Reminder for myself to watch The Garden of Words (2013) when I come home from a walk

Submitted by Moonside in anime4unme

I haven't watched any anime like ever for a while now. Instead I just fiddle around my computer when alone at home, being thoroughly useless and not a connoisseur of animé, first class, with distinctions, disappointing my parents instead.

It looks very pretty apparently but otherwise had a mixed reception which sounds about the perfect thing for me - I get to make my own mind. Only 45 minutes long too. Will this lead me back to the place where Magical Girls roam?

6

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

toasthaste wrote

aah this is one I always see gifs from and it looks so GORGEOUS

2

Moonside OP wrote

I do recommend seeing it for the visuals alone, it's 45 minutes and gorgeous. I didn't like the film much otherwise, though.

3

Moonside OP wrote

Ok I must confess that I wasn't a fan of it, save for visuals which were great. I'm not trying to write a review that can be understood without seeing the film, the film is about 45 minutes and available everywhere online, go see it if you're curious! Everything's spoilers but not really.

I thought that the action was quite unmotivated. Takao's actions were somewhat motivated, but something that's been done over and over - follow your dreams narrative, love lifts souls up and helps angels fly. It took almost the whole film to learn what miss Yukino was about. My favorite moment of her was actually when she grabbed tons of chocolate bars out of her handbag as if she was a gross slobby chocolate gremlin, especially as the film was so nonjudgmental about it. It's a thing you rarely see in film.

I got the metaphor that Takao is helping miss Yukino to learn to walk and water washes away old dirt that's making them lonely, just didn't find it cashed out satisfactorily.

(I'm willing to accept that the tanka poetry part might have been foreshadowing that was completely obvious from the start if I were clued in enough into Japanese culture.)

Wasn't a big fan of the soundtrack, it seemed a bit trite to me, trying to hit the emotional notes that weren't present in the story to begin with.

My very simple fix for the movie: tell the story out of order, start with miss Yukino's past troubles (tell more about them), jump into the her getting fired, then introduce Takao to the audience and let it know more about her than him. Then let Takao figure out what the audience already knows. BAM four Oscars, folks!

BTW it totally seems like I'm in a minority of people for not liking the film much. According to one DailyMotion commenter I'm dead inside.

2

devtesla wrote

Yea, Makoto Shinkai movies are corny and shallow, and I don't think that's a controversial opinion lol. One of the things I respect about him is that he doesn't seem to disagree, like most of what he talks about in interviews is craft and he's not interested in awards or anything like that. Like he once told people to stop going to see Your Name which is very funny to me.

More than anything else he really just wants to make movies, and while I wish they were more interesting I can't like, dislike him lol

2

Moonside OP wrote

Tbf the Wikipedia's reception part was full of 4.5/5 reviews in purple prose so apparently there are gung-ho Shinkai stans out in the world.

2