One of the anime's most interesting features was how it develops characters in such a short space of time: six people seems like an over-the-top number considering the anime is under ten minutes long. Each action is expressive and the viewer is left with a good impression of each person's personality.
Peppered by quotes from famous literary works, the feeling of watching people as creatures in an aquarium is done justice. I was personally intrigued by how real it felt: the atmosphere is very much that of a calm evening and overhearing snippets of conversation is similar to entering a café in real life. There is not much of a story present, but the brevity of Mizu no Kotoba means this does not matter and suits the time frame well. The ending was alluded to by one of the given quotes, but somehow didn't mesh well with the rest of the story. Baffled, I tried to decide what was supposed to be going on. Somehow the truncated nature of each part of the video ruined the overall piece for me as I was unsure what parts were really important.
Although the art has a quite an individual style, I found it too clunky to fully appreciate it. When the climax makes its appearance, however, we are treated to very soft visuals which emphasise the true surrealism of this piece. Despite minor flaws, the images flow well into one another.
I watched the English dub of this animation and found it hideous; future viewers should definitely seek out the original! The soundtrack was fitting but did not quite leave a lasting impression.
On the whole, Mizu no Kotoba is an enjoyable experimental video but viewers should not expect much and prepare to reel with confusion.
