The Garden of Words ( Japanese: 言の葉の庭 Hepburn :
Koto no ha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese anime drama film written, directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai , animated by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho . It stars Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa , and featured music by Daisuke Kashiwa instead of Tenmon , who had composed the music for many of Shinkai's previous films. The theme song, "Rain", was originally written and performed by Senri Oe in 1988, but was remade for the film and was sung by Motohiro Hata . The film was made into a manga, with illustrations by Midori Motohashi, and later novelized by Shinkai, both in the same year as the film.
The Garden of Words
Theatrical release poster 言の葉の庭
( Koto no ha no Niwa ) Genre
Drama,
romance Anime film Directed by
Makoto Shinkai Produced by
Noritaka Kawaguchi Written by
Makoto Shinkai Music by
Daisuke Kashiwa Studio
CoMix Wave Films Licensed by
AUS
Madman Entertainment
BI
Anime Limited
NA
Sentai Filmworks Released
April 28, 2013 ( Gold Coast)
May 31, 2013 (Japan) Runtime
46 minutes Manga Written by
Makoto Shinkai Illustrated by
Midori Motohashi Published by
Kodansha English publisher
NA
Vertical Demographic
Seinen Magazine
Monthly Afternoon Original run
June 2013 –
December 2013 Volumes
1 Serial novel Written by
Makoto Shinkai Published by
Kadokawa Shoten Demographic
Seinen Magazine
Da Vinci Original run
September 2013 –
April 2014 Volumes
1 Anime and Manga portal
The film focuses on Takao Akizuki, an aspiring 15-year-old shoemaker, and Yukari Yukino, a mysterious 27-year-old woman he keeps meeting at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden on rainy mornings. While Takao is skipping his morning class to design shoes, Yukari is avoiding work due to personal problems in her professional life. Yukari tells Takao nothing about herself, including her name, while Takao opens up to her, sharing his passion for shoes by offering to make a pair for her. When Takao learns Yukari's identity, emotions come to a head as both learn that they have been teaching each other "how to walk". Shinkai wrote the story as a tale of "lonely sadness", based on the meaning of the traditional Japanese word for "love", and uses shoes as a metaphor for life. The story's motifs include rain, Man'yōshū poetry, and the Japanese garden . The age difference between the two main characters and their character traits demonstrate how awkwardly and disjointedly people mature, where even adults sometimes feel no more mature than teenagers, according to Shinkai.
The Garden of Words premiered at the Gold Coast Film Festival in Australia on April 28, 2013 and had its general release on May 31, 2013 in Japan. For the Japanese premiere, the film was screened with an animated short called Dareka no Manazashi (だれかのまなざし, lit.
Someone's Gaze), also directed by Shinkai. The Garden of Words had an unusual release schedule since it was released digitally on iTunes the same day as the Japanese theatrical premier, and its DVD and Blu-ray were released while the film was still in theaters, on June 21. The film has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America, Anime Limited in the UK, and Madman Entertainment in Australia. The film performed well in theaters for an extended period of time and was hosted at many local and international film events. It ranked highly on iTunes Store during 2013 and was selected as the Year's Best Animation in iTunes' Best of 2013. It won the 2013 Kobe Theatrical Film Award and awards at the Fantasia International Film Festival and the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. Online reviews were generally favorable with universal praise of the art, though opinions were mixed regarding the story's length, plot and emotional climax.
Plot
Edit
The Garden of Words is considered a romance [1] and drama film. [2] It opens at the start of the rainy season in Tokyo with Takao Akizuki (秋月 孝雄 Akizuki Takao ), a 15-year-old student and aspiring shoemaker , opting to skip his first class and sketch shoe designs in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen. There he encounters Yukari Yukino (雪野 百香里 Yukino Yukari ), a 27-year-old woman who is skipping work and enjoying beer and chocolate. When she notices the school crest on his uniform, Yukari bids him farewell with a tanka (a form of Japanese poetry), leaving Takao puzzled as to its origin and meaning. The two continue to encounter each other and socialize in the park on rainy mornings, but never formally introduce themselves. After Yukari expresses an interest in Takao's shoe
