Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou

Let's start with the obvious: Yes I did give this movie a bold 10/10. I wasn't sure how to feel about it so I watched it twice in cinemas in Japan with a one week cool-off period in between both viewing. Honestly, the first time it simply blew me away and stayed in my head non stop for like 3-4 days. This is a heavy statement but it is indeed one of the best animated movies I've ever watched. The second watching was in order to try to find flaws and to focus a bit more on small details of the plot and the music. Let's structure a bit the mess in my head, here goes: Story: Well, Mari Okada all right. She is known for her emotional stories and this one indeed enters the category just fiiiine! The movie feels very long in a good way: The story, the world and places, the character development, the sub plots... All these elements adds up and fill the ensemble to the brim giving the impression to have lived and discovered a lot with the characters ; and that is one of the main strenghts here. Everything is well rounded and the difference of pace in the various plot elements do not leave any space to get bored. There is a well-balanced mix of emotional moments, intense action and everyday life organized in a non generic narrative structure, which I find very refreshing. The theme developped is that of the relationship between mother and child. It is not a very common subject developped in detail and I really enjoyed the depth and various angles the movie takes to treat the subject. Art: Here, we have a very prestigious staff making characters and backgrounds. For the characters, Akihiko Yoshida character designer on Final Fantasy and Granblue Fantasy did a great job in creating the various types of characters. Even with the adaptation done for animation, you still see his strong influence, especially on the astounding work done on the clothes that are very stylish, diverse and inspired. The resulting chara design is very simple and round on the faces which can be a bit unsettling at the beggining but very cute nonetheless. About the background: the most prestigious animators of PA Works created incredible places helping to create a very rich world to discover. It is without a doubt the most impressive visual aspect on my end. To conclude this section, the CGI: globally well done and integrated, some rare sequences stand out too much but it isn't much of a problem in my opinion. Sound: Kenji Kawai is quite recognizable as a composer and you get that very easily here with the usual sound and instruments used. Nonetheless it is a very inspired soundtrack that come and goes with some very insistant themes that really shape the movie and the emotions. Also very well paced and used. Character: I am not gonna go in too much detail here because I don't wanna spoil the story but once again the characters are very well made, the vast majority of them are very logical in their motives, development and thought processes. The whole focus of the movie is obviously Maquia and Erial (or Ariel whatever) and their relashionship. So much so that you may feel that some secondary characters / subplots are not developped enough... Well it is indeed an argument but remember: It is the story of Maquia and Erial, so it is good the movie doesn't dwelve too much in various directions. Enjoyment + conclusion: Well I suppose this is clear enough already! I very deeply enjoyed this movie that awed me and obsessed me for days on end. It has a compelling story with a not so common theme in a fantasy setting including memorable scenes and very well developped characters with whom you grow fond of very quickly. It gets very emotional towards the end, all thanks to that very well paced development and evolution throughout the film. Beware, it is indeed a tear jerker and both times the whole room was crying at the end. Also, in case it isn't clear enough already, this is not a family oriented movie, it is geared towards adults and some themes and element are quite dark and mature. I've been trying to find flaws but putting aside very minor stuff, I don't see any major problems. Add to that the overwhelming impact of all the goodness I developed above and you get a masterpiece to be remembered. Hence the 10/10. Not everybody is gonna like it the way I did but if you are okay with emotional stories and fantasy, please give Sayoasa a go without hesitation and you won't be disappointed. Thank you for reading!

Seeing many of these 10/10 reviews and people saying they cried shocked me. I wondered if we had even seen the same movie. I, and seemly many who left the theatre did not leave angry; but we certainly were not raving about it being a masterpiece either. And in the whole theatre, only a single person cried. I overheard many conversations after the movie of it being "okay" and "a lot of stuff didn't make sense" and a few more criticisms. And I agree with them, this movie is no masterpiece. However, it is not bad either. So, here is my review Story:5/10 Firstly, I find the plot to be all over the place, and it never seems to have enough time to focus on each 'arc' of the story. Due to this, we see a few time jumps that aren't explained and many many many coincidences throughout this animation. So many coincidences it's actually ridiculous. So many unexplainable coincidences made it seem pretty silly many times throughout the film. The best example would be when Maquia one night disappears, and then the next thing we know she's getting her hair cut in some random room and then next thing we know she's heading an invasion of some sort. Like, wtf just happened? I have a general idea, but wow. There is literally no explanation other than she vanishes and then bam shes back again so you're left to put together the pieces. And, of course, the fact that in a massive metropolis city she manages to 'stumble across' every main character multiple times across the entire movie. "The Clan of the Separated"? Yeah right... This for me dampered many scenes that would have otherwise been fairly heartwarming or sad. The overall plot isn't a bad one. It's actually a very interesting concept that I feel was just simply not done right. Or, maybe needed 2 parts and more time to do it correctly. Art: 7/10 Animation wise it wasn't bad. Certainly wasn't great either. A few scenes looked quite silly but those were few and far apart. Was up and down throughout the film and sometimes is quite plain and boring but decided on a 7. Overall, not many complaints here. Sound 7/10: Here I had no complaints. No song really stuck out and made me really think about it deeper but all the songs seemed to match their scenes and OST was well done. No issues here Characters: 6/10 Characters were pretty good. Clear development was seen in our two main characters which was nice to see. However, many other characters who seemed like they had importance, or could have had importance were simply forgotten about which was very disappointing. The biggest of which is the Army General Izol who swore to atone for his sins to Leila who was seen after that for maybe less than 5 seconds. In addition, the drunk man whom we never learn much of anything about whi randomly appears to save the day or just simply out of nowhere could have been done a lot better too. In conclusion, it was a Weak 7. The movie was decently enjoyable but was literally coincidences the animation. Had a good concept with potential but didn't live up to it. However, still created a movie that was appealing and a decently enjoyable watch if you don't think too much about it.

