- Story (7.5/10):
The story was no shining star, it's not something you hear in fairy tales, it tells an ugly story that reflects our real world, it's not as pretty as fantasy makes it seem. The link between the confused high schooler that's yet to take on the real world and the depressing outlook of the teacher that has taken fatal blows from time and reality was very fascinating and relatable, both individuals standing on the other side of the inevitable adulthood transition and yet they shared the same world but in different shoes, perhaps Takao's interesting in his shoemaking craft was just the metaphorical way of helping Yukino walk steadily in life, and in return, him saving her is salvation for him as well, even tho it's a dated craftmanship, it was honest enough to help another and better their days. The plot is metaphorically fantastic, but maybe too much abstraction can drain a comprehensive experience and limit its accessibility, the thing I think hurt the delivery of the plot the most.
- Art (10/10):
To this day, and despite being a relatively old movie, a big part of my acknowledges this as Shinkai's best-animated marvel, and quite possibly the best-animated work ever. I huge and bold statement, I know, maybe the short length of the feature was just the right call to retain the consistency of this literal eye-candy. You know when computers started getting powerful enough, and every other game started having that shiny watery effect where every polygon reflects light like a perfect mirror? This was probably the movie version of that. For a story that involves rain as much as Kotonoha no Niwa, chances were not missed, every shot of rain dropping, ponds vibrating and clouds roaring was out of this world. I don't know how they were able to achieve this degree of realism and still retain a defining artistic touch on top of it is beyond anything I've seen. This truly was a tech-demo animation style.
- Sound (10/10):
If I remember correctly, the main reason that led me to watch this movie years ago was the main theme that played over the movie's trailer, it was a good call. Having decided to rewatch the movie again, I was anticipating hearing the song by the end of every minute of the movie but I found myself greeted with all sorts of other equally good OSTs that almost made me forget that excitement. However, perhaps the real star of the movie was the excellently immersive and relaxing ambient sounds. I love the sound of rain, this movie was not shy from spoiling me on that and it never went doll from the first drop to the last one.
The voice acting was at a peak as well, two people having conversations and monologues for 40 minutes, I could have listened to them the whole day, the voice cracks, the laughter slips, everything felt genuine and real, weirdly intimate at times but always cheerful to hear.
- Characters (8/10):
I thought the characters that lead this movie were quite secondary and barely important, they felt more like placeholder dummies delivering the real protagonist of the story, their struggles.
They say you are what you eat, my life has taught me, you are what you experience, from which eating is part of course, but circumstance is more prevalent in making the present you, but what makes the future you? Maybe present-you is just future-you in the past, a paradoxical question that runs from answering itself, that's when a helping hand is needed, we humans need each other to live, that's what nature makes us behave as, and perhaps, that's why it's been raining so much to the point Takao and Yukina were fated to meet under every chance mother nature decided to weep, leaving behind waterfalls of rain that meant to two people more than anything in their life.
- Enjoyment (10/10):
I was very critical of this movie for a long time, or perhaps, I was just too young, too ignorant that I didn't even care to understand the core message, maybe I was thirsty to see someone I related with only by gender hook up with his teacher, hungry for a desperate relationship that was never meant to be, however, the passing years taught me what life is really about, how different it is from fantasy and how similarity bittersweet it is depending on how you experience it. This movie was a life lesson I was too young to care about, but no matter what phase you're living, it's only a passing one, and growing up does not wait for anyone.
- Overall (8.9/10):
This isn't a movie that you can take on anytime, any day under any circumstances, otherwise, a lot might fly by and the core message will get lost past your thoughts, I know it was the deal with me once, despite its short length, it packs up many crushing facts about the world and growing up, life is bittersweet on both sides and this movie was on point showing that off.
