Garden of Remembrance

An untidy room. Empty beer tins, empty wine bottles, a half-empty glass of whisky...

A girl is getting up absent-mindedly and starts preparing herself. YOUR morning starts. Lazy and hard-to-wake-up YOU. The emoticon is ME watching over YOU. I play tricks on YOU, while YOU are playing the guitar and drinking. One day, in town, YOU walk past THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND who is buying an Anemone I liked, and remembering that I liked them, YOU rush out to buy them. THE CHILDHOOD FRIEND displays the Anemone with care.

One day, years after I died, YOU hear noise from the closet. Opened, YOU see MY garden right in front of YOU. Overflowing emotions of ME and YOU. When exiting from the room with memories, a picture of the Anemone that YOU painted is displayed in YOUR new room.

(Souce: Annecy Film Festival)

Childhood Friend Main

I Main

You Main

Sakita, Kouhei Producer

Matsumura, Kazuto Producer

Yamada, Naoko Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Screenplay

Zhang, Weilin Key Animation

Reviews

Feb 8, 2025

not_salad

Recommended

This anime is categorized as a movie, but it's actually more like a 17-minute music video. The music by Lovely Summer Chan is an absolutely integral part of this short film that contains no dialogue and nothing really resembling a plot. The indie rock soundtrack pairs perfectly with the visuals, climaxing in a beautiful explosion of shoegazey guitar around 2/3rds of the way through. Similar to shows that heavily rely on music like FLCL, this film is very much an experience you feel rather than think about. The monotony of your morning routine, silhouettes of the past, memories of a loved one—these are all experiences ... or feelings that are best evoked through music and visuals, no dialogue necessary.

It's only 17 minutes long, give it a watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 5, 2024

utopia-

Recommended

When we grow up and reach adulthood, it is normal, sometimes, whether by chance or for plausible reasons, to abandon who we were during childhood or during who we were during adolescence, maybe because we must seek maturity or maybe we have made wrong choices along the way, Depending on how your journey to adulthood went, your life can be seen from different perspectives. Tomorrow you may be alone, tomorrow you may find love, tomorrow you may find death, tomorrow you may find the happiness of living... In this we only have one certainty... with absolute certainty we will abandon something, because growth demands it ... this of us. It is cruel to give up the sweet moments in someone's company during childhood, it is sad to drop out of school when we reach adolescence, It's heartbreaking, painful, to leave a friend, or a/one girlfriend/boyfriend after so much time together. But sometimes, it's necessary for us to grow, and it's inevitable for us to try to stop it. Time runs out, and all that's left is a garden of memories, from different times, with different feelings...Growth sometimes exhausts our potential to think or it can also have the opposite effect, taking away or adding our potential, Emotions are easier to control in adulthood but there are still times when they slip from our mind and overflow to say that we need to remember good times of what we were and that from now on we will be someone who will experience new things.

"Ah... How relaxing it was when I just played with my friends and went to school."
"It was so good when I loved and didn't have to think too much"
"Maybe I miss something or someone, but who cares."
"Today I saw a childhood friend that I hadn't seen for a long time, I wanted to greet that person, but I couldn't"
"My routine is the same, and that's just something that even if I try to change now, I feel like it's too late."
"What is happiness? What am I? Is my purpose...?"

With only 17 minutes in length, with no dialogue, and a silent beginning that gradually creates sound, "garden of remembrance" places the viewer in the presence of a girl that at first glance seems to just be repeating a common routine, where the simple sound of an alarm is what makes her find the strength to get up. The girl remembers good times that are gone while she is faced with longing, her feelings overflow and the world begins to become nostalgic, colorful, happy, sad, exciting...there are so many emotions that all she wants when remembering the memories is just to hold on to them so they don't run away, maybe because she's lonely, or maybe because she needs those memories for herself that she was happy. The sound of the guitar along with the serene voice of the song played in the episode exalts the nostalgia of someone who has already passed away, feelings hide in every corner of the room, in the living room, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, maybe the girl just wants to go back in time or maybe she needs to give up who she is and who she once was, feeling exhausted but perhaps satisfied because for her the process has reached where she is, in its adult phase, it was beautiful but unfortunately it is fleeting and distressing...

Garden of Memories presents the viewer with visuals that always try to represent the movement of everything, as that girl's life is very stagnant at the moment, and only the memories move her. The lack of speech and the excess of emojis represent feelings that we cannot express, but that are still in our minds. The soundtrack is serene and sometimes a little chaotic, depending on the moment, but only one thing is certain, the garden of memories will disappear from the moment we take a step forward and discover that we can make new gardens of memories.

I wonder now: did that girl find what she wanted? Or was the change of leaving that house just a feeling that: "I must abandon this to move forward and evolve"...I don't know... I just know that she was happy and maybe we just need to overcome the feeling of longing, maybe this is the real step towards our evolution...

Thank you for reading this far.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 6, 2025

Tharr

Not Recommended

Almost 17 minutes of torture. Don't bother. I thought I'll give it a try just because it was short and the positive reviews, even without knowing the tags. But this all feels like some high schoolers' promoting piece.

The visuals are meh, very simplistic/basic. The designs are kept to a minimum, the colour palette is ok. The cinematography is not there. Or more exactly, it feels like someone without full knowledge tried to make some "art": basic knowledge without full grasp. Some ok shots but mostly it feels like it is trying hard to be something, and it fails. The animation, again, kept to a minimum. ...
Audio. Bad, or very bad. The vocals sound off-key almost every time, the melodic line is poorly constructed and rhythm shifts so often that you start wishing for the play to end.
Having said that, you might wanna watch it for the "story". Not my cup of tea. More so with these the visuals and audio. Yes, I can understand what it went for, but thats just it: "I" was able to (thanks to my past), the anime never succeeded in its delivery. And if it can't, thats a fail.
It get a rating of 3. Just because you can make an anime from anything, it doesn't mean you should.
Have a lovely evening.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Garden of Remembrance Episode 1 Discussion Leysoh - Aug 31, 2024	9 replies	by alpo42ab »» Oct 26, 8:20 PM
	Film is without dialogue (so no waiting for subtitles), currently streaming, here's the official links merukomu11 - Aug 29, 2024	0 replies	by merukomu11 »» Aug 29, 2024 7:04 PM
	Release date and Main PV nirererin - Aug 19, 2024	0 replies	by nirererin »» Aug 19, 2024 1:22 AM
	This was shown as Scotland Loves Anime way back in Oct 2022 Jax - Apr 10, 2024	4 replies	by RainyEvenings »» Aug 11, 2024 4:13 AM
	Why is this labelled as "Previewed" in October 2022? illintelligence - Nov 17, 2023	1 replies	by MagicPolly »» Nov 17, 2023 8:34 PM