! This review contains spoilers !

I truly despise this movie. But before I get into why I despise it, I want to praise a few things.

1. The visuals (pretty easy to see why)

The visuals, to put it plainly, are stunning. Makoto Shinkai always has a way with visuals in every movie he produces, but I feel this movie especially has a great color palette and quality that is hard to find. Things like rain and different scenery pieces are very hard to draw and even harder to animate (I would know). It's impressive to see something of this quality.

1. Simplicity.

I am a sucker for simple stories. I love complex and grand stories as much as the next guy but sometimes I just want to curl up and watch something that I don't have to think too hard about, or at least the implicit depth isn't needed to be figured out to enjoy. Garden of words centers around two characters, Takao and Yukino. Takao is a 15 year old boy with a tragic story, his mother is irresponsible and neglectful. His older brother isn't the greatest either, being non-supportive and slightly rude. His father is no where near in the picture. Takao is forced to grow up to early. Yukino on the other hand is a mysterious 27 year old woman who has (questionable) choices of day drinks. We later find out she has her own issues, she was treated with cruelty at her workplace and other various issues. Both tragic characters in their own respect. They are united by this bench in the park on rainy days, the story for the most part is the simple story I look for.

Now...Onto the parts I dislike.

1. Age gap relationship

This one is kind of an easy one to see why this is wrong. A 15 year old should never be with a 27 year old regardless of the gender or situation. In the beginning it's unclear where the relationship is going, maybe it could be innocent? It could become a mother/son relationship? (Which is what I hoped). But unfortunately...thats not what happened. As the movie progresses we see the relationship is not that way. Yukino makes Takao feel comfortable, enough to share his dreams, such as his dream to become a shoe designer, an odd dream that his brother (as I mentioned before) isn't supportive of. But she is supportive, she is one of the only people, if not the only person in his life who treats him with respect. But because he's a naive 15 year old boy, he doesn't realize this isn't returned, she doesn't open up to him, she lets him go on about his life and dreams and shares nothing about herself. She essentially grooms him the entire movie. They reveal her issues later on to try to garner sympathy for her?? I'm assuming.

1. Power-dynamic

If the age gap wasn't enough, SHE IS A TEACHER AT HIS SCHOOL. This creates an even worse power-dynamic. Teacher/student relationships are probably my least favorite relationships ever regardless of age. The teacher will always be in a position of power over the student (similar to a boss and an employee) meaning it would be hard to maintain a healthy power balance between both parties of the relationship. By the time he realizes she's an (often absent) teacher at his school, it's too late. He is willing to get into a fight to "defend her honor" I guess (not very honorable in the first place but I digress).

1. (and worst of all) Self-awareness

At the very end of the movie Takao confesses to Yukino about his feelings (as shown in a previous image). She doesn't initially return the feelings, and I was HOPING that this was going to be a satisfying ending where Yukino learned her lesson about not grooming people just because you're lonely and don't know what a healthy relationship is. They even had a scene where Takao is in tears when he realizes she took advantage of him and let him get comfortable with her. This shows that the movie is self aware of the relationship and could've made great commentary about an issue that is seldom talked about (grooming with an older woman rather than an older man). But I was immediately disappointed when she went to embrace him saying that he "saved her"...You are 27 I'm not sure what a 15 year old boy can do for you that you can't do for yourself/find for yourself. I understand it's supposed to capitalize on "complicated" relationships, but regardless of the situation, it doesn't take away the fact that the relationship is between an adult and a child.

The ending left me bitter because the relationship was continued and now she is away from him physically (because she moved back to her hometown). So he doesn't even have someone to rely on in person and he is back at square one, with no one supportive in his day to day life. An ultimately pointless movie with wasted potential for meaningful commentary.