Garden of Words

This was my second time watching the Garden of Words, and the first time watching it dubbed. I felt like I enjoyed it more in Japanese, because the overall portrayal of the characters through the acting felt more nuanced and relatable- here I found the characters to be too stoic and robotic.

It was mostly enjoyable to me for its visuals and calm slow pace- which is a key component of many more serious/emotional slice of life style anime stories. However, I honestly find the emotional core of the film to be quite empty and not as impactful to me as Shinkai may have intended. The way the two main characters interacted felt unrealistic and awkwardly romanticized to me, where they have very little chemistry. For instance, the moments where they are clearly enjoying each others company have no dialogue, and instead music is played over it. While that can be impactful in some cases, I found it to be shallow because there was barely an established camaraderie between them in the first place (except for like... The one scene with the chocolate product placement, and the part where he measures her feet).

 So with a barely established relationship that is only shown through vague scenes, the climax where they are standing together on the staircase and hugging felt unearned to me because it didn't ever seem like their relationship was very developed or relatable in the first place. Not to mention the fact that he is 15 and she is 27.

It's not a bad film!! I just really couldn't take the character's relationship seriously because the vagueness of it all never suspended my disbelief.

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