The Garden of Words

The Garden of Words is a 2013 drama anime short film by Makoto Shinkai, his fourth major production. Its soundtrack is composed by Daisuke Kashiwa.

Fifteen-year-old Takao Akizuki is an aspiring shoemaker and resident of Tokyo, Japan who skips school on rainy mornings to spend time in the Shinjuku Gyoen park. On one of these occasions, he encounters 27 year-old Yukari Yukino, an initially mysterious woman who quotes a tanka at him. As their interactions continue, they slowly open up to each other and grow closer, but each hide secrets of their own, and the good times might not last forever.

A manga adaptation written by Shinkai and illustrated by Midori Motohashi was released in 2013, with a Yen Press English translation in October 2014. A novelisation also by Shinkai was initially released serially in Da Vinci magazine from September 2013 to April 2014 with unified release in April 2014 and English translation in August 2020. There was supposed to have been a stage play adaptation by Whole Hog Theatre in London and Tokyo in 2020, but those plans were scuppered by COVID-19.


 * Airplane of Love: Near the end, as Takao thinks of Yukari, the camera lingers on an airplane flying high over the school rooftop he's on.
 * Camera Abuse: Some scenes have raindrops appear to get on the "camera".
 * Maybe Ever After: The film leaves the question of whether Takao and Yukari genuinely have mutual romantic feelings and will ultimately get together unanswered.