Image by Vinson Tan ( 楊 祖 武 ) from Pixabay If you’re at all familiar with the biggest names in the history of anime filmmaking, there is arguably no name bigger than Hayao Miyazaki. A co-founder of the acclaimed Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, he has directed several movies considered the best of the anime genre from the charming coming-of-age tale My Neighbor Totoro to the Oscar-winning fantasy drama Spirited Away. However, in recent years, several other anime directors have emerged & begun making their stamp on the genre: Mamoru Hosoda with Wolf Children and the Oscar-nominated Mirai, Naoko Yamada with A Silent Voice, and Masaaki Yuasa with Ride Your Wave and Inu-Oh. Just to name a few. 😊
However, if there’s one filmmaker that many anime fans agree is “the next Miyazaki,” it is perhaps none other than Makoto Shinkai. Having come onto the scene with films like The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters per Second, Shinkai cemented his place with the 2016 romantic fantasy film Your Name that remains the third highest-grossing Japanese film (both domestically and worldwide) of all time. And since his newest film, Suzume, debuts stateside this weekend I thought it would be perfect timing for me to shine a spotlight on one of my favorite Shinkai films: the 2013 drama The Garden of Words. Why is this movie worth your time? Keep reading to find out. 😊 What’s It About [NOTE: This section contains minor spoilers for “The Garden of Words.” If you’d rather see the film for yourself, skip to the next section.] With an abbreviated runtime of 46 minutes, The Garden of Words follows two protagonists: the truant student/aspiring shoemaker Takao Akizuki (Blake Shepard) and the self-isolating young adult Yukari Yukino (Maggie Flecknoe). As the rainy season in Tokyo sets in, Takao and Yukari have several chance encounters at Shinjuku Gyo-en National Garden. During these encounters, Takao opens up to Yukari about his passion for shoemaking (including making her a custom pair of shoes). Yukari, on the other hand, remains closed-off about her own life (not even revealing her name to him). When the new school year starts, however, Takao has several realizations about not only Yukari’s true identity but also his feelings for her in spite of the truth about her. Why It’s Worth Watching As I said in the previous section, The Garden of Words is under an hour long (barely a feature film by some people’s standards). And yet, by the time the credits roll, the characters & story that Shinkai tells feel as fully developed as most movies that spin their wheels at over two hours long. Unsurprisingly, the animation deserves much of the credit for this. For those of you have seen Shinkai’s visual style (particularly in recent years with films like Your Name and Weathering with You), his masterful command of using animation to create a vibrant world that feels lived in and grounded will not surprise you in the slightest. With this film, I particularly appreciated the visualization of rainfall as both an aesthetically impeccable part of the frame but also a thematically relevant element of the melancholic tone and narrative. Combined with the lush greenery of Shinkai’s photorealistic take on Shinjuku Gyo-en National Garden in Tokyo, The Garden of Words is certainly not lacking in the visual department. On that note, Shinkai always ensures that the animation is adding to the core story of these two people rather than being the star of the show in an overwhelming fashion. Make no mistake that The Garden of Words is a mature examination of how different growing up can be for different people as well as our need for companionship with fellow humans. And the heart of that story lies with his protagonists, whose burgeoning tease of an offbeat yet believable affection for one another helps elevate Shinkai’s message about the importance of having people who care about you in your life is vital to personal well-being. All of this would be impressive in a two-hour film. But the fact that The Garden of Words accomplishes all of this in a mere 46 minutes elevates Shinkai’s work above many other stories like it. Simply put, his reliance on subtle expressions of emotional development for both the main characters via efficient dialogue and stunning visual cues is what makes this movie (in my humble opinion) one of Shinkai’s best pieces of art and better than many other anime flicks that I’ve seen. Have I convinced you to check out Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of Words? What’s a movie that you feel is underappreciated? What opinions of mine do you find absolutely ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, this has been… Yours Truly, Amateur Analyst
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Austin McManusI have no academic or professional background in film production or criticism; I simply love watching and talking about movies. Archives
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