I saw this movie already few weeks ago, but I am posting my review for it delayed because for the first time in several years, I was lost in what to say. *might contain light spoilers* Let me start by giving some backstory information: I am huge fan of drama series, but unlike most people who consider themselves a fan of drama: I hate almost every drama that is being made today. No matter how highly praised the series and movies I watch are, they always end up disappointing me. Shallow teenagers cry in them for no reason whatsoever. Emotional depth is at near 0% if achieved at all. Story telling and characterization rely too much on spoon-feeding the feelings. The world building is miniscule since the sole point of the series is always just to offer some cheap tearjerking for those who never ask for more. Execution-wise, silence; situations where nothing needs to be said are the heaviest possible way to convey drama, but the audience is almost never respected or trusted in this way. So instead, the drama is directed at viewers via over-exaggerated voice acting, crying scenes and downright pathetic yelling sequences which only purpose is to show how much emotions the characters are feeling, but the viewer is always forgotten. What 'When the Promised Flower Blooms' does is different because the feels are not hitting the characters: they hit the viewer instead. For the first time in 7 years, the anime industry has managed to create something that made me cry. I will keep this as simple and honest as I can. Story: -Takes place in a world that is a mixture of high-tier utopia fantasy where peaceful beings similar to elves are coexisting with nature and medieval human race in where kings and knights rule their part of the land in highly immoral and not-so-peaceful manner. -Mixes together political thriller, war, drama and daily life of both races. -Focuses on interracial willing and unwilling relationships. The main plot line being about elf-woman and a human child starting a family together where she takes the role of a (foster) mother. Another heavy motherhood-related concept is related to another elf-woman who is raped by the human king and becomes a (biological) parent to her child, but never sees her. -Deals with heavy questions about family, love, living, finding your own place in the world. As well as regret, adapting and one's purpose in life. -Several different themes are presented via different characters and their circumstances to a point that it is hard to see how at least one of these POV's wouldn't resonate with its viewer. -All of this is build around a solid story and inside a world so masterfully crafted that despite its drama-heavy content, it could as well be called just a fantasy movie. -Build together in such an impressive manner that after finishing the 2 hour movie, I felt like I had seen a 24 episodes long tv anime. So much content, hardly any filler, smooth and impressive from writing to directing. Characters: -Simply put: they are genuine, often very lost, trying their best, miserable beings at times, yet developed into something beautiful. -Most of them struggle to face reality, some simply can't. Ideas such as suicide are brought on the table. In generally, great many characters are put in places that are against everything they would prefer. The best part is how much sense the drama makes in the series and how honest the character reactions to every situation are. -Elf-people are have close-to-immortal lifespan which creates confusion especially in the main plotline where our mother realizes she is cursed to outlive her adopted son. The son simultaneously has to deal with his own confused feelings where he starts maturing and surpassing this person who no longer starts to seem like a mother to him, but a litle sister. Art: -Fucking amazing. -Very familiar feel to it. Fantasy world similar to video games such as ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian + also the Disney Movie Atlantis. -Character movements can look occasionally weird for they can never truly match the backgrounds that are so insanely beautiful. -No money was saved in the making of this piece of art. It looks cold and brutal at times, yet so often incredibly beautiful. Water surfaces work like mirrors, the lighting and color pallet make details come alive. -In generally, the art serves the immersive nature of the series so well that it can't really be said to be none less than its very own thing. Something that can't quite be found anywhere else. Sounds: -Some of the cast are voiced by annoying "shonen-like" seiyuu's which is a minus. -The important roles are highly fitting to the characters. They offer personality and practically never go over board with the seiyuu work. Even the rare emotional voice acting feel real and genuine. -Music is used in the smartest possible way. Otherwise this doesn't have an OST I would listen separately, but it really feels like it was made just for this movie. Enjoyment: -The first 15 minutes made me think this is going to be highly mediocre drama like all the other recent drama. -Rest of the movie quite literally flew by. -It left me with a long lasting impact, highly memorable piece. -My eyes got wet in total of 3 times, and I legit cried during climax of the story where everything went down. Conclusion: -Highly recommended.

To start, I watched this in theaters in Japan. The art for this series is fantastic. Backgrounds, buildings, and landscapes are all works of art. The characters, on the other hand, are not so great. I hope they improve them for the Blu-ray release. The voice acting was pretty good, but there were a couple places that had me wondering how it passed pre-screening. The story starts out kinda slow, kinda jumps to a bit of action, then slows again. There is a lot of character growth, and you do get attached to them. Finally, this movie is an emotional rollercoaster. I usually don’t cry in movies, but this one had the whole theater (including me) crying at the end. Overall, I would say it is worth seeing at least once, maybe even worth buying. But I can’t see myself going to watch it a second time in theaters, mainly because I don’t think my heart can take it.

I haven’t watched anime in over a year and I wanted to revisit its form through a good entry point. There was a lot of social media buzz surrounding this movie. People on this site were giving it 9’s and 10’s and even one of my favorite musicians, Porter Robinson, tweeted about this movie and how good it was. And so, I selected this movie on a cozy Friday night with a bowl of soup and high expectations. Wow. It is disappointing in countless aspects over the course of its two hour runtime. I am writing this review so that you can save yourself the time I wasted! To say the least, disappointment started to creep in before the halfway mark had even hit. If you’re looking for a film that dives head-first into a deep, emotional, and realistic exploration of paternal ties, then forget this movie. This introduction starts off with a good premise. The story revolves around an ancient clan isolated from the other factions of the world due to their immortality. This sets up a good framework for the exploration of isolation, segregation, and xenophobia but its actually never explored to its fullest extent. The movie is riddled with ridiculous plot holes, nonsensical character development, and layered with incestual undertones between a mother-son relationship. Often times, many of the side characters introduced are one-dimensional and completely stray from their motives in later sequences to elicit a cheap, emotional response from the audience. Their arcs make no sense in regards to the plot and indicate a lack of respect for coherent storytelling. The only saving grace of this movie is the animation, which is detailed and breathtaking in some sequences. You’re better off watching Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki than this garbled mess.

[Warming Spoilers] I went into this movie with high expectations, after all, it has incredibly high reviews and as of this review is the 21st highest ranked movie on MAL. While others seem to think this movie was incredible I for one was unable to be moved. I want to focus this review on the three main parts of the movie I found to be its downfall; characters, story, and pacing. Characters: This movie is at its heart a character drama dealing with the feelings of love and loss. Because of this it is incredibly important to write your characters in a way that makes them worthy of the audiences attention. This movie fails to do that. The main reason behind this in my opinion is lack of character development. Our main cast is never properly developed throughout this movies 115 minute run time. The only decent piece of character development we get happens in the first scene of the movie where Leilia jumps off a cliff into the water and Maquia refuses to follow, while Krim lectures Leilia for slacking off. This scene shows us that Leilia is an easy going carefree girl while Maquia is scared and timid and Krim hard working and disciplined. Yet these personality traits are never again exemplified in any of these characters. Through the rest of the movie these characters dont seem to show any unique traits to themselves nor any reason for us as an audience to be invested in them. Story: For me story was by far the part of this movie which dragged me out of it the most. The overall plot is not my issue but rather the writing and characters motivations for their actions. Throughout this movie many changes in the story are brought upon by a characters decision to do something. Yet, nearly none of these actions seem to make any sense in relation to the characters interests nor do they show any semblance of rational thought. Below are a few examples of awful writing that took me out of the movie. - Leilia refusing to escape after being rescued by Maquia. She decides this under the guise that Krim wouldnt be able to look at her again, but for her to think this about being pregnant with a child that was forced upon her (and conceived through rape) is nothing but thick plot armor. - Maquia deciding not to return home to Mido after failing to capture back Leilia. This would have been the objectivly best decision for the welfare of her child and would have avoided the hard grueling life her and Ariel led thereafter. - Ariel leaving his wife to fight in the battle. This mans wife is nearly expecting to have a child which he himself calls his future, yet he is more than ready to give that all up to risk his life as a foot soldier for a regime which is made clear to be the wrong side of the fight throughout the movie. Usually in a movie if your main character is going to risk their life in battle it should be for something, not at its behest. Speaking of Ariel leaving, Ariel's ability to leave right before something horrible happens to those he loves most is so timely that it borders on comedic. Whether its leaving Maquia to join the army only for her to be kidnapped minutes later or leaving his wife to fight in the army right before she goes into labor Ariel has a knack for leaving his loved ones when they need it most. For a character whose desires are to be there to protect the ones he loves, he fails at it in the worst ways possible every time. Pacing: The last major issue I had with this movie was the pacing. For a movie that covers such a long period of time with a large cast of characters spanning many locations to work the pacing must be effective. This movie fails to do so. Often times I found myself wondering where or when I was at in this stories large world due to the seemingly random cuts in it. These cuts prevent us as an audience from knowing much if anything at all about characters feelings or motivations behind the actions we see them participating in. This is a major error which took greatly away from the flow of the film. In the end I feel there was lots of room for potential in this story. The world building and animation were incredible and the narrative was quite touching. If PA Works had instead decided to make this story into a TV show with more time to develop their characters and fill in the story I am sure we would have been left with a far greater final product.

