| I pre-ordered the novel a month or so ago for the English release on 25 August. Including the epilogue it's around 250 pages so it made for relatively easy read. 10 Chapters each told from a character or character(s) point of view with poetry from the Man'yōshū at the end of chapter to show the feelings being conveyed by the character or character(s) narrating the chapter. Similar to the movie, the novel centered around the internal and emotional struggles being faced by Takao Akizuki and Yukari Yukino. However, we also see the story through the eyes of other characters only glimpsed at in the film and we see their struggles as well. We see Takao's brother and mother, Shouta Akizuki and Reimi Akizuki, the student at the center of rumors that forced Yukari from teaching Shouko Aizawa, and Souchirou Itou Yukari's ex and another teacher at the school. For the story itself, it's relatively the same as the movie, but to me the movie served as the foundation for the novel. Shinkai himself even mentioned in the Afterword that if the novel was made into a movie, it could last about 2 hours instead of the 46 minutes that viewers received. The novel adds so much more depth to the characters and expressions that are simply difficult to animate or the movie was not able to portray. This can be seen when Takao and Yukari are interacting with each other. Knowing what they're thinking adds a new dimension to their characters. For Takao, we know how he feels about Yukari when confesses to her in her apartment. From Yukari's perspective, the movie shows us that she's visibly moved by the confession but we don't truly know what she's thinking. The novel confirms that she truly indeed loved him, but she had subconsciously pushed her feelings away up until that moment. The movie ends with Takao in the garden during the winter reading a letter from Yukari and a promise by Takao to himself that one day when he's able to walk on his own he'll go see her while showing us the shoes he made for her. The novel builds upon this promise. It takes a step further than the movie by showing more of the aftermath of their separation. We see Takao does make the shoes for her but requests a review from his mother, causing her to pick up on the fact that her son is in love due to her deduction that the shoes were made not for profit but for someone. Additionally, we learn Takao had decided to pursue a career in shoemaking by moving to Florence while exchanging letters then eventually emails with Yukari while she's in Shikoku but omitting aspects of their personal lives from them. Finally, we get to the epilogue of the novel. To me it's a true epilogue and one that I had been waiting for since the film had left me with the feeling of wanting more for Yukari and Takao. After 5 years apart, Takao finds himself returning home to visit Tokyo while Yukari planned on being in Tokyo around the same time. Both plan on arranging to meet where it all began, the garden. The epilogue is told from both of their eyes as their feelings of longing for each other surface. Both reflect on the words Takao spoke in the garden about making shoes for an unnamed woman. A moment that they both believed to be a promise to each other that they'd see each other again. The end of the epilogue is simple yet beautiful. It's told in a way that's extremely similar to the beginning when Yukari and Takao first meet in the garden all those years ago. Only this time when Yukari notices Takao under the arbor, her "near-tearful expression slowly dissolves into a smile". This reunion implies that the two lost souls that had longed for each other are now ready to take the next step into the future now that they had learned to walk on their own. Thoughts? |
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| I can't believe this entry isn't approved yet. I just finished the novel today after preordering it over a year ago and I loved it even more than the movie. While I liked the movie, parts of it feel really shallow. The chapters that really stuck out to me were the ones focusing on characters who weren't Takao or Yukino. The Shouko chapter in particular was really striking in the way that it completely recontextualizes her character. The extra depth in the Takao/Yukino chapters were really good too though. I agree that the epilogue was really great, it's a conclusion I really wanted from the movie but never got. Shinkai said in the afterword that if the novel were readapted it would be over 2 hours long but honestly I don't think it would work as one. There's too much internal thought that wouldn't be able to translate over. Maybe a manga, but even then I don't know how well it would work. Overall I'm glad I read the novel, it was really great even if it lacks the stunning animation of the movie. |
Thunder_lol said: Why hasn't this novel been approved yet? Finally has been after all these years |