The Garden of Words

The Garden of Words centers on Takao Akizuki, a fifteen-year-old student who trains to become a shoemaker and skips class to sketch shoe designs in a Japanese garden. On a rainy morning he meets Yukino, a mysterious woman older than him, and without any arrangement the two keep running into each other, but only when it rains. As they grow closer and confide in one another, the end of the rainy season draws near, threatening the routine that brought them together. The film was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, released in 2013 and running 46 minutes, with animation production by CoMix Wave Films. It followed Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) in his filmography and preceded Someone's Gaze (2013), Cross Road (2014) and Your Name. (2016). The voice cast includes Miyu Irino as Takao, Kana Hanazawa as Yukino, Fumi Hirano, Takeshi Maeda, Yuka Terasaki and Takanori Hoshino; Noritaka Kawaguchi produced. The film has a strong audience following, with ratings of 7.4 on IMDb from around 60,000 votes and 7.6 on TMDB from roughly 2,300 votes.