Review 22.11.2018: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou "Every review is subjective, art is subjective your opinion may differ, never trust reviews to make the opinion for you, use them as a guide and make your own journey." Maquia was one of the movies I wanted to watch after it was announced in 2017 because from the few PV’s and promotional videos we got it looked promising being an original work of P.A Works that have done many great works in the past. However P.A Works are very often hit and miss, they either make something brilliant, or something very mediocre and after finally having the Blu-ray release of Maquia I was astonished how overrated it was by everyone and critiques alike. Your opinion may vary but for me there serious issues within this movie that make it completely lacklustre and I will go into depth why this is so. The first issue is the presentation in how time flows for an Iorph, while they live long lives the movie decides to present this as a broken VCR that skips over frankly essential parts, in many sense it be ignorant to claim this is a fluid experience, the movie is presented in parts, which have loose connections with each other, it is the Swiss cheese experience of plot holes which makes it feel like mini-episodes rather than a coherent movie. In many ways I could describe it as trying to cram 12 episodes into a movie but you cut out the odd numbered episodes and only keep the even ones, why this choice was not made to begin with, is illogical to me. Because of this we have large plot holes that would otherwise explained much more, it is difficult to explain without spoilers but to put it simple, the relationships with the characters develop unevenly and you are constantly thrown into situations you cannot remember why it happens because you are never given a reason why in the first place. Another issue with P.A Works is how they write stories in general, the characters do not progress the story, the story progress the characters, this works and may not work and in Maquia it just makes it stupid. At the beginning of the movie the Iorph’s are invaded by a small mercenary sized company who captures ONE Iorph who happens to be very close friends with Maquia, of course. We are however never shown this take place only that it had happened as we see in the trailer. Where do this scenario fit in to the main story? Firstly, there few of the attacking forces, and there more Iorph’s, why are they not fighting back? If the Iorph’s are hunted in the first place why is there no standing army or militia? Why did they even need dragons to capture ONE Iorph’s from them to begin with if they have no army? Its not as if the men of the Iorph’s do not exist because they do we get to see them a few times. This makes no sense in the overall picture. This movie is mostly about Maquia which is the main character and her son, she is clearly the main character in development throughout the movie however the movies extremely poorly executed writing wants to make it about her friend who was kidnapped earlier, Maquia and multiple other subplots, but sadly her friend is given so little screen time it becomes nothing but an afterthought its even hard to categorise her as a side character. This is another issue with Maquia, its trying to cram too many subplots in such a lacklustre short period of time, there scenes that makes no sense and has no connection to the main cast at all, it just really makes it extremely difficult to understand why stuff like this is included when it leads to nowhere or adds anything. The story of Maquia herself is beautiful while she still is the typical P.A Works damsel in distress and absolutely zero self-confidence a typical trait of almost all characters that P.A Works construct regardless of gender, the story was still good but all these extra bits added onto it drags the entire movie down the drain which is a lost opportunity it is as if they were on a tight budget, but they had a story they put so much work into, then they just crammed all of it into a movie without any respect for the overall coherency. Another issue I had trouble with comprehending is why rape was normalised in Maquia, while the presentation of rape was never shown, it was symbolised constantly throughout the movie, but the movie tries to portray it as a “not a big deal” type of situation which is honestly a bit off-putting when they spend so much effort into hinting at it, but then go on to do nothing about it. And you may ask me why I bring this up, the reason is to show why the story is such a mess at one point towards the end of the movie, Maquia herself is suggested to be pregnant suggesting she was raped against her own will because she is literally locked up in a cage, the hair of a Iorph grows long when they are pregnant as explained in the movie but the matter is never pursued, the movie goes on as if nothing has happened, we never get to learn if Maquia was pregnant or not. The production quality is classical P.A Works, there nothing memorable about its quality but it is not bad either, it is good to put it simple, the art direction is of a typical fantasy setting with unrealistic fantasy architectures and illogical mechanisms but that is the charm of fantasy it does not have to make sense it only has to look impressive and the movie does it quite well in this regard. Sound wise P.A Works are being more generous and using better sound design this time around, choosing more original audio to work with, less repetition and other annoyances we have heard of their previous works, it is pretty clear that P.A Works has put effort into the production quality of Maquia as a whole with good fluidity in animation that contains very few animation mistakes that was hard to spot even for myself. The score of Maquia helps in many ways to lift scenes out of their rather dull settings to a more emotional standing, Kenji Kawai proves just one more time how outstanding his variation in music can be if let free to do so. To describe it perfect, the music of Maquia is contemporary orchestral score that fits the depiction of fantasy very well. Summary wise, Maquia as a movie is frankly a poor attempt by P.A Works to create an original work that feels rushed, poorly planned, very poorly utilised writing that would fit better as a 24 episode television animation depicting a beautiful story of Maquia and her son growing up but instead we are only given bits and pieces, towards the end of the movie I genuinely got emotional at the end of the movie, but it is wrong to judge movies for their ending, you must judge them whole. With too many subplots, too many holes in the story, chaotic presentation it is best to perhaps avoid Maquia as a movie if you feel you prefer a more coherent experience, perhaps it would be wiser for P.A Works to adopt this into a television anime series instead as there would be more time to truly explore all subplots in vastly more details and create a much closer relationship with the viewer and the characters portrayed and more importantly, respect their own story.

Warning: SPOILERS I don't think I can write a sincere review without spoiling some parts that irritated me. Yes, I can see why people would cry to this movie, but I'd only expect a handful of people to actually be overcome by emotions. Why? I didn't feel sad while watching this movie because most of the emotional interactions felt forced and botched. Not to mention that there is no depth to any of the characters, which makes their actions in the climax seem forced as well. An example is when Ariel comes home drunk and pushes his mom down. Trust me, there was some weird ass tension between them that almost made me think he had a thing for his mom. Not to mention the scene where Leilia tells Krim she can't go with him because she wants to see her fucking daughter? Then Krim dies like an irrelevant mutt on the side of a road? And when Leilia is given a chance to see her daughter, she books it and runs away happily to the dragon? Leilia's daughter who also wanted to see her mom for years, is somehow so mature that she understands what just happened and accepts it? The way this movie unravels is like a huge maze with lots of dead ends, arriving at the one-way ending that they wanted to force from the very beginning. Overall the animation is great, but you'd have to be super emotional if this movie makes you tear up, as the shitty characters and interactions make the movie feel insincere and ruins many moments.

