If you want to read my review of The Garden Of Words, read this post. In 言の葉の庭, During the rainy season in Tokyo, a couple who lives in different worlds have the same idea, to kill time in Shinjuku Gyoen National Park (新宿御苑). There, an unlikely friendship emerges between them during the rainy mornings.
Akizuki Takao (Miyu Irino) is 15 years old, he’s a student and his biggest dream is to become a professional shoemaker. Sometimes he skips classes to sketch designs and makes his own shoes.
“I decided to skip classes only on rainy mornings.”
Yukino Yukari (Kana Hanazawa) is a 27-year-old literature teacher about to resign from a school that is causing her serious health problems. So she misses work hoping the semester will end soon.
“Each morning I put on my clothes to go to school. But I’m scared. I just can’t go.”
The first morning they bump into each other in the park, Yukino-sensei leaves Akizuki-kun rather intrigued by saying goodbye by reciting a short Japanese poem, known as Tanka poetry, and leaves. From that day on, on every rainy morning, they meet and love develops.
The Garden Of Words: japanese movie review
Akizuki-kun lives with his mother, who jovially leaves home to live a new love and returns when things don’t end well, and his older brother, who is about to move in with his girlfriend.
“You’ll be happy with more space, right?”
In the next day, rain falls, and they meet in the park for the second time. Akizuki-kun skipping school and Yukino-sensei skipping work. Both find each others behavior strange. But, they accept that things are as they are.
“That’s ok. We are human, after all. We all have our little quirks.”
This was the first rainy day in the Kanto region. So, Akizuki-kun and Yukino-sensei went on with their lives and every rainy morning, they would meet in the same place to exchange food, sweets and secrets.
“I have never told anyone this before.”
As the feeling arises, Akizuki-kun and Yukino-sensei begin to hope that it will rain every day. So they could meet. But, the worlds of a teenage boy and a grown woman are very far apart.
Akizuki-kun thought she only saw him as a 15 year old boy. It was not true. But in reality, Yukino-sensei was going through a very difficult time in life, which he had no idea about.
Actually, Akizuki-kun didn’t know anything about Yukino-sensei. The age, what she worked with or what she was worried about. Not even the name.
“And yet, I can’t help but be enchanted by her.”
But, as expected, the rainy season is over. Summer vacation has arrived. They had no more excuses to see each other. But, that’s all they wanted to do. One day, in the last place Akizuki-kun thought, they bumped into each other unexpectedly and Akizuki-kun found out why Yukino-sensei had some strange habits since they met.
Reviewing The Garden Of Words: the shoemaker
Despite skipping classes whenever it’s raining, Akizuki-kun is a gifted boy who takes advantage of his free time to make new models of shoes.
Designing and making shoes was not just a hobby, he really loved it and would have liked to pursue a career as a professional shoemaker.
For this reason, he was not very interested in the school curriculum and began to see in the profession of shoemaker the opportunity to enter adult life and be able to stay with Yukino-sensei.
Why you should watch The Garden Of Words
I won’t leave The Garden Of Words ending explained or a download link here, but If you’re a fan of Makoto Shinkai’s japanese movie, this is one of the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen made by him.
Daisuke Kashiwa’s soundtrack has wonderful melodies with beautiful piano arrangements, as always. Furthermore, The Garden Of Words is a light-hearted love story that portrays everyday urban life with beautiful images Shinjuku (新宿区).
The Garden Of Words trailer
I really feel that you will like this one. So I decided to do this Koto no ha no niwa review. Go ahead, immerse yourself in the story, the environment and the soundtrack.
And come back later to tell me what you think in the comments. This is one of the best Japanese animations I’ve watched.
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