Happy anniversary! Whose you may ask? Well this blog is officially a year old today! Gods, I didn't think I would be able to chug through six months, much less a year! I honestly feel very accomplished. My book review vlog may have lasted nearly ten years but the uploads were inconsistent, there was no set schedule so I actually am really proud of myself for being able to keep on top of things and stick to a schedule despite everything that has been going on with 2020. And thanks to all who have continued to support me through the last year! I hope that I will be writing this blog for many years to come because despite this seeming to be tedious, I really like writing and being able to share my interests and thoughts with those who are the same as I. I also might be updating the schedule and try to spread out posting more throughout the week, but I'll see how things go. Now, we are going to go back in time for a bit, to the very first review that I did on this blog, but... with a little twist!
Alright! So I have literally been doing only reviews on this blog and I have been wanting to put new content on here, but what to do? Comparisons! Duh! Almost everything I've reviewed, except for Korean dramas, have both a book series to go along with its screen counterpart. This is not true in all cases, for instance Reigned from The CW doesn't have a book series and The Selection by Kiera Cass doesn't have a screen counterpart, but most do have both as books are the main source material for these shows.
And for a throwback of sorts, we are going to be comparing the first ever title I wrote for this blog, The Garden of Words by Shinkai Makoto! At the current moment, there is a manga, a light novel, and a film for this one title and we are going to be touching upon each of them for this post!
The manga is what I originally read first, before watching the film or reading the light novel. The manga touched me in a way others hadn't before. Really it was the works of Shinkai Makoto as a whole that touched me. I first read the manga in high school, when my future was uncertain, even to me, but was expected to know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Reading this, I saw a bit of myself in Takao. What he wants to do with the rest of his life may not be very lucrative, aspiring to become a shoemaker, but he is so passionate about it. He doesn't care that it isn't a career that is a guaranteed money maker, he has a passion for it and he wants to go for it.
Back in high school, I was that unconventional type. I wanted to become an author, still do in a sense now, but even knowing there was no guarantee of success, I wanted to do it anyway. Nowadays I just want to be a storyteller, either through books or animation, there are stories I would love to have told even if it isn't lucrative. The manga gives the bare minimum for the story to be told about this kid who wants something for his future but is discouraged by the adults and other people in his life.
Then we have the film, which is what actually came out first, so it has even less details than the manga does in concerns with the story. The film actually makes the focus to be on both Takao and Yukino while the manga sort of takes the focus away from Yukino and makes it more centered around Takao. The film shows both Yukino and Takao in their everyday lives while the manga showed more of Takao. It even had an added scene of Takao skipping a rainy morning and instead of going to the park where Yukino was, he went to check out a shoe making college.
The light novel is the one that was most impressive and left more of an impact on me than the manga or the film. The light novel is the one that was released last, but it was definitely worth the extra wait. The light novel has so many different perspectives than just Takao and Yukino. Takao's older brother has a chapter that gives his perspective on events that happen, along with Aizawa, the upper classman who got Yukino to quit. The light novel gives more insight into the lives of Takao and Yukino as well, unfurling the memories of the past to show how it affects them as they are now, along with an epilogue that occurs years after the initial ending point that all three stop at. It even gave the impression that everything that was happening stemmed from Yukino. The light novel was completely centered around Yukino, everyone around her being sucked into the whirlwind that was her.
Now, each of these three have a different ending, which I think is actually really powerful to the story overall. In all honesty, I think that the light novel was the best to convey the story, with the depth that was added that wasn't in the manga or film. The depth of the characters, their backstories and thoughts, really changed my perspective of the original story I had come to know. All are, of course, worth reading and watching, but the light novel definitely should be saved for last. "Saving the best for last," you know?
I hope that you guys enjoyed this comparison post concerning The Garden of Words. I will, hopefully, be writing more in the future, just have to see how things go. Thank you for sticking with me this past year! I hope to have you guys stick with me for the years to come!
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