

To avoid further confrontation, Yukari opted to avoid work and retreat to the park, hoping she would learn to overcome her fears. With the end of the rainy season, he stops visiting the park and focuses on his work.įollowing summer break, Takao returns to school and spots Yukari, discovering that she is a literature teacher and had been the target of gossip and bullying. Takao decides to make a pair of shoes in her size. The two continue to encounter each other and socialize in the park on rainy mornings, but never formally introduce themselves. Yukari bids him farewell with a tanka (a form of Japanese poetry), leaving Takao puzzled as to its origin and meaning. There, he encounters Yukari Yukino ( 雪野 百香里, Yukino Yukari ), a 27-year-old woman who is skipping work. The Garden of Words 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. Online reviews were generally favorable with universal praise of the art, though opinions were mixed regarding the story's length, plot and emotional climax. It won the 2013 Kobe Theatrical Film Award and awards at the Fantasia International Film Festival and the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. It ranked highly on iTunes Store during 2013 and was selected as the Year's Best Animation in iTunes' Best of 2013. The film performed well in theaters for an extended period of time and was hosted at many local and international film events. The film has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America, Anime Limited in the UK, and Madman Entertainment in Australia. 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. Someone's Gaze), also directed by Shinkai. 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. The Garden of Words premiered at the Gold Coast Film Festival in Australia on Apand had its general release on in Japan. 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 story's motifs include rain, Man'yōshū poetry, and the Japanese garden. 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. When Takao learns Yukari's identity, emotions come to a head as both learn that they have been teaching each other "how to walk". 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.
Cartoon rain drops professional#
While Takao is skipping his morning class to design shoes, Yukari is avoiding work due to personal problems in her professional life. 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. 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 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. It stars Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa, and features music by Daisuke Kashiwa instead of Tenmon, who had composed the music for many of Shinkai's previous films. The Garden of Words ( Japanese: 言の葉の庭, Hepburn: Kotonoha 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.
