Sayonara no asa ni yakusoku no hana o kazarô

If anime as a genre brings to mind fanservice, childish boob-humour and a bizarre obsession with characters that have a single emotion they express every time they open their mouths, then leave it to this film to add some variety to the pallet.

While anime has examples of all styles and genres of film housed within its animated shelves, there aren't a lot of films that bring a serious tone, thoughtful plays on philosophy and stunning animation, while avoiding the cliche's of anime. This is one of them.

Beginning strong, the film immediately sets out gorgeous visuals with a high-key pallet and beautifully envisioned world. The attention to detail in architecture and environments will encourage the use of the pause button, while the complexity of background animation is at such a level that the sheer number of moving characters approaches that of a live action film. This level of work is rarely seen in animation and is worth applause on its own, not to mention the beautifully coordinated combat late in the film.

Characters are written to be fairly simple, but in complex circumstances. This dedication to simplicity, at times, struggles to progress the characters despite time moving fairly quickly at times. Ariel, in particular, is barely developed in spite of the story's scope containing his entire life. Other characters are deeply wounded by their circumstances and have decisions to make regarding the road they will follow afterward. At times these wounds are gut wrenching but sadly aren't utilized to their fullest extent in developing the characters involved.

If watching the english subtitled version, there are some things lost in translation, that could result in some confusion. The jumps in time are also not the easiest to follow, which doesn't help the pacing. In the end, however, they successfully blend a heart-felt story of love and maturity and family together with a fantastical setting with hints of deep lore and history that satisfies on a higher level than the vast majority of big-budget films being released in current days. The animation is spectacular, the story is thought-provoking and the world is entrancing.

A-plot 10/10, B-plot 10/10, Characterization 10/10, Pacing 7/10, World Building 7/10, Voice Acting 9/10, Soundtrack 8/10, Animation 10/10,

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is one of the best anime films to release in the last few years. Almost everything about this film is perfect, from the well defined characters and the compelling plot to the beautiful animation and soundtrack. The only problems I had with this film are for things that didn't really matter like the minimal world building and a few unnecessary characters. Although one real problem I think the film had was the pacing especially in the first half. There are several time jumps in the film which skips over quite a bit of time and several moments that are hinted at but skipped over that I would have liked to have seen and I think would have made the ending more impactful. Because of this I think this story would have also worked really well as a 8-12 episode series. Despite these problems, the plot and characters were more than enough to keep me invested. I highly recommend you take any opportunity you have to check out this film.

I had the pleasure to see a preview of Maquia without any previous knowledge of it. This is something that I recommend. That being said, Maquia start off quite dense with different warring factions and odd bits of vocabulary. No worries though, because even though every detail is not fully explained the word building and slow pacing eases you into the story. And it IS quite detailed, both story vise and visually. The protagonist Maquia from the title, is born in village where the inhabitants record and keep history by weaving long tapestries. Her people are a legendary elf-like lot who can live for hundreds of years and stop aging in their teens. Now, this trope could easily turn quite nasty, but Maquia steers tastefully far from most potential threats. In all, Maquia is a story about family and relations. It's poignant and serious in an oddly down-to-earth way regardless of it's fantasy setting.The animations are a high-budget marvel to see. My only gripe is that the movie kind of ends multiple times, and the last 30 minutes or so feels like one ending after another. Apart from that it also made me cry quite profusely. So, go see it.

To preface, I rarely trust reviews that have 10/10, just because usually people who do them are biased towards genre, theme, actor, etc. in the way that they are fans of those and it automatically bumps up the score of a film for them to a few points above what it really deserves. It might be the case for me here too, although I must say that I am not a huge fun of anime in general. I like certain titles a lot, but I'm not really following the genre. So yesterday I felt like watching anime on a big screen, and in the city I currently reside at this anime was the only one out there. So I said to myself why not, the trailer seemed neat, and so I went. To say that I was astounded by it is not to give it a fare credit. I was expecting sort of typical 'goofiness' that we all see in anime pretty often, but there was none. It was a serious film, with a philosophical connotation, beautiful visuals, on lock dialogs. Like all the check boxes for a great anime were checked for me. In the end I was really close to shedding a few tears. To give you a frame of reference, the only time I did it