Kotonoha no Niwa, a.k.a. The Garden Of Words:
Well, obviously, the very first thing that must be commented on is that animation/art.
It seems to me that some of it had to have been at least rotoscoped, if not actual live-action footage somehow blended in-- and if it was neither, then consider me even *more* impressed than I already had been!
-- but no matter how it was done, it was beautiful!
As for the story: This *is* a very short movie-- pretty much just as long as a normal live-action TV show episode without commercials
-- so while the thread of romance running through it was a little compressed, I thought it worked well in the time it had. And while I do have to admit that I much, *much* prefer a whole lot more closure than this when it comes to romantic plots/subplots, I knew going into this that that's not Shinkai-sensei's style
, and anyway-- especially with that last dialogue line after the credits,
which I thankfully found a translation for here-- as far as I can tell from what I've heard about his other works, this is apparently the most
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: hopeful conclusion to a romance the man has ever done, aside from the *manga* version of Voices Of A Distant Star (a manga which I quite enjoyed, BTW ). So, considering that, this was actually a pretty happy ending (for this director ), and one I can be (fairly ) satisfied with.In short, it was well worth the watch.