A tear-jerker, that's definitely over-hyped. Sure I shed tears on the right cues, so I could've rated it higher, but the fact remains.. this anime is just average. - Things aren't explained. Random events just happened. Stupid flying dragons suddenly turning red and dying, with no explanation. They don't even bother explaining much about the "EVIL EMPIRE" (people seem to be happy, was the empire even evil or not?). - The loom nonsense is just a bunch of gobbledygook with elves (or "Iorph", whatever they wanna call Elves in this) being all depressive and child-like (can't have anime without sexualizing 5000 year old children). Only time anything with "loom" was interesting, was in the movie Wanted (2008), and it was because of the action, not because of fucking thread weaving skills of the characters. - Plot-holes maketh the plot, so do the jump-cuts. This movie needed another 30-60 mins to fill in the lore. Characters not only age every few mins, they even have background romance and suddenly are popping children while the viewer is left wondering, "Dafuq, did they even have any chemistry in that 10 second scene an hour ago?". Maybe if they didn't spend time on pointless lingering shots of characters crying, they could've added some dialogue and lore, minus the jump-cuts. Art is good, English dub is garbage (muffled dialogues with music blaring in on max volume). Main character is just a weird mess who spends the whole movie crying, ending the movie crying. Movie just randomly ends and you now have to figure out who the new characters are, not that it matters as the movie rushes to end the movie. Overall, I just felt disappointed at the end. I did like the last scene of the fields, it was beautifully done.. which is why I gave it 5, not 4. Art saves it, story is a mess. If you shed tears during emotional scenes easily (like I do), you'll do here as well. But don't mistake those tears for quality. Those tears are NOT quality tears.

This will be a very in-depth review. This is the greatest movie that I've ever watched. More objectively speaking, based purely on critical reasoning, there is much to discuss, but the beauty of this movie trumped all of that. I will begin a more critical review of all of its strengths and flaws, but first, let me give my experience. I watched this movie alone, without anyone around me, without a worry for the time. Without this, I imagine my experience could have been different, as it's difficult for me and many to make themselves vulnerable outside of the safety and comfort of privacy. I cried. I, who haven't cried to any sort of media in a few years, cried in a way that I might have cried only a few times in my life. I cried until I literally ran out of tears. It was so beautiful a movie that I've never cried so happily in my life. It was, for me, a catalyst of release that I didn't know I needed, a story so beautiful as to imprint itself into my mind in a way that I will absolutely never forget. Even then, I was experiencing and attempting to analyze the movie as I watched it. I was trying to see all the imagery and symbolism, follow the themes of the movie, and see what the movie was trying to tell me. I held back tears until the very end of the movie, but when it all began to end, I just couldn't hold it back. Without exaggeration, everyone needs to see this movie. If even one person is inspired by this review to willfully experience it in the way that I did, I will be thankful. It may not touch them in the same way that it broke me apart, but if even one person comes to see the beauty of this movie, I will be endlessly joyed. This movie touches on a common theme in a way more holistically than most are willing to. It's a difficult task to challenge the theme of family, of relationships, and of building oneself in the way that this movie accomplishes. After all, these are all extremely familiar themes to everyone, yet the unique format of the movie manages to expand on that theme in a way that I've never seen or experiences. In addition to these are minor themes of freedom, release, and ambition. With this said, let me get into a more critical review of how they accomplished this well, and how it wasn't totally perfect. In my ratings, please note that a rating of 9 is great and a rating of 10 is outstanding. Though not perfect, I find all of the story, art, and character creation to be done absolutely outstandingly. -------------------------- Story 10/10: The story takes on the format of an epic, with events happening in an inconsistent chronological scale. The events of the movie happen during different times, and one of the weaknesses in the storytelling of the movie is the lack of effective transitioning between the times. By all rights, this a holistic story that has the plot arc of rising action into climax, but with this format, it can blur the lines of consistent rising action. The misinterpretation of such, especially in a long two-hour time frame, will inevitably weaken the climax and the overall storytelling of the movie. It is potentially overly ambitious for the story it is telling. That said, I also believe its format to be a unique strength. Beyond the lack of perfect transitions and beyond the possibility of misinterpretation, the story is written in a way that through every time skip, we will see the progression of the characters and world in a way that fills in the periods of time in between. The movie dares to spread itself throughout what seems to be around 20 years, and it doesn't address some of the minor slices of life in between. Every scene is thus impactful and feels useful in creating the grand story. Used in tandem with the art and the sound, the worldbuilding, which is important in setting the stage for the events in the movie, is done to an outstanding degree. The sound design will follow the periods of time and the development of the world around our characters, and the art will reflect a dynamic and immersive environment. It strikes a balance between what is relatable and what is fantastical to enrapture the viewer while simultaneously giving an ethereal feel. It may seem somewhat contradictory to say so, but that is exactly the setting I saw the movie trying to create, and exactly what the movie did accomplish creating in the case of me. The incredibly realistic, vivid, smart, and dynamic character design only serves to drive all of these factors forwards. It accomplishes on all fronts what almost all other movies and shows will fail to accomplish. This is why I believe the story to be definitively outstanding amongst all others. -------------------------- Art 10/10: It goes without saying that this movie is beautiful. One look at literally any scene in the movie will go to show the polish put into it. The way that the sun and lighting are portrayed, the ethereal landscapes, the imaginative yet fully developed world, and even the tiny details such as the look of bricks were clearly polished and given thought. This is one of the greatest aspects of the movie. In much of what the storytelling lacks in time of narration, it makes up for in sound and art design. For example, the world's continual push towards industrialism is seen and reflected in world design. Scenes of similar areas in different time periods will have the nuances of the time period worked out. The introduction of steelworking is reflected in the lighter nights, the sight of smokestacks throughout regions of the city, and even more specifically reflected in the lives of the world. As the introduction of more industrial applications is continued, some jobs, for example, weaving on the loom, are accurately presented as slightly less common for it can be expected that such developments are becoming more centralized in factories. These are the sorts of nuances that will draw a viewer in without them fully realizing, and the degree to which the imaginative world reflects realism in such an intricate manner is what drives me to say that the story is outstanding; it is because the art and sound are outstanding to a degree that it greatly strengthens the story. One of my first worries about the art in specific was the usage of CGI in the animation of the movie. Yes, there are perhaps two scenes where the usage is notable in a way that could affect immersion. Despite that, the usage of CGI was so well accomplished that I was instead pleased with the fluid animation and vividness that it allowed. Thankfully also, the fluidity never subtracted from the style of the movie, and only added. It was a surprise to me seeing the two layered on top of each other to such great effect. That said, every facial animation and every camera angle was given much care as well. Even without extensive film training, I could see the desired effect of such framing in a way that was incredibly natural; that's just one more thing I was impressed by. -------------------------- Sound 9/10: Before anything else, the voice acting is on point. Not once throughout the movie did I feel as though it subtracted from the experience. In addition, when it really mattered, the level of emotion put into the voices really pushed through the message in a way that was outstanding, even among modern standards. The voice acting really helped as a liaison into the world. With such vivid voices and sound, the immensity of this imaginary world is really tightened into a form that is approachable and incredibly impactful. The soundtrack and the background sound design are also done very well. In specific, I found that the soundtrack wasn't as effective as it could have been. Yes, it was a great soundtrack and never once subtracted from the atmosphere, but the volume balancing at times wasn't very dynamic. In a climactic or tense situation, a crescendo of noise is present but not defining. None of the soundtracks and character themes are incredibly useful in illustrating a scene suc…

