“A faint clap of thunder / Clouded skies / Perhaps rain will come / If so, will you stay here with me?”

Yukari Yukino

The Garden of Words feels like something of a stepping stone between Makoto Shinkai’s earlier work and his bigger budget successes that followed. Although only 45 minutes long, this is still a meditative piece, following a teenage boy who strikes up a relationship with an older woman whom he meets on rainy days in a park. The hallmarks of Shinkai’s writing are present: isolated individuals who have a connection yet find themselves separated (in this case by age). The rain-soaked greenery is stunningly beautiful, with more naturalistic hues than the oversaturated Your Name and Weathering With You, but not so dour as the colour palette in 5 Centimetres Per Second. Yet, for all this beauty, the experience is best described as fleeting — not only in duration but also in depth. Perhaps this could have been resolved by a stronger conclusion (often a weakness in Shinkai’s work); as it is, The Garden of Words is ephemoral, leaving little to take away.

6/10