The film tells about a 15-year-old student Takao Akizuki (voiced by Wataru Sekine) who skips his first class on a rainy season and sketch shoe designs in the garden at Shinjuku Gyoen where he meets 27-year-old Yukari Yukino (voiced by Kana Hanazawa) who also skips at her job. There, she bids him farewell with a tanka: a type of Japanese poetry of four lines with seven syllables each. This puzzles Takao to discover its origin and meaning.

The two continue to meet each other’s company in the park on rainy mornings, but never get to introduce themselves. They continue expecting one another’s presence throughout the film: sharing meals together and talking about random things yet barely able to know each other. As an aspiring shoemaker, Takao decides to make a pair of shoes based on Yukino.

He finds it hard reaching his dreams though, his brother pokes fun at him and he works part-time to save money as his parents have split and rarely get in touch with their children.

The stages of adulting and entering adult life are taxing, especially among the current generation where expectations are high and genuine relationships are hard to find amid sadness and loneliness. This is the testimony in The Garden of Words, a 2013 Japanese animated film based on Makoto Shinkai’s manga of the same name.

Though the film is only 46 minutes long, Shinkai never fails to astound the audience with their superb animation; the realistic visuals and sound effects are proof of his expertise in the industry. The same applies to the voice actors who delivered their portrayals well with heartfelt emotions and solid talent.

Shinkai’s direction, editing, and screenplay give the audience a spectrum of Japanese life and culture. Though the country is renowned for manga and anime, which makes them one of the richest countries in the world, the reality of life is far from the colorful animations they offer for entertainment.

The cutting-edge technology and advancements in life have pushed people in their society to work as hard as they could to be the best among the workforce as competition is dominant and making a successful career out of a vocation, such as Akizuki’s dream of being a cobbler, is frowned upon due to uncertainty and impracticality in the employment market. Moreover, the Japanese are known to restrain from showing or expressing their emotions and being vulnerable as their society sees this as a ‘weakness.’ This is evident when they only say “I like you a lot” (大好きdaisuki). They never use “I love you” (愛してるaishiteru) as it is deemed “strong.”

The Garden of Words explores emotional complexities between characters with a wide age difference, whose struggles and experiences in their individual lives bring them together someplace where they could just feel each other’s presence. As Takao opens up to Yukino, the latter does the opposite and only listens to the high school boy who is full of dreams. Yukino sees her current self far different from when she was 15 years old and is frustrated with where her career is taking her as she silently waits to leave her job she often skips in the rainy season.

This animation is an allusion to learning the “walks of life” and is definitely worth watching among all ages, as it offers a heartwarming flood of emotions and makes the audience imagine the enchanting, scenic view of Japan and enjoy the beauty of the country at their gadget screens. | STARLING

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