Garden of Words suffers because the story lacks a familiar structure. This analysis is all spoilers.
A depressed OL and a high school boy obsessed with shoe-making meet under the veranda at a garden on a rainy day. They get along with each other and nonverbally agree to meet under the veranda every rainy day. The boy Cobbler skips school and the OL skips her job(!) They don't talk much, but they bond over extemporaneously saying poems and sharing food. Somehow after many meetings, in typical anime fashion, they don't even know each other's names. We learn that OL is very depressed and has actually quit her job and now she just pretends to be employed to keep up appearances for the young Cobbler.
Just look at this sad OL, would you scream at her and call her a loser?Eventually the rainy season stops, summer break begins, and the young Cobbler stops going to the garden. Although OL still shows up most days hoping her romantic interest will get his act together and show up too. Hint, it never happens.
When school starts back up again, Cobbler sees the OL at school and learns that she's not an OL at all but a former teacher at his school! She quit her job because the 3rd years were bullying her too much. She's too beautiful and the uggo high school girls get jealous. Young cobbler demonstrates his love for OL by slapping one of the girl bullies after school and getting beaten up by her boyfriend.
Cobbler and OL meet up at the garden again and eventually take it to her place. Cobbler declares his love for her and gets a blasé response. Cobbler takes this way too hard. He slips into psychopathic impassivity and leaves the apartment. OL realizes her mistake and runs after him. They have a weird interaction on a stairwell where cobbler really lays into OL: "You're a loser, you don't say anything about yourself! You knew I was a student at your school but you never told me! You do nothing with your life and I was wrong I don't love you!" OL responds, sobbing: "You saved me at that garden."
End of movie.
Cobbler's actions don't correspond to his words at all. He says he likes speaking to OL because he wants to learn more about the working world. But he never asks her any questions about her job and somehow doesn't even discover her name after seeing her dozens of times. He says he wants to make a pair of shoes for OL but literally never moves closer towards achieving this goal over the course of the movie. He says he loves OL, but never attempts to see her on non-rainy days and immediately insults her to her core at the slightest sign that his feelings aren't reciprocated. Cobbler is just a weird character overall. He has villain tendencies.
OL is somewhat more interesting, but we never get to view the world from her perspective. We're told about all this bullying that occurs but never see any of it happen on screen. It's pretty clear from the outside that OL likes Cobbler and since she no longer works at the school having a relationship with him is totally chill. But for some reason, plot convenience I guess, OL's hesitation to say I love you back causes Cobbler to fly into a fit of rage that ruins any chance they could have at a relationship. I struggle to see how a child who she has an acquaintanceship with was able to save her from her deep depression caused by high school girl bullying. But she says it's true!