With how poignant and admittedly stunning the art of The Garden of Words was, it’s a shame that it was wasted on a movie with a convoluted and contrived “plot” loaded with trivial characters with seemingly arbitrarily chosen traits all shoved into a 45-minute-long movie. The premise is simple enough: a boy who aspires to be a shoemaker meets an older, working woman in a garden (hence the name). Searching up the genre reveals that it is a drama/romance movie catered to young adults, and I feel that it fits the stereotypical romance movie verbatim, with the only thing making it unique from the rest of the pack being the age gap between the two protagonists, which is already becoming commonplace in the mainstream media. Being a Japanese anime-style movie, the art is a huge factor in the reception of these types of movies. The art that this movie displays, in huge contrast to the rest of it, is definitely something that would fit on the home screen of my computer easily. The studio that produced The Garden of Words, CoMix Wave, along with director Makoto Shinkai, have received much praise for their work, being nominated-for and winning several awards in the realm of phenomenal art and sound design. Plot-wise, however, I think that they leave much to be desired.

Notice how I refer to the word “plot” loosely to describe the events of this movie. This is because, in my opinion, there is quite literally no plot, and if there was, it’s an extremely miniscule and pretentious one, so small that it might as well just not be there. The relatively short length of the movie makes it so that character and plot development are absolutely nowhere to be found. The characters hold about as much emotional worth in my heart as a piece of wet paper, and are about as deep as a ceramic tile, and honestly, I already forgot their names. They were so extremely forgettable from the get-go, and paired with the relatively very brief runtime for a feature-length film, their names and faces slipped out of my hippocampus as fast as an immature teen slips away from their responsibilities. In addition, there is no backstory, or very small amounts of it, to any of the characters at all, making their traits seem artificial, and with no rhyme or reason. Take our male protagonist Akizuki for example: in the early dawn of the trip that is this movie, he displays his aptitude at drawing and creating shoes. At first, it’s fine, because we think that it’s going to be detailed later. But, as that later becomes the now, nothing happens. There is no explanation for why his dream of becoming a shoemaker is that dream, and the issue is further exacerbated by him soliloquizing some cryptic, cliché thing about how shoemaking will “get him out of this place”, probably referring to his town, but you could never guess in a million years. The age gap between the two main characters was something quasi-unique, but at the same time, cliché as hell in the modern landscape. If you went back thirty years, it may have been unique in Japanese media culture, but nowadays, it’s becoming more and more normalized as an effective way to hook in vulnerable consumers. The pacing is also absolutely horrendous. As previously mentioned about a billion times, the development is just nonexistent, which makes for horrible pacing. The movie takes place over the span of around three to four months, but it might as well have been a week from the beginning and the end. Yes, there are big black title cards with the month listed, but those might as well be as significant and useful as the opinion of the North Korean public to Kim Jong-Un. The in-universe months pass by in what feels like seconds. The movie seems to blow past the interim and shoot us straight towards the climax, which is comparable to suddenly meeting a sheer cliff after walking just a yard of flat pavement.

Now, there is an upside to this movie, and I do mean upside singular. The art is absolutely spectacular. The realisticness and aesthetics of CoMix Wave’s art and animation is something to marvel at. The attention to detail is amazing, and the rain is especially impressive. Not many animation studios can get weather perfect like CoMix does. The ambient sounds that accompany the visuals do nothing but reinforce the mood. The rain provides white noise during some of the slower parts, making the scene feel whole, without any empty spaces desiring to be filled. The light patterns of rain compliment the calm atmosphere, and the thuds of showers go with the intense feeling during the climax like mashed potatoes and gravy. Without a doubt, I can say that CoMix Wave and Makoto Shinkai deserve every single accolade they’ve gotten for sound and visual design, if not more. If not for the admirable visuals, I probably would’ve given up on this movie a long time ago.

With its forgettable and shallow characters, along with a barely existent conflict, A Garden of Words is definitely not one for the ages. It felt more like a sequel to some other movie or TV show, or like a bunch of episode endings crammed into one movie. The lack of exposition made it seem like the movie already expected us to know things about the characters, and the movie was completely structured around that belief. It was almost like the directors accidentally released the second half of a full length movie, which, if true, would definitely explain the short length :^). I would not recommend this movie to anyone, as the plot and characters drag any sort of positives that this movie has down to the ground. At best, this movie is mid. At worst, it’s worthless trash.