

Not only the filmmaker, but title as well impressed me. You know 'The Secret Garden' was one of my favourite so thought it would go similar fashion. Yeah, that's right the movie deals a story of a high school boy Takao who is passionate about shoe making. He goes to a nearby garden to the school to sketch shoes. One day during the rainy season he meets a stranger with beer in one hand and chocolates in another. Days passed by, they become very close and shares things to each others. How far this unanticipated relation takes them together and what are all changes make in their lives is follows in heartbreaking way.

''A faint clap of thunder. Clouded skies. Perhaps rain comes. And if so, stay with me.''

I can't say it was an unexpected surprise, it gave me what I was looking for, fulfills my desire. You know during the transition between two scenes some director will take an alternate route by showing skies, rain, clouds, insects et cetera for the few seconds. Those were very impressive and realistic. Technically it was spectacular, every minute details were incredibly good. It was a perfect meld between characters, story and the backgrounds.

The visuals were very charming in every frames of the movies just like '5 Centimeters Per Second'. Fine story as well, pure drama with more realistic mode covered with sentiments at the end. Could not ask better than this. The only worry was this movie is unbearably small. I was thirst to have extra more minutes, but I could not get. Ended seeing it with a disappointment but more than satisfied with the complete movie. For anime movie fans, it is a must see. Hope y'all get same excitement and pleasure like I had.

"A faint clap of thunder. Even if the rain comes not, I will stay here, together with you". Walking the path of life is no easy feat. The appropriate metaphysical footwear must be utilised for every type of emotional terrain we encounter. Sandals for joy. Wellies for sadness. Sneakers for rage. Yearning to overcome our rational, or irrational, fears so that we can "walk" again. Teenage student Takao, an aspiring shoemaker, attempted to perform such a generous offer for Yukari. A mysterious woman he socialises with in the dense thickened foliage of a Japanese garden experiencing torrential downpour. Two souls of differing youth encompassing an identical level of maturity. Yukari avoiding her career to snack of delicious chocolate and consume canned beer, whilst Takao solidly working throughout his summer break.

The two share a common trait. Seclusion. The melancholy of isolation is one that evokes a rainfall of sympathy, and director/writer Shinkai embodies all of nature's complexities to portray these wandering individuals. The ferocity of rain portraying both the characters' sadness whilst shielding them from the rest of society. The pale green shading of the summery foliage producing a reassuring aura of tranquility within the garden. Yet it's Shinkai's usage of Man'yoshu poetry that truly captivates, adding a traditional authenticity to the Japanese central romantic narrative. With "love" being traditionally written as "lonely sadness", Shinkai honed in on the deprivation of companionship. When both characters see each other as salvational assets as opposed to romantic interests, it provides a subtle layer of maturity that is commonly found in Shinkai's writing. Love is never simple, yet nature finds a way to pull people together. The Garden of Words itself is that motif.

As expected, the animation was gorgeous. Faultless. Combining hand-drawn animation with rotoscoping to create meticulously constructed scenery, assisting in the world building of their blossoming friendship. Less detail is given to facial expressions, with much of the attentive focus towards the environmental backdrop, which occasionally leaves a vacuous emotional complexion. Almost expressionless on occasion. Not enough to deter from the character building, but worth noting.

Shinkai's unfortunate issue here is with the runtime. It's short. Absurdly short. At only forty six minutes in length, the character development between Takao and Yukari is often rushed with no emotional simmering. This became drastically noticeable during the climax when Takao discovers the reasoning behind Yukari's work avoidance. The exquisitely mature metaphors and symbolic imagery were somewhat diminished for a typical "anime ending". What I mean by that, is the sole purpose in attempting to make the viewers shed a tear. The erratic framing, the J-pop music and the explosion of emotion is typical work from Shinkai, yet it never suited the preceding scenario. Whilst it nearly, oh so nearly, worked for me (I held back that tear!), it fell short due to the complacent storytelling. Motohiro Hata's vocal talent behind the theme song "Rain" was exceptional though, almost replicating Takao's personality. So I'll give some leniency...

The Garden of Words is poetry. Visually and literarily. With gorgeously vibrant animation and themes of maturity, Shinkai has crafted a wonderfully organic story that depicts loneliness with a hint of empathy. If only he was able to stretch it out for another half an hour, we could've witnessed a masterpiece in the making.

This is my second Makoto Shinkai anime to watch after seeing your name and I absolutely love it. Its story telling is wonderful and its stunning to look at. A beautiful art and a must see even if you don't like anime. Makoto Shinkai is truly a master of the arts.

