Garden of Words, The (Koto no ha no niwa) (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Audio Commentary-Japanese commentary: Makoto Shinkai & Risa Mizuno Audio Commentary-English commentary: Patrick Poole & Maggie Flecknoe Interviews-Cast & Crew-(55:22) Storyboards-The complete film in storyboards (45:09) Gallery-Photo-English Production Stills (5:08) Theatrical Trailer Featurette-The Works of Makoto Shinkai (9:06)
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	48:05 (Case: 46)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Makoto Shinkai
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Miyu Irino Patrick Poole Kana Hanazawa Maggie Flecknoe
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Daisuke Kashiwa

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s) Japanese Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

     Takao (voiced by Miyu Irino/ Patrick Poole) is a mature but lonely 15 year old high school student with an older brother at home, a mother who has left to live with a younger boyfriend and an absent father. He is not doing well at school but has a dream of designing and hand-making shoes. On rainy days he skips school to sit in a gazebo in the park and sketch shoe designs. One day at the start of the rainy season he goes to the gazebo to find a sad, well-dressed older woman sitting there drinking beer and eating chocolates. She is 27 year old Yukari (Kana Hanazawa / Maggie Flecknoe) and they strike up a tentative conversation. As the rainy days continue over the next few months they meet frequently in the park and gradually come closer together; Takao shares his food and his dreams with Yukari but she remains a mystery although she is clearly damaged and also lonely. When the rainy season ends and the school holidays start Takao has a part time job and does not come to the park, although he cannot forget Yukari. But when the new school term commences Takao learns Yukari’s secret and in the rain his feelings come to a head.

     The Garden of Words (Koto no ha no niwa) is a short anime from writer / director Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimetres Per Second (2007), Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)) that received its world premiere at the Gold Coast Film Festival and was shown in Australia as part of Reel Anime 2013. The Garden of Words is a gentle and somewhat melancholy reflection upon loneliness, love and loss that, given the differences in the ages of the two people, could have been mawkish. But the themes are handled with delicacy, calmness, compassion and good taste and it is clear why this lonely, artistic high school youth could be attracted to a mysterious, yet obviously troubled, older woman with a taste for poetry. The ending ofThe Garden of Words is both realistic and hopeful, as both characters learn, in terms of the film, to start to “walk” again.

     The visuals of The Garden of Words are wondrous, with deep and rich colours such as the greens of the park or the blues of the sky and the ponds, while detail is exceptional; individual drops of rain hit the ground and the water in ponds while the leaves on the trees are finely detailed.

     In contrast to a lot of anime which feature blood, violence, battles and end of the world scenarios, The Garden of Words is a reflective, gentle, realistic film. It treats its characters with compassion, raises issues in a quiet way and looks wonderful. This is a quality anime film which is a bit different.

Video

     The Garden of Words is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original release ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG 4 AVC code.

     The Garden of Words has stunningly beautiful visuals that are shown to wonderful effect on this Blu-ray release. As noted in the review, detail is clean and sharp, while the colours are deep and rich. Blacks and shadow detail are fine.

     I did not notice any marks or artefacts.

     It is anime so lip synchronisation is approximate in either dub, although I would say that the Japanese track is closer to being in sync that most anime I have watched.

     The English subtitles are in a clear white font. They seemed error free and were easy to read.

     Stunningly beautiful.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of Japanese or English DTS HD- MA 5.1. Both are good although I still prefer to listen to the original Japanese.

     Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The surrounds and rears were constantly in use for music, insects, crowds and trains but were wonderful when it came to the enveloping weather effects of rain, wind and thunder. There were also directional effects, such as voices and trains, and pans. The sub-woofer added effective bass to the thunder and train wheels.

     The simple, mostly piano based, score by Daisuke Kashiwa was delightful and was well represented in the mix. The ending song Rain was written by Chisato Ooe and performed by Motohiro Hata.

    A nice enveloping sound mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     While the film itself is only 48 minutes long, the extensive range of extras, including interviews that are longer than the film, the film in storyboards plus two audio commentaries, greatly increase the value of this Blu-ray as a package.

Japanese Audio Commentary

     Writer / director Makoto Shinkai talks with Risa Mizuno, who had provided a voice in one of his earlier films. This is a non-stop commentary, very chatty and they laugh a lot but they still manage to discuss the themes of the film, some of the symbolism including umbrellas, the music and where CG and hand drawn animation was combined. All in all, well worth a listen. It is in Japanese with clear white English subtitles, while the Japanese original audio plays under the commentary.

English Audio Commentary

     Patrick Poole (Takeo) and Maggie Flecknoe (Yukino) seem to be taking turns in the recording booth for the first half hour before getting in together. The commentary was recorded just after the dubbing of the film was completed and topics include getting the part, recording and voice acting, their characters and the themes of the film. They finish after about 37 min and the ADR director Steven Foster steps in. There are a fair number of pauses but no silliness and I have heard far worse. The English dub plays under the commentary.

Interviews (52:22)

     This extra is put together well. Rather than separate interview segments, interviews with the director Makoto Shinkai and Japanese voice cast members by Miyu Irino and Kana Hanazawa are intercut with each other, some film clips and behind the scenes stills. The three answer text questions, including about their characters, the character designs, casting, playing the characters, the recording sessions, the theme of the film, the music and what they were like at 15! The simple film score plays behind the interviews. A bit long, but there is some interesting information about the production with some choice bits, such as Kana Hanazawa wearing her shoes on the wrong feet to get into the mood for the scene at the end of the film!

Storyboards (45:09)

     The complete film in storyboards, some preliminary animation plus some live action stuff that was later animated. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0; dialogue is only in Japanese without subtitles so if you do not understand Japanese you will need to have watched the film to know what is happening. Interesting comparison to the finished film showing just how beautiful and detailed the final animation was!

English Production Stills (5:08)

     Stills of the US voice cast recording their dub with comments on the stills. Silent, the stills advance automatically.

Japanese Trailer (2:32)

     Actually two short Japanese trailers for the film.

The Works of Makoto Shinkai (9:06)

     Text screens are followed by previews / trailers for Shinkai films The Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below and The Garden of Words. They all share some beautiful animation!

     Our Blu-ray release of The Garden of Words looks to be the same as in both Region A US and Region B UK. Buy local.

     The Garden of Words is a reflective, gentle film which treats its characters with compassion and dignity, is always interesting and looks beautiful. This is something a bit different for those interested in coming of age stories or quality anime while fans of writer / director Makoto Shinkai will not be disappointed.

     The video is stunning, the audio very good. Extensive extras round out an exceptional Blu-ray package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall