Story: The story of Kotonoha no Niwa is about a young boy, that wants to be a shoemaker and skips classes everytime it rains. In a park he then meets a woman, who seems to be skipping her work and they soon build quite a little friend relationship. The story-telling really reminded me of Byousoku 5 centimeter as the whole build up and the split into three parts (that's how I saw it) was quite equal to it. The story was quite well executed even though it was held quite simple and the pace fit everything perfectly.
8/10
Characters: The characters in many ways are quite good in Shinkai Makoto's works, but this time I wasn't as satisfied with them as in other works of his. Of course both mains were likeable and the whole relationship seemed really natural, but it they didn't seem to be as well written and the end kind of gave an image that was a bit different from what I had over the entire show.
8/10
Art: I'll make it simple...the art of this movie is a masterpiece. It is incredible how much detail there is in the background and the animation was as fluent as I've rarely seen. The contrast seem to fit and I found myself being stunned by the gorgeous looks of the movie many times. This is a point Shinkai Makoto really never disappoints I guess.
10/10
Sound: The Sound of the show is not as good as the art but still really well done. It relies mostly on Piano tracks, just as in Byousoku 5 centimeter and almost always fits well to the scene shown in. There some parts espacially in the beginning, when the music completely fades out and only leaves the really well written dialogue and the superbe voiceacting, which I really like!
9/10
Enjoyment: I have compared this to other Shinkai works many times already and I'm gonna do this one last time: I really was expecting a lot out of this movie after seeing who the director was. It is not as good as Byousoku 5 centimeter but still a really enjoyable movie and on it's own something definitely worth watching!
8.5/10