Back when the first trailers dropped, I was pumped to watch this movie. The artwork looked so stunning, the premise felt original and full of potential. After waiting for half a year until it finally became available to watch, I have to say it didn’t live up to my hopes. This review will contain marked sections with minor spoilers, mainly to illustrate certain points that contributed to the overall stale taste that the movie left in my mouth. The story itself is pretty interesting. A clan of near immortal beings, weaving history into pieces of cloth. A neighboring empire that, when their power fades, tries to obtain that longevity to regain its foothold. A young girl, that gets caught up in that conflict, is driven from her home and has to find a new place to belong in an everchanging world. The world design is fantastic. It feels like an actual place, not a set piece. It is well thought out, colorful and an overall joy to see unfold. I found the character design beautiful, though I know that is up to individual taste. The occasional CG used for the dragons is forgivable. It’s a real shame that despite its stunning visuals and sweeping orchestral music, the movie is lacking relatable characters and a cohesive script. Maquia is kind of meek, cries a lot and is shown to be burdened by her loneliness. This doesn’t fundamentally change throughout the movie. Ariel, her adoptive son, is aged up through time jumps so sudden and inconsistent, that it is incredibly hard to grasp his personality or motivation. Some of his actions really came out of nowhere for me and were hardly ever explained. The bond between mother and son is the main focus of the movie, but with the few glimpses of their relationship shown between the time jumps, it doesn’t feel like they have actually gone through anything together. It’s more of a laundry list of events that gets checked off as the story rushes on. Mild spoilers in the next paragraph: Neither of the two main characters felt relatable, mainly because their actions often didn’t make sense in the context of the story. Maquia never once tries to go back and find out what exactly happened to her home and her people, which bothered me immensely. Important parts that could have defined their relationship and help the viewer understand Ariels feelings and motivations, like him finding out he is adopted and what Maquia really is, are glossed over quickly. Also, his behavior changes dramatically after the time jump into early adulthood, with his reasoning for lashing out towards his adoptive mother being questionable at best. The backdrop of the story, more precisely the conflict between multiple nations (which were non-descriptive at best and cartoonishly evil at worst), should have been more important. With all the focus on Maquia and Ariel, the surrounding events that had a lot of potential just got used as a facilitator for an underwhelming finale. Also, beautiful as the world and the multiple locations shown in the movie are, there is a definitive lack of explanation as to where everything is in relation to each other. People are transported from place to place without establishing from where to where the journey leads, sometimes in between time jumps, so the viewer just gets utterly confused as to how they ended up there – or where “there” is. This becomes worse leading up to the final conflict. A lot of lore is touched on, but never properly explained or given context. The plot is rushed so much that the whole thing falls flat in the end, since it was – at least for me – hard to become attached to any of the characters. I think the story would have made a great series instead, with 12 or more episodes to flesh out the characters and their relationships, establish the geography of the world and to give equal importance to the overarching plot of the conflict between the warring nations. It’s not an awful movie by any means, but it is one with a lot of wasted potential, which sadly leaves it at an average level.

I'll keep this short -- this movie was a huge let-down. The first quarter/half or so was at least fairly interesting and quickly took a downturn in the second act. If you want, you can stop reading here. The characters pretty much all sucked, with motivations/thought processes that remained as uncompelling as they were transient -- meaning that not only did they not make sense, but they weren't consistent either. The only truly interesting character was Krim, a side character who functions only as a punching bag for the story to push it's weird theme. Which is namely that... The story seems to have no other theme than shoving in our face that motherhood is next to sainthood and that all we should care about is pumping out children. The animation was really good, but the story didn't live up to it in the slightest. Characters kind of all sucked or were boring, with the exception of Krim, who was barely shown or explored, and who got screwed anyways. Not only was the theme weird and shoved in our faces, but it wasn't interesting explored in the least, making it not only a weird/bad theme, but a poorly executed one as well. I can see why people cried during the showings -- probably because they lost two hours of their life to this.

So let's get the obvious things out of the way. Yoshida's art was as gorgeous as ever, so was Kazuhiro's music direction. These two could turn even the worst story into a marvel to behold. However, when you get used to the great animation, you start noticing the problems with this movie. It started off decently, the setting was interesting, I was excited to learn more about the world. The coming-of-age and motherhood aspect of it all was compelling and well written. But at about midway through the movie, the actions of the characters stop making any sense and are basically written/taken to get the story going to lead to the grand finale. The characters just give up on their ideals multiple time throughout the story. But really, I am writing this review mainly to get to this one complaint: Leilia refuses to go with Krim BECAUSE she says she loves her daughter and can't give up on her, Krim being supposedly the love of her life and her dilemma was longing for her home and people while also giving birth to her child. After telling him why she can't escape with him she proceeds to let him die in front of her eyes, deciding she is willing to do so to stay with her daughter. All this happens so that later, when Maquia appears, after a very short exchange she realizes she actually DOES want to go back to her people and can't stay with mortal humans and make her daughter happy, so when her daughter sees her mom for the first time, she just tells her to forget about her and proceeds to jump off a clif on the back of a dragon to fly away. I think I don't even need to go into the details of how the story got there, because really, there isn't much to back up such a ridiculous conclusion. Up to this point, the movie still could be redeemed because it had multiple compelling and good stories and characters being explored. But honestly, this conclusion just cannot be overlooked and was the driving motivation for Maquia all along (saving Leilia) and absolutely ruined the experience for me. I am still very sad such amazing diorection was wasted on this conclusion.

(Full disclosure: I did watch Maquia on an in-flight entertainment system. I strongly believe it had no impact on my overall impression of the movie, but who knows, maybe if I had gotten to see it in theaters I would feel differently about it than I do.) Maquia is a disappointment. If you enjoyed the movie, by all means go ahead and enjoy it - but to me it lacks the space to really drive its narrative and themes home, and as a result characters who should be interesting and compelling come off one dimensional and occasionally annoying as the thematic resolution falls flat. First things foremost, though: I have absolutely nothing against Mari Okada or her work on this project. She has her fair share of haters and her style is not always my thing, but she does a fantastic job with what she is given here. Thanks to P.A. Works, Maquia sports a visual flavor and pace that the shows she wrote just never had, and it allows Okada to try her hand at a larger scope than she's ever dealt with. My first, second, and third problems with this movie can be boiled down to a single word: time. There's just not enough. I'm sorry, you cannot spin this huge generation-spanning epic starring an ageless lead, dissecting her relationship with the humans around her who age and die before her eyes, and then cram it into barely 100 minutes. When Maquia visits Ariel in the film's epilogue, a moment that should feel poignant and heavy with the weight of almost a century of events leaves little to no impact. This needed likely a full cour to really get the meat out of the story - and get this! If this had been in the form of a 1 or 2-cour TV anime, I probably would have loved it. Drum up the art and animation quality a bit more, sink your teeth in more to Maquia's narrative, and tell the whole story so you can actually feel the time pass. That way the audience can actually invest in the characters, most of all Maquia herself, and you can pursue some semblance of a resolution. Without time, you have nothing with which to hammer home your main themes, and everything you've built falls apart. If you can use your imagination to fill the years-long gaps in the narrative, power to ya, but the film simply does not do enough on its own to convince me of its thematic or character resolutions. Again: there are legitimate moments of pure inspiration here. 15 year old Maquia sobbing trying to figure out breastfeeding was probably the most moving moment of the whole film, and the final scene was something else (though should the climax of a movie this big have been better? who knows). Okada plays with her motifs in a refreshingly powerful way, and there is clearly thought behind the development of theme ideas as the movie progresses. Maquia just doesn’t have the space to take them all the way. P.A. Works, or Mari Okada herself, or whoever, made the (wrong) decision that this story was best told in movie format and attempted to recount over ninety years in under two hours. Yes, a large chunk of that time is tacked on in the epilogue, but the main plot covers over two decades of time - still not enough in my opinion, but way too much to be squished into the total runtime of an eight minute short.

It's world building is done very well and very naturally and feels so legit and lived in. It's done in a way that's very show and don't tell which makes it so easy to fall into. It's a light fantasy setting, which is neat since you don't see that in anime very often. The CG is sparse but does kind of stand out, but still isn't the worst I've seen. There's some very nice animation on display here at times. The premise and some of the ideas I think that hey were going for are interesting, but the way it's presented is disjointed and some of the character actions confused me, which both hurt some of the intended dramatic emotional beats. On the whole I was conflicted but ultimately didn't like it.

So before anything, I did put a 10/10 for this movie, which apparently seems to tick off a lot of people, and I exactly understand why, but I'll get to that later. Also, this is my first review on MAL, but please do not let that affect the way you feel about this review. So for those of you who just skim reviews, here is my overall opinion: Maquia is a masterpiece and you should all watch it. Now for the detailed review: -Story 10/10 : Given there is no cinematic composition, or even a script section in the review noting I assume this all falls under the story section. See, a lot of people I think have been put off by the way this anime was set up. By that, I mean the anime felt disconnected, like mere parts of Maquia's life put together, and due to the maturing of the characters, didn't feel like the previous section. While it may have disturbed a lot of people, it felt purely normal to me, it actually felt impressing. I mean, this is a story told through Maquia, and given how much longer she can live, time must go by in a blink for her, so the "unconnected" parts of her life felt to me as an actual amazing addition from whoever thought of it (I know Mari Okada directed the movie but maybe it was someone else's idea). So that was for overall script direction, as for the story, it's gorgeous. You dive into a world whose fantasy is slowly fading away into legends, add to this the use of those fading fantasy species, which includes Mquia's species as political and military weapons and you have the whole base of this anime's story and of Maquia's reason for being in the world of humans. It's happy, it's sad, it's funny, you just go through such a huge amount of emotions in under a simple 2 hours that it's close to unbelievable. I would go into more details as for the plot, but I went into this movie close to fully blind and I loved the hell out of it, so I recommend you do the same. -Art 8/10 : Would I have not seen Your Name and its beautiful and deatiled background art, The Shape of Voice with its amazingly expressive animation, or Violet Evergarden and its way of making everything constantly pretty, I would have put a 10/10 on the art and animation. The backgrounds are as defined as Makoto Shinkai's maybe sometimes even more, the animation expresses so much warmth and happiness when needed, while also being able to express sadness without going over the top, and still managing to do some sick action shots. The characters are pretty simple and do not require much lineart, which I would usually say is a bad thing, but hell is it well used here. They probably have the same amount of lineart as your usual seasonal anime, but it allows for the colors to show more, for us to notice that slight shine on the hair we would have usually completely ignored, a change in the eye even from a considerable distance, but also allows for the backgrounds to shine while completely fitting in, a close to perfect blend that even Your Name, at least to my tastes, didn't achieve. It makes it seem as if the characters are part of the background, without making us lose focus of them whatsoever, probably being closer to Violet Evergarden on that stage. The one thing I would say is "badly" done is the CG. Crowds are fine by me when using CG, and even then the anime sometimes fully draws full crowds, which made me quite happy. However, there's a few shots where its obvious CG was used, wether on the dragons or even sometimes on important characters, and that sort of stuff sort of pulls me out from the experience, the characters and the world setting being a major part of the movie -Sound 7/10 : Maquia is quite special when it comes to music. Maquia is a character-driven anime, and one of the main features of this type of anime is the close to constant(or at least it feels like it) usage of music, in order to express the emotions of the character, and emphasize them whenever they're clearly exposed. But Maquia went about this differently. When I figured out it was a character-driven story, the anime directly felt weird. There was not too much usage of music. Actually, I'll be honest, it felt like there was none in the first half (I mean there was at a few moments, but most of the time it was extremely basic and could barely be noticed). However, I feel like it worked out for the best. The lack of music made it so that when the music went all-out towards the ending of the anime, it literally blew you away, more than any anime I've seen before. Because not only does it blow you away significantly more, but the OST on their own were already amazing, like, really really really amazing. They don't use nay special instruments, the chords are not innovative either, it's just orchestral music, taken to its roots, and done perfectly. And as an orchestral music fan, that just left me in pure awe (and tears). - Characters: 10/10. I have seen many dramas, slice of life, romance and all other genres that tend to be thoroughly driven by the characters for the simple reason that they tend to be my favorite animes. And, well, in terms of characters, Maquia holds quite a high spot. And it seems only logic given how the anime works. You see the characters growing, so the character development that is usually done through flashbacks or other means of going back to the past are not necessary here as you are literally seeing all characters grow from children to adult. That means that the character development is close to complete, as you see all the important moments of their lives but get to live it at the same time as them and really gets you to like the characters a whole lot more. Along with that, although I'm not really sure whether what I'm about to say falls under Story or Character, the fact that you see the characters grow along the whole movie means you see their departures and deaths making it sad or at least gloomy, but it also makes you feel incredibly happy when friends that you had left at the beginning of the story reappear as adults, even if you saw them for only a minute or two before. For that simple reason, I consider this worth a 10/10 as i have just not seen anything better than that done before in terms of characters. -Enjoyment and Overall: 10/10 I put those two sections together because, in my opinion, the only thing that genuinely matters in the end is whether you enjoyed it or not. As for me, this became my favorite anime of all times. What I seek from anime is a beautiful world that is close to ours while having its own uniqueness that will get me to either like or dislike the place depending on the director's wish. I seek to feel emotions that I would never get to experience in real life because it is too dull (at least mine is). I seek to cry my heart out, to laugh, to love; I seek from anime to make me experience "something else" without having to resort to an empty character like a lot of animes do. And Maquia fits perfectly in everything I seek. It allows you to experience the joys of the countryside, what life in the city feels like, what losing someone feels like, the anxiety and pain of a full-on war, the madness that is brought about through loneliness and the pain brought about by the loss of all you have. Final thoughts, I am telling you if not obligating you to watch this anime. This is definitely a one of a kind movie that will probably not have something come even close to it anytime soon. If you don't like it, then don't like it. If you do like it, you're in for one of the most amazing journeys you'ever had through anime. Which is why, if you're not sure whether to watch this not, for my sake, and the sake of the huge quantity of tears i let run down my cheeks while watching this, give this anime a try. Go entirely through with it, because maybe you'll prefer the older characters to the younger ones, or maybe you'll prefer war to a calm and happy countryside story, So please, with all my heart, I beg you to watch this. This ends this review, than…

