YMMV / The Garden of Words

• Alternate Character Interpretation: What is Yukari's relationship towards Takao? He has a Precocious Crush on her but is it mutual or does she simply enjoy his company platonically?
• Awesome Music: The ending theme, Rain by Motohiro Hata, is an emotional yet catchy song that fits the movie almost perfectly.
• Awesome Art: There's a reason why this movie is regarded as a visual masterpiece or called Scenery Porn. The backgrounds are gorgeous and highly visually appealing. Even if you aren't into the story, the visuals alone tend to satisfy people.
• Broken Base: Many people regard this film highly, with some even saying it's the pinnacle of Shinkai's work that Your Name can't match. There are however those who disagree, thinking it too short to properly develop the characters and plot, and overreliant on atmosphere and visuals and falling apart when scrutinized.
• Never Live It Down: For some people, even the slight hint of a teacher-student romance is enough to taint the film irreversibly, never mind that it doesn't actually bear fruit. For some others, it's "the foot fetish movie", though the film itself never actually confirms that Takao has a foot or shoe fetish, so this is a pretty blatant example of Fetishes Are Weird as an audience reaction
• Values Dissonance: It's a romantically-tinged film about a fifteen year old boy and a teacher (though, not his teacher). Takao is under the standard minimal Age of Consent in most countries (sixteen), nevermind that Yukari is an older authority figure. Some of the dissonance is mediated by the lack of overt affection between them, with the closest Ship Tease being the hug and Maybe Ever After.

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