Kotonoha no Niwa

Expectation: 6
Reality: 8

Recently, so many films in cinema are beginning to overtake the 3 hour mark, and for what reason. Kotonoha no Niwa proves that you don't need a whole afternoon to tell a story and tell it well. Makoto Shinkai does it again with another brilliant masterpiece. This must be one of his most well animated films and the colouring is perfect. This is so much more than a simple love story and it really explores concept of chasing dreams. While Yukinowants to chase his dream of being a shoemaker, Teramoto looks at him and regrets not doing what she really enjoyed. The simple ... setting of a small cover in a garden in the rain sustains a large proportion of the short film and allows the viewer to truly feel the mood, tensions, and feelings of each of the characters. The soundtrack was great and fit the mood of the film very well. Nothing felt predictable, yet the plot flowed so naturally. Another brilliant film by Shinkai that doesn't take too long to watch so I would definately recommend to anyone who doesn't have the time to watch all of Oppenheimer.

The opening scene shows such amazing color and depiction. It's not 3D detail, obviously, but the depth of it virtually screams "look at me." Then there is is everything else - the city and the trains all in the measure at which things pass.

And then, you add the characters. So much for maintaining any sort of positive balance. I feel it was ruined at that point.

First and foremost, their appearance is completely opposite of how amazing everything else is. The rain is supposed to be metaphorical and they play off of it with everything that can fix it. They are ugly characters. The color and ... the art style in which they are portrayed is such a disappointment. I think maybe if we could leave this at just dialogue without action or very visual, it may have had a chance and fixing what I feel is so broken.

I don't know what went wrong. The idea and the plot could have been executed in so many better ways, but they weren't. I was so disappointed.

Being at its rated as high as it is on here, it's obvious that more people see is vastly different than what I give it credit for, but I often clash with a ratings and one way or another by a whole bunch. Unfortunately this is just another one of those that I've run into.

Oh my god. I’m so mad rn. I can’t believe Makoto-sama did his own manga dirty with this anime. After finishing the movie, I knew that something was missing from the story, because I remembered from the manga that the two main characters had much deeper conversations than portrayed in the short movie. I was sure of this after I reread the manga.

The only thing I liked from the anime that the manga couldn't provide was the atmosphere. It was pensive with the sound of rain and slow music.

Overall, a huge disappointment and injustice to the manga. For the record the manga was ... pretty good. 4/10