Celebrated anime director Naoko Yamada’s latest project is a beautiful study of death.

Or perhaps, more accurately, grief.

The director is known for her work with Kyoto Animation studio, particularly slice-
of-life comedy anime series K-On!, manga adaptation A Silent Voice, and a number
of Sound! Euphonium works. More recently, Yamada directed The Heike Story, a
series she made with Science SARU, the animation studio behind the recent Inu-Oh.

Her new short film, also made with Science SARU, is called Garden of
Remembrance. It’s profoundly evocative. Its focus on the everyday, its pastel colour
palette, moving music, and deceptive simplicity all give it an extraordinary power. It
captures a series of complex feelings that arise out of losing a loved one, and feels
deeply personal at the same time as conveying a sense of the universal. Grief touches
everyone, and can make us feel isolated and alone, and yet life goes on.