Light Novel: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

 

I guess you guys didn't see this one coming! Or maybe you guys did... let me tell you though, I didn't. I had no idea about the light novel until recently, I just don't keep up to date anymore with anime and manga news all that often. So imagine my surprise when I went on the Kindle store to finally buy The Garden of Words the manga and found this instead! There were some discrepancies with me trying to buy it, mostly due to the fact that the light novel isn't it's own listing and is linked to the physical manga listing. I couldn't find the Kindle manga listing until I chatted with customer service who kind of fixed it. You can find the manga now, but the light novel is still linked to it, not yet a separate listing.

Anime: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

This review has been a long time coming! This is going to be a throwback to my very first review on this blog... The Garden of Words by Shinkai Makoto! This film has finally reached Netflix, really it's been on there for a while but I haven't gotten the motivation to watch it as of late. I finally motivated myself to watching it though, so here we go!

The Garden of Words is a coming-of-age, slice of life film that revolves around Akizuki Takao, a fifteen-year-old first year who dreams of becoming a shoemaker in this day and age. He always skips first period on rainy days, going to a nearby park. One of these days he meets a woman at the park in the gazebo, drinking beer and eating chocolate.

Manga: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

The Garden of Words by Shinkai Makoto is a wonderful coming-of-age, slice of life, shoujo manga centers around a young first year boy, just starting high school, and a woman who has started to give up on life. Once these two meet, they start to change each other, preparing themselves for what lies ahead in their lives. I had to reread this manga to remember the details, like the characters' names, since it's been a while from when I last read it. The story is superb and it really moves you, making you sympathize with the characters and feel as though you're them. 

"Shinkai has often been hailed as the next Miyazaki..." -Variety