The Garden of Words

 Oops, just realised I didn't write this up from ages ago. So hopefully I remember enough to give it a fair description. Awhile back (um, since we moved, but not within the last 2 months?) I watched the animated movie The Garden of Words. 

I didn't really know anything going into it. Literally, the blurb is "When a lonely teenager skips his morning lessons to sit in a lovely garden, he meets a mysterious older woman who shares his feelings of alienation." I was feeling a bit alien myself.

First off, let me just say that it's quite a lovely anime as far as the style and look. The colours, the rain, the style of it. It's pretty. It was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai.

It is, indeed, about a lonely teenager in Toyko. He's quite young -- 16? which is probably my only quibble at all because, at it's heart, it is a tale of romance and longing and belonging and the female lead is a much older woman (late 20s?). I can't give exact ages as it's been too long, but I did wish it had been him in his LAST year of high school instead of his first. 

He (dammit, I don't remember their names at all either) is a responsible kid; he's gotta be, because his mom seems a bit of a flake and his older brother is moving out to be with his girlfriend. He works a bunch of part time jobs and his dream is to make shoes. He feels school is rather useless and he looks forward to rainy days because on those days, he skips and goes to the park. It's there that he meets a mysterious older woman. 

Why is she there during work hours, nursing a beer and eating chocolate? She's quiet and non-threatening and they don't even exchange names, but they slowly learn about each other. They don't flirt; not at all, but they do take small comfort in each other. She encourages him with his shoe making. It's obvious that they are both hiding, just in different ways. They share a sense of illicit-ness in their rainy day meetings and bring joy to each other. A quiet joy--they are both outsiders and they form a bond that goes beyond that of strangers. She gives clues as to who/what she was, but not any that he particularly picks up on, which is why the reveal much later is such a shock to him.

You see, she was a teacher -- at his school, no less -- and some nasty upper year students had basically bullied and accused her of inappropriate relations with a student (which makes her relationship progression with the boy even more poignant) to the point that she'd had to take off of work. He finally finds out who she is when she returns to school. At this point, he is protective of her and even gets into a fight (that he loses) with the upperclassmen. 

There is a final confrontation where he declares his love and she attempts to reject it, feeling (rightfully enough) that it can't be appropriate for them--something, to be fair, she's known all along and has been fighting with whereas he's only had the sense of age as the elephant between them--but then she chases him and they share one embrace. That's not the start of the romance though; because they aren't in the same place. She goes off to reclaim her life, he continues on with school -- though a voiceover at the end hints at him hoping to meet up with her again when they are on more equal footing. 

I feel like I'm not giving this justice; it's a lovely, poetic and delicate anime and I'm just spouting facts. I wish I'd written it up right after watching it. I mean, I am a bit conflicted with the age difference, BUT this was one of the most realistic handlings of that I've seen. They feel very real; they struggle, they have depths of loneliness to them all out of proportion to the sparse dialogue of the film. It's very well done. It's...like a watercolour of emotion.  I am glad I watched it.