Too often are we limited in our perspective to our current circumstances. It's truly a challenge to be able to step out of our shoes and view the world from a different perspective because, quite frankly, our perspective is the one we are most familiar with and the one we own. Our relationship with others are oftentimes influenced by this limited perspective as well. As a child, oftentimes you may be blind to the world at large, to the troubles and responsibilities of adulthood. Growing up, you may be blinded by your personal problems and challenges to see the efforts of and problems faced by those around you. Similarly, in anime and manga we are often bound by a limited perspective. We oftentimes follow the protagonist through selective interesting snippets of their life story, we see perhaps the most exciting moments and see them overcome a challenge they come across in the period of the character's lives. Flashbacks are usually brief and in passing, future depictions limited to an episodic epilogue. Similar to our perspective in life, anime or manga presents to us life in a small moment. In Maquia, Director Okada, I think, accomplishes something that is very unique in this medium. Through this movie she gives us a full and wholistic perspective of life in passing. Okada is able to weave together a beautiful story where you follow the characters and their growth as they age, change, grow from their mistakes, and face truly relatable and human challenges throughout the span of the movie and their lives. You are able to watch and experience as their present slowly turns into their past and ongoing events in their lives slowly turn into their instrinsic motivations. For me, those entering young adulthood or parenthood may get a little more out of this movie, having more experiences to reflect on and more time to see the gradual change that they have undergone. Being able to see conflicts they had when they were younger and perhaps reconciliations that they were able to make as they grew older and gained life experience allows them to really empathize with the characters featured in this movie as they too go through stages of their life, blindly struggling with the concept of parenthood, age, life and death, and love. Furthermore, not only does this movie feature lovely art, Director Okada does a striking job of integrating subtle imagery and symbolism in the construction of the scenes and the background. It was as if Okada brought storytelling to life, mixing in metaphors into the flow of the story to the point where it doesn't detract at all from the viewing experience but gives a small enjoyment to those who notice them. It makes you have a greater appreciation for how beautiful anime can be as a medium for artistic expression. Finally, in the first film Okada directed entirely on her own, she selects an array of truly relatable topics as the underlying themes. The idea of family, the bond between mother and child, what it means to be a parent, what it means to be human, and the oftentimes sensitive topic of life and death are all struggles that we face as we age and are also questions that we may have changing answers for as we reach different stages of life. Going back to the first point, it is precisely that we ourselves may be able to reflect on our changing views towards these topics that makes this movie which features growth and change more relatable. In particular, for me these themes hit very close to home to the point where even as I'm sitting here hours later typing this review, I still think back to scenes and moments from the movie in contemplation and thought. To me, Marquia is a classic and an experience that I hope I will revisit time and again to relive. It that struck a deep chord and made me so emotional throughout the film, that I found myself full-on crying at three or four separate moments, bottom lip quivering uncontrollably, trying my hardest avoid disturbing other moviegoers with sniffling and tears. It was the hardest and most I've cried in the many years now. To me, Marquia was nothing short of a masterpiece and I have nothing but praise for this beautiful work that Director Okada has weaved together. It is my hope that, if the director's participation in other titles such as Anohana, Nagi no Asukara, Sakurasou, and Wixoss, or the beautiful cover art and promotional video art, or the reputation that P.A Works has as a quality studio had not already done so, this review and these thoughts will convince you to give this movie a try. And I sincerely hope that you are able to get as much out of this film as I did. Thank you Mari Okada for directing such a wonderful movie and giving me a chance to add this beautiful experience to my own personal Hibiol.

