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Garden of Words Home Release Details

Anime Limited has posted some details about its upcoming release of Makoto Shinkai's The Garden of Words (pictured), which will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 10.

The film will come with the following extras: two commentaries, one with Shinkai in Japanese (subtitled) and one with the dub cast in English; 52 minutes of interviews with Shinkai and the Japanese cast; the whole film in storyboard format; stills from the English dub production; the Japanese trailer; and trailers for Shinkai's other works.

Andrew Partridge of Anime Limited commented that the film will be released in a 'standard' (not deluxe) case, because that had been judged to give the best value for money. Deluxe packaging 'would have raised the price point to £34.99 for a deluxe combi-pack, which for the length of the work did not seem like a proposition we would want to ask people to stick out for initially.' The trailer is below:

The Garden of Words opened in Japan in May 2013, running approximately 46 minutes. It follows the story of shoemaker-in-training Takao, who begins sketching shoes in a Japanese-style garden. He meets a mysterious older woman and the two start meeting and deepening their relationship. Shinkai previously wrote that The Garden of Words would be his first story about love in the traditional Japanese meaning of the word. Originally, "love" was written as "lonely sadness" (koi), and, according to Shinkai, the modern concept of "love" (ai) was imported from the West. While his new film is set in the modern era, it will be about koi in the original "lonely sadness" meaning — of longing for someone in solitude.

Regarding the planned Anime Limited release of a collection of Shinkai's work, Partridge said that he hoped 'to have more information for around June / July about it and realistically a release date for Christmas would be my optimistic guess for it – could be Q1 2015 depending on what extras we can liberate.' He added that it would be a 'high-priced set.'