A lot of Shinkai movies seem to float around the subject of being in love and specifically first love: this is one of them and one of the purest; with no fantasy elements involved or nonlinear time. But that doesn't make it one of the bests. Even when the animation is complex and gorgeous and for a long time is very minimalistic, at the end, it kind of ruins all the feeling with a big sentimental explosion, shot like an over-the-top soap-opera and accompanied by the classical cloying J-Pop song, that makes everything much more cliched.

this movie has such a nice mellow story to it very true to life, it does motivate you and shows you how real life is, it is truly a beautiful film that i would love to see more of similar to 5 cm per second.

i think this shows that a story can be told in the right ways no matter how long it takes, this shows determination to reach a goal that we need to gain in this tough world.

I recommend this movie because the art is so beautiful and the soundtracks also, it truly is wonderful. This movie is a work of art. and this needs some awards.

...was the basic fascinating aspect of film, for me. the plot is the second. and, as teacher, the feel to see a too familiar story about vulnerability, need of the other and dreams. I am only insignificant viewer of Japanese animation and its importance is result of the meeting with it after the fall of Romanian Comunist regime. so, I am not in measure to define schools, directors art or techniques. but this film is real admirable. for the manner to define characters. for the small pieces of story. for the feeling as air. and for a form of profound, delicate honesty.

The visuals were truly impressive and deserved a better story. It was, for lack of a better word (ironic, given the title), meh.

I felt no connection to the characters and their relationship felt forced. I honestly wish it was better because I genuinely enjoyed watching it, eastethically speaking.

I decided to check this out cause the cover reminded me of "5 Centimetres Per Second", and then I found out that they are directed by the same guy. What are the chances? But I loved "5 Centimetres Per Second" because it gave a realistic story which is normally not what is done with Anime. So I decided to check this out and hoped that it would be as good. Sadly, it wasn't. Was it beautiful? Yes, it was. But I felt the characters didn't have enough development, at least that we saw, for it to make sense. Also, without spoiling a certain plot point, I felt that a certain aspect of their relationship wasn't explored in detail the way it should have been. The big scene between the two of them had elements there, but because their relationship wasn't explored that much, it felt random and out of place. Overall, I thought it was okay. I would recommend seeing "5 Centimetres Per Second" over this.

This film is visually stunning and so looks so realistic you'll find yourself forgetting that it's an animation. With that being said there's something deeply wrong with this story. There's nothing romantic about a 15 year old and a 27 year old falling in love with each other.

This 46-minute dramatic animation from Japan involves an introverted 15-year old boy who loves to sketch in a park when it's raining and who meets an older 27-year old lady who offers little about who she is. The animation technique is artistically accomplished as if the animators strove to make the most of each scene as a piece of artwork that allowed animation to capture a visual beauty and heighten the artistic impact for the audience. The sound effects are solid and pleasantly piercing. The storyline offers up a sense of Summer of '42 (1971) in a more Japanese cultural context, especially how the female character is portrayed and her more subservient situation in society. What is striking about this movie is how unpretentious and absent of the most lofty ambitions of most movies making this short piece more of an slice of life experience in the mold of a Lost in Translation (2003) than The Graduate (1967). As for the sudden ending, it's hard to assess its ultimate impact on the movie. For some the ending could be considered a lazy, uneasy, unsatisfying conclusion while other might simply accept it for what it reflected about real life and the totality of the immersion into what the director as screenwriter wanted to present.

Version I saw: UK Bluray release

Actors: 6/10

Plot/script: 5/10

Photography/visual style: 9/10

Music/score: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Makoto Shinkai is a master of visually stunning, quite short films that are heavy on 'feels'. He began with the astonishing achievement of single-handedly creating and animating hard sci-fi weepie 'Voices of a Distant Star' using only his own Apple Mac, and it is still a delight to watch today. Since then, he seems to have progressed fairly steadily towards more mundane settings, but his production standards have only risen.

'The Garden of Words' is a romantic drama set in modern Tokyo, featuring a schoolboy named Takao and an adult woman named Yukino who meet by coincidence in a park, when they should both have been otherwise occupied. Incidentally, they are voiced by very prominent seiyuu Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa, making this a fairly prestigious project.

As the story develops, we find out why each is bunking off, and a romantic element develops. This is somewhat awkward, given the age difference, but in the moment I found it no more incongruous than the fact that Takao is a straight male who aspires to become a designer of women's shoes.

The plot is incredibly slow, making the 46 minutes seem far longer. This is not helped by the incredibly sparse dialogue and lack of music, which give the viewer very little to latch onto. I wondered if there might be some influence from the philosophies of Zen Buddhism, which is prevalent in Japan. The animation is the main draw, and it is simply stunning. Astonishing amounts of detail have gone into the leaves on a tree, or ripples on water, and at times it approaches that holy grail of animation, photo-realism. If you are likely to be wowed by beautiful imaging, you will easily forgive the mundanity of the story. If you like the characters, that may carry you through. If you are not keen on those things though, I don't think you can be saved from considering this a tedious snore-fest.

Personally, I rather enjoyed it.