Makoto Shinkai births a visually engaging film in The Garden of Words with stunning animation and an engaging narrative that ultimately falls flat.
Renown anime film writer and director Makoto Shinkai’s beloved anime film The Garden of Words follows the story of 15-year-old, aspiring shoemaker Takao Akizuki and an older woman who, just like him has an affinity to sitting alone in the park on rainy days. As the rainy season arrives in the Kanto region, Akizuki skips his morning classes each and every day it rains and spends his time at the Shinjuku Garden working on his hopes and dreams of becoming a shoemaker.
In the process, Akizuki meets 27-year old, Yukari Yukino who just like him spends her rainy days skipping work to sit alone at the park sipping on bears and eating chocolate. After some time and a few small talk conversations the two befriend each other. With both individuals ultimately, growing fond of each other and looking forward to more rainy days and each other’s company.
For the most part, while the story is intriguing enough to keep you somewhat engaged or at least care about what’s happening in the newly formed relationship between Akizuki and Yukino. Ultimately what keeps you watching is the stunning animation and the amazing color palette used to animate the film. The stunning sense of realism with the rain and how even the smallest details of rainfall are integrated into the film is what draws you in and keeps you there.
At some point I was severely concerned about the film just sticking to these two individuals just meeting at the park every single day, so when the summer break came about and the rainfall stopped. Seeing Akizuki and Yukino forcefully having to take a break from those near-daily meetings was great. As the saying goes “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and that’s what happens with these two individuals, despite the age difference.
It isn’t until much later in the film that we learn how complex this newly formed relationship really is. Not only is there a 12 year age gap between Akizuki and Yukino. She is the former classic literature teacher at Akizuki’s high school. We learn that her daily visits to the park came about due to her quitting her job as a teacher due to some rumors started from her students because one of her student’s boyfriend, fell in love with her. This caused turmoil in and out of school and ultimately lead to Yukino’s breakup with her actual boyfriend.
From how its presented in the film, it seems like Yukino fell into some sort of depression due to what was going on in and out of her life. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t do a great job at really telling you if she fell into some form of depression or if she has an actual illness, hence why she only drank beer and ate chocolate; since those were the only things she was able to actually taste.
Akizuki ultimately uncovers the truth as to why Yukino has been meeting with him at the park on all those rainy days and takes matters into his own hands by confronting the girl who retaliated against Yukino. After a brawl against his upperclassmen, Akizuki heads to the park and runs into Yukino. They share a tender moment as a heavy downpour of rain commences. Touching, beautiful, and visually appealing. As I mentioned above, the sense of realism used for the rain was put into great use in this scene in particular.
By the end of this scene, we meet Akizuki and Yukino at Yukino’s apartment. By this time, at least for me, despite the age gap, I was rooting for Akizuki and Yukino to end up together. And you get a sense of hope for that when they both share an inner monologue in which they tell themselves that this is the happiest time of their respective lives. So it’s clear that they have developed an emotional attachment to each other. Akizuki eventually confesses that he’s fallen in love with her but is rejected by Yukino.
She reveals to him that she moving away due and has cemented her decision a few weeks prior. Given all the problems she’s been having where she’s currently residing, she wanted a new start. Akizuki doesn’t take the rejection kindly and after he leaves is when Yukino finally submits to her feelings towards Akuzuki, finds him, and expressed her emotions towards him.
Here’s where things untimely come crumbling down and I only say this because you have all this buildup, emotional buildup. He’s expressed his love for her and she’s expressed her love for him and the film cuts or “ends” with them having an emotionally driven embrace while it’s raining.
Unfortunately, after the credits roll, we get some additional scenes and we get the real ending. Yukino still followed through with her decision to move away and Akizuki stayed behind to finish high school and continue working on his dreams of becoming a shoemaker. He also finished making her the pair of shoes he was working on before meeting her which was cute and adorable. If you haven’t gotten the gist by now, they don’t end up together which wasn’t the ending I was hoping for.
Now we can always be logical and think realistically and give the film a huge benefit of the doubt that the sole reason for them not being together was simply the age gap. Additionally, after essentially “losing” her job due to the rumor of her having a relationship with a high school student, that could also be used as a sensible reason for them not ending up with each other. The film never got a sequel but we are left to wonder that at some point in time, Akizuki and Yukino eventually get together once again and pursue a relationship but we’ll never know.
Overall, The Garden of Words is a visually engaging animated film and shows the unique talent Makoto Shinkai has a director. Despite having everything in its favor to make it an even bigger success than the film has become, the ending is the crux of the film.
Yesterday, Yen Press revealed that they’re releasing a novel adaptation of The Garden of Words which will give us a deeper look into the film’s story and give us new perspectives on the characters we met in the film. We do not know whether or not we’ll get more story to the film’s ending, which remains to be seen when the novel releases later this month.
For more exclusive interviews, anime reviews, news, trailers, and updates make sure to keep it locked right here at The Nerdy Basement. While you’re here check out our exclusive interview with Johnny Yong Bosch and Jeannie Tirado and consider supporting us on Patreon.
READ MORE: WEATHERING WITH YOU (REVIEW)