“The Garden of Words” is a 46 minute anime film with Shinjuku Gyoen as the setting. We will not introduce the whole story here. But if we were to sum it up, it is the story a meeting between two strangers in Shinjuku Gyoen, both of whom are not progressing forward in life. Through their time they spend together in the park they together take a new step forward.
There is a deeper meaning behind casting Shinjuku Gyoen as the setting of the story. During the rainy season there are very few people who come to visit. The Gazebo, which is the setting of the film, is located at the very back of the garden and it serves a place where one can escape the city. There in isolation, is the backdrop where the two troubled characters meet in what can be thought of as a “rain shelter from life”.
What is so amazing about this story? The anime makes it seem like the landscape is more beautiful than the actual reality. The director Makoto Shinkai answered in an interview like this, “I would like to present a different picture than what we see everyday, and to change someone’s point of view. I want to tell everyone who sees the world that we are viewing life as a picture.”
Animation is different from live action because it is not taken, it is simply written. For example, drawing excess fallen leaves floating on the surface of the lake, even though there is actually only a few. You can depict something more beautiful than the actual scenery.
In anime and manga, rain is represented by a diagonal line despite the fact that this depiction is not exactly life-like. This was not always the case--long ago only gray sky could depict rain. It was Ukiyoe artists who “discovered” that diagonal lines could represent rain. Someone must have seen these horizontal lines in the downpour of rain. In the same way, the beautiful depiction of rain in “The Garden of Words” may have further updated depictions of rain in art, from horizontal lines to the now more vivid pictures in anime.
The green of nature shines brighter as it rains. Is the rainy season really this beautiful? To be shown this undiscovered beauty is surprising. After you watch this anime you will surely see the actual landscape as more beautiful than first imagined.
The beauty of the animation is not the only reason you feel the beauty of Makoto Shinkai’s scenery. He also writes the story beautifully. There is a common message between the story that Shinkai has drawn and historical works such as “Hoshinokoe”, to more recent works such as “Your Name”, to short stories such as “Crossroad”. The message is, I am not anyone yet. Although I want to try my best, I am not capable. I am not able to become an adult. I have no one to call a friend. To continue to live alone is isolating. Filled with impatience and anxiety.
STILL.No matter how bad things are this is not the end of the world. Knowing that life must go on can become your power. You must believe that there is nothing more to do than to continue to look forward and to live.
This story maybe flows in your life.
Some of you may have noticed, as a trigger for mental scenery, during the guide there were the words from the work “The Garden of Words”
I looked at the scenery in “The Garden of Words”, and I found a new reality to Shinjuku Gyoen. What does Makoto Shinkai see in the everyday scenery? I would like to be able to discover it with my own eyes, rather than chasing the landscape as presented in the film. Thinking that, I began to write.
We want you to discover the scenery that only you see. That is a mental scenery more beautiful than reality.
ON THE TRIP Editing Department
Author:
Akihito Shiga
Translator:
Cory Baird
Photographer:
Yuki Naruse
Akihito Shiga
Audio:
Kate Beck