Generic elves, generic dragons, generic human-centric medieval fantasy European setting. Oh yeah, it's generic fantasy anime slop time. How do you fuck up a generic Tolkienesque fantasy story this much? The characters almost all lack any real characterization at any point in time: mother, child, childhood friend, soldier, elf, manbaby king, prince, royal guard, etc. These professions/positions are pretty much the most any of them get, no nuance beyond the main duo of MC and her kid whose characteristics at any point are at most pure soap of forced melodrama crybabies. The characters are constantly flipflopping on their core values and motivations as if none of their characterization ever matters. Their core motivations will go from 1 absolute to the opposite in the very next scene with zero justification so many times that these characters are ruined by the end of it. 'I'm a wild unruly free-spirited person' cries the generic damsel in distress princess locked in a tower cliche who tried negative times to escape, said immediately before trying to kill herself rather than be with her child now that she's been set free by her dumb prince cliche who she rejected because he wanted to take her away from her mixed-race child. Since the characterization is so weak, the constant crying melodrama tearjerking attempts all ring hollow and unearned. There is a strong anti-miscegenation subtext the narrative pushes. The author of this comes across as a racist advocating for racial isolation. Far too much of the dialogue is dedicated to hamfistedly spewing exposition for pointless worldbuilding. The rest of the dialogue is mostly cloying kiddy filler and dumb melodrama. The art/animation is... not bad, but... the characters are often a bit potatoey, and severely lacking in cinematography of interesting visuals since it's all just generic medieval fantasy setting. The expressions and character behaviors all come across as forced/unnatural. It all looks so fake and uninspired. It has absolutely nothing in comparison to the charm of almost any scene from Studio Ghibli fantasy movies. The timeskips were far too many and often poorly handled, some egregiously bad. The climax is a big dumb boring action setpiece thrown in with minimal justification as an excuse for a bunch of dumb bs since everything continues to happen as a series of contrivances rather than much of any actual cause and effect. At least it was less fillery and generic than Frieren (2 yrs later), the author of which in all likelihood made a derivative of this movie's main character/premise after seeing it. 5/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Mari Okada is back and back with one of her best works she has ever done. Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou or Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a tapestry of the titular character Maquia voiced by Manaka Iwami, being a Iorph, a secret race of humans able to have longer lives than regular humans, when her village is found out by the forces of Mezarte and she flees, she encounters a baby and promises to protect the baby now named Ariel voiced by Miyu Irino. It's a tale of motherhood in all shapes and situations, a tale of what "immortality" does to someone be it good or not, it's a tale of partings. Spoilers Ahead! Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms' core themes and what Mari Okada utterly nailed is the shapes and situations of what motherhood is like and sure LA isn't one AT ALL, but nonetheless, what Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms brings to the table just shows off Mari Okada directing and passion on the themes of the subject matter. Maquia our titular character having the most focus gives us one of an orphan herself taking care of Ariel and if she's an actual "mother" to Ariel or not, Maquia is multi-faceted as her extremely slow aging is also a factor and what this means to their trials and tribulations Maquia and Ariel both on a personal level but also with outer factors also getting in their way. As such Maquia's constant worry of her not being a mother to Ariel due to her having no experience in the matter not to mention her essentially adopting Ariel when she to was a kid at the time and on the other side, as while Ariel is growing up, Ariel's want to protect Maquia with the outer factors getting in the way to the point of war breaking out in Mezarte. Lelia voiced by Ai Kayano is another Iorph, being captured by Mezarte forces to produce a heir to Mezarte line so they can last forever, but being essentially held captive, no able to her daughter and Mezarte themselves shunning Lelia and her daughter brings in the isolationism to motherhood and how this quite obviously fracturing any chance of a relationship between Lelia and Medmel voiced by Misaki Kuno her daughter. Ariel as a character is something of focal point as well, even though Maquia is our narrative focus throughout the movie. We get to see Ariel from baby to an adult, from his naivete about the world and what Maquia means to Ariel, his defiance and his want to protect Maquia and though his adolescences is him being a rather annoying brat, he is smarter than one looks, even to adult as a character and the burden and love he gives to Maquia though it comes out in not the way he wants to show it and to be honest those reactions that Ariel portrays is extremely relatable in this sense thus his actions though brash at times does mean alot to Maquia. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms has two major plotlines, the focus on Maquia and Ariel through the times and that of Lelia and Krim voiced by Yuki Kaji another Iorph who escaped the raid of his village and wants everything to be back to normal and was in love with Lelia. Though Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms spends the majority of it's time on Maquia and Ariel which by all means makes sense, LA would like to see more of Lelia and Krim to this regard as seeing what kind of turmoil they both went through through the times would had been interesting. Though this brings up how each of the escaped Iorph lives their lives, Krim wanting life to be back to normal and willing to do ANYTHING to get that...wanting to keep his cloth as it were, Lelia being forced a life she didn't want, shedding her previous personality for the Mezarte and unable to do anything about it being something akin to someone giving you different clothing for the rest of your life and Maquia who weaves her own cloth but with Ariel, so it's a stronger and unique cloth as a result. For it's animation done by P.A Works, well LA will say this, the animation is gorgeous to the nth degree and expected of P.A Works but the attention to detail, great battles, beautiful background and expressive facial motions were all spot on and executed to amazing degree, huge and major props to the animators of P.A Works bringing us such beautifully detailed and gorgeous animation. As for voice work, the voice actors were amazingly casted, from Miyu Irino as Ariel, Manaka Iwami as Maquia and Ai Kayano as Lelia all three that might as well of gotten LA's MVP's for this movie hands down, especially Manaka Iwami bringing so much emotions and range from doting mother whilst keeping her innocence and even nailing the more dramatic moments in the movie, Manaka Iwami is showing off what she's capable of as a voice actor and this might as well be her big break as LA remembers her as Chiaki Hoshinomori from Gamers and Kotoko Watatsumugi from Urahara. But nonetheless the voice cast for Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms has a great cast, from Yoko Hikasa, Yuki Kaji, Miyuki Sawashiro and Tomokazu Sugita and Yoshimasa Hosoya. With such praise, does Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms have any flaws?, well nitpicks to say the least, due to how interweaved and solid it's theming are to it's characters, some of the few nitpicks LA would say to Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms would be that the movie has lots of time skips and LA will defend this at least they subtly but cleverly gives us hints to this showing the entire "show don't tell" but it has some jarring shifts especially early on, the other is something LA aforementioned of LA wanting Lelia and Krim more screentime but this being MAQUIA: When the Promised Flower Blooms LA thinks it makes sense they didn't and even then Lelia has some relevance to the plot when it involves Mezarte so it's partially satisfying at least. Finally and this it the most nitpicky so this is LA but the movie gets pitch dark at points like LA gets it your trying to portray they are in the dark, but we kinda have SEE as well, otherwise it's nothing but darkness with little animation to convey it besides...darkness with little outlines. Nitpicky but this by NO MEANS deter Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms as a whole as it's strong plot and characters especially Maquia and Ariel was enough to hold the movie to it's fullest potential. LA will say this again and it can't be understated but Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is one of the best work Mari Okada has done, it was her baby that she scripted, storyboard and directed, showing and executing the themes of motherhood and what the pain of partings and meetings are in it's most natural and visceral degree to the point of LA weeping and it takes ALOT of emotional distraught to get LA to cry and Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms did just that and with the few flaws LA pointed out just barely isn't enough to stain the tapestry of Maquia at all... Parting is such sweet sorrows...but Maquia will always be there and Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms leaves one hell of a mark for future anime movies to come...

Considering this is Mari Okada's debut it is amazing how it turned out to be. That being said I do think it has some flaws which I will get into, which was primarily the story and the characters. Story: 9/10 The story is simple and executed greatly but not to perfection which is why I did not warrant it a 10/10. The war sub-plot just doesn't feel important enough. You could replace it with any other real-event conflict and you wouldn't change the overarching themes or characters too much. I think Mari Okada just bit off more than she could chew here. Apart from that, the story revolves around Maquia, her child, and her friends and her experience with the emotion love. It executes the themes of Motherhood beautifully with great story-telling elements such as the use of symbolism, juxtaposition, and colour to set an appropriate tone and mood for the story. With stories they should always try to immerse you into it, as if you are with Maquia and feeling what she is feeling, which the movie does without any problems. Art: 10/10 Not many words to be said. Watch the trailer and you can see for yourself the amazing backdrops and the vivid smooth animation of the characters and how beautiful they all are. Each character feels unique in how they are protrayed from the small meek Maquia to the bold and tall Krim. The CG is fine and doesn't look out of place. Sound: 9.5/10 The sound is amazing for sure but it doesn't feel unique. To say something what Mothers Basement had to say about the movie: it doesn't have a unique musical piece. Its the same fantasy music you hear in fantasy anime and JRPG's. Character: 9.5/10 My biggest complaint here were the confusing motivations of one of the characters which I will not name. This character and her relationship with her daughter and the interactions between them just don't make sense. The king is just the stereotypical evil fat king with no actual characterization other than he's a fat slob. This is just nit-picking but Krim's motivations also don't feel too believable and that he is just being too extreme and melodramatic. Other than that though, the main characters and their motivations do truly feel relatable and real and justify their actions. How Maquia interacts with her daughter exemplify the themes of saying goodbyes to loved ones no matter how painful it may be. I cried when I saw Maquia cry because she feels like a real person and I was able to connect to her past a superficial level. I could see what my Mother and what Maquia did for me and I could see myself in Ariel. Aside from that the character growth is the biggest prize here. We get to see Ariel grow up: a kid who loves his mother so much, to a teen that goes through a rebellious phase, to an adult who is able to live without his mother - all because of Maquia and the things that she has taught Ariel. Enjoyment: 10/10 I was simply looking for something to make me feel alive and this made me feel alive. This review is getting too long. Overall: 9.5/10 If you simply skipped to the end to see my overall rating and just want a TL;DR. If you like moms you will like this movie... probably.