Literature

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The Garden of Words

The story ‘The Garden of Words’ revolves around Takao Akizuki. Takao is a typical high school student that has inspirations and dreams of becoming a shoemaker. The passion of becoming a shoemaker drives him to drop out of school so that he can focus solely on honing his craft. When visiting a garden themed park, it starts to rain, and so he takes cover under a small shelter. Here he comes across a woman who seems to be little older and introduces herself as Yukari Yukino. As the two of them begin to talk, Takao’s feelings for her begins to develop. They continue to meet in the same spot regularly, but only on the rainy days and as according to the narrator, the rainy days will not last forever, and once they end, the fate of these two shall be met. The Garden of words has been animated and as well as illustrated through graphics. In the comparison and contrasting of the two works; manga and anime, we get some similarities as well as some differences that are evident in both contexts. In the analysis, I shall be looking at the background and visuals, sounds, contrast, color, animations and the verbal communication.

In the context of animation, the individual blades of grass, leaves, the raindrops and the best of all the incidence to which Takao draws out his shoe patterns. The animation of the individual blades of the grass is made possible to communicate the mood of the story as they are made in such a manner that they are swinging making the place look lively and full of life. The animations remove the boredom that could have otherwise resulted if the film was shot in a calm environment. The raindrops are also part of the animation, each of the drops is animated as it falls from the sky and hits the ground. The animation of the raindrops is made in such a way that they fall majestically creating a nearly genuine situation to which the viewer may tend to seem like it is the immediate environment that he is. Furthermore, the animations have been extended to show the actions that the characters are involved. The best of the animations is the instance to which Takao draws his show pattern. He makes it so real that you can even think like it’s a real shooting. Additional animations such as walking have also been included in the animation making it more like just a normal film. On the other side of the pictorial representation in Manga, we do not expect any animations in the graphics. The only thing that we can deduce is an illustration if the items such as falling raindrops. There are no much animations in Manga.

Comparing the background and the visuals in the anime and manga, we happen to see some great similarities as well as differences. For the similarities, both of them are composed of stunning beauty, revealing the smooth part of nature along with its aesthetics. The green leaves and trees, water splashing and lighting, are all made in high definitions with such a high resolution and contrast; this makes the background of the animation to be fantastic and much enjoyable. On the other side of manga, the graphical representation is clear with a god coloration that indicates the setting of the story. Somehow the pictorial representation tends to differ with the animation in the sense that some of them are done in black and white that somehow distorts the pictorial background though there is higher contrast.

In the animation, there are sounds very prominent with the rhythm-matching even to the raindrops. The music creates a romantic mood to which is experienced by the two lovebirds during the time they are taking cover over the rains. Music is usually incorporated into a text also to create a relaxed mood. In the animation, the music sounds try to communicate the different episodes along with the splashing of the rain. On the other side of manga, however, the graphical representation does not has any sounds or music and therefore leaves the reader to analyze the mood by himself and thus create a big difference between the graphics and the animation.

In the animation of the Garden of words, there are verbal exchanges that assist the reader to deeply understand the context of the story while in the comic representation there is no sounds nor verbal exchange but instead texts are used to indicate communication between the characters. Despite having several items that differ, both the animation and the graphics both have incorporated cartoons to stand on the post of the characters and only differs from them being animated to perform the different functions and play the same character as the owner. Color is another issue that is evident in the Garden of words, both the pictorial and the animation have colors that really blend to the environment dictating the setting of the story. The color green provides enough evidence that the play was done in a park where the natural setting that depicts the beginning of new dawn to Takoa. Color in the pictorial part of manga has some variations to which range from colored to black and white sometimes confusing the reader leaving him to make some inferences.Work Cited

Abel, Jessica, and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond. Macmillan, 2008.

Jose, Lissy. “The Multiplicity of Screens And Its Impact on Filmic Narration: A Study on The Feature Films Of Makoto Shinkai.” Open Issue: 11.