The Garden of Words tells a nice enough story, but with a runtime of only around 40 minutes, it kind of bites more than it can chew. The film centers on Akizuki, a 15 year old aspirant shoemaker who often skips school to design shoes, and Yukino, a 27 year old woman who skips work for reasons I can’t spoil. We get to see how the two of them come to rely on and seek refuge in one another as they avoid their problems in real life. The characters as well as the events surrounding them were pretty decent, with some gut-wrenching and heartbreaking scenes. I just wish these were further built upon. Their struggles and their weaknesses were introduced well, the movie just fails to properly elaborate on them, with good development sprinkled throughout but not actually given enough time to mature and live up to its full potential. In short, I was acquainted, but not properly attached.
But that’s not to say the plot/premise is bad, just lacking. I love how it’s more reflective and personal instead of being super dramatic and in your face like Shinkai’s more popular works. I also love how it puts less emphasis on romance but more on one’s reliance on other people. We get nice bits where the characters talk to themselves for a while and that actually further builds on their development. It’s just that I wanted more. It really had some nice elements that had vast potential. The only problem is that it’s just over before you know it and never fully utilizes that potential.
This movie’s animation is easily some of Shinkai’s best, and acted as the film’s primary saving grace. It puts more emphasis on beautiful scenery and use of color rather than amazing/spectacular fantasy visuals. We see a glimpse of Shinkai’s skill in creating weather effects before he made Your Name and Weathering With You, but unlike those movies, the visuals here aren’t really meant to leave you in awe but are more for contributing to the film’s overall tone.
The main attraction here are the previously mentioned weather effects. I loved when they just do their thing, but also how the weather evolved. Instead of just continuous rain, it also gets heavier/lighter, thunder would suddenly appear, etc. I also loved how it interacted with nature, like when the rain bounced off lakes or when sunlight was met with insects. These made the whole experience feel more natural and realistic in the long run. They also served the scenes well, matching their tone and mood to further enhance the experience.
There’s also the gorgeous cityscapes. The film somehow manages to not only make Tokyo look beautiful in its depiction but also alive. It’s filled with nice little touches such as lights on skyscrapers turning on and off and bustling crowds with each person doing their own thing. When combined with the weather effects, it was admittedly pretty breathtaking.
The visuals are also amazingly detailed. Apart from its beautiful and eye-catching scenery, the animation also shined in its close-ups, such as when there were shots of food being carefully cut up and cooked, or when a foot is being carefully measured and traced to make a pair of shoes. This is coupled with some really fluid motion so that these shots did not only look gorgeous but also feel smooth. These scenes are what really got me more invested into the film, and how personal and intimate it was (or supposed to be).
Acting In its voice acting, The Garden of Words also shines. It was more appropriate to the film’s more reflective themes like when there were parts when characters monologued quietly and personally, as if they were really talking to themselves. In dialogue, voice acting was also decent; emotions were properly displayed, especially when the two main leads were quietly talking to one another, as if they were having a private conversation that we as an audience were not meant to be participating in. The whole thing felt more genuine in the long run because of these. I also liked when there were brief moments of silence that allowed for me to take in the scenery and the mood of the moment.
For music, the film makes use of some great instrumental pieces that serve as a nice cherry on top. In its more quiet scenes, you could probably hear a piano or a maybe some strings in the background. You might not even hear music at all, which allowed for me to take in the dialogue and get more invested in the story. When things get more intense, the music follows accordingly, and we’re greeted with a full orchestra of instruments, and it really worked well with the movie. The music itself doesn’t stand on its own, unlike the later work by Radwimps, but it doesn’t need to. The main purpose of the music here was to support the movie itself, and given the tone of the movie, the key here was subtlety. At that, the music definitely succeeds.
The Garden of Words, in all its flaws in plot and character development, still manages to be a worthwhile bite-sized anime movie in everything else. The animation is one of, if not the best I’ve seen from Shinkai, the voice acting is pretty great, and the music is a nice compliment to the overall package.
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