The Garden of Words
"The Garden of Words" is a genre of age gap love. It is directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai. it's a tearjerker anime movie so people will find it as a sad story. But in my opinion it's a bittersweet. If you have a thing for forbidden love then you will love this movie. I do like this type of animes which will bring me to tears with their lovely storyline. I feel this anime movie is one of them. You will be bothered with many complicated feelings and this anime will teach you many things about life and society. It was released in 2013 but the animation will shock you, it felt like the anime is ahead of its time because of the beautiful animation. It will make you fall in love with rainy season. Because this anime is all surrounded about the rain. It's a heartfelt story and I think no one will be disappointed through my review.
The story beings with 15 years old Takao, he is a high school student and he has no one to support him but he has a big dream of becoming a shoemaker. He often skips his school because he is busy sketching shoes. He always make sketches in a garden in the middle of Tokyo. One day he meets a mysterious woman at the garden where he sits and that woman is called Yukino, she is 27 years old. Then, without arranging the times they often ends up meeting each other at the same place but only on rainy days. Yukino is a teacher and she had her own reason for coming at this place often because she was being bullied by her students and to cope, she skips work and seeks refuge in the same park. As time passed they strike an unlikely friendship. Both of them are lonely and they found themselves with each other. They deepen their relationship but realized that the age gap is not going to work out.....
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This anime is being accused of normalizing grooming because of the age gap between the main characters. But I feel that's not true at all, I think the writer wanted us to relate strongly about the situations felt by normal human beings. Though the movies duration is 46 minutes, but it feels like a long movie. "The Garden of Words" delivers a simple soft love storyline but many would argue that it is taboo. I know I can't change others mind but this movie is beyond everyone's understanding. Only a few can understand the true meaning of this story. I think people should watch this anime movie few more times to understand the depth of it. Trust me this anime will give you an unique experience which is far better than any other animes nowadays.
To be honest when I was in my teenage days I had fallen for someone way too older than me, it happened without me acknowledging the situation. I think it has happended with many of us but we don't have the courage to admit it. That does not mean that I am supporting this kind of things but this actually happens in real life, it's not just a fantasy. Also, anime is not for kids so I think if an adult is watching this then they are enough old to decide for themselves. Everyone should look at the bright side of the anime, there will always be some animes which won't go according to our choices and that's normal. I feel we should normalize to accept unique storylines because I am fed up with the old typical love stories.
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This is an incredible anime movie with a profound message! As if you want something in life then you have to fight for it, and if you don't raise your voice. Then being in the background is not going to help you. So, if you really want to accomplish in your life then you should step outside of your comfort zone. Because you gotta decide what you want to do in life. Being scared of what others will say is not going to take you anywhere. I have felt this strong message in the anime but I have seen only few mentioning about it. But I would love to enlighten everyone's knowledge because I know that there's a misunderstanding about this anime movie. I am going to rate this anime 9 out of 10, I didn't give it a 10 because of the ending. I think they could have made it the way audience would want but it went into a different direction which was not expected. Feel free to watch this anime it is one of the sweetest love story I have ever seen.
Credits:
Thumbnail from themoviedb and the other images are from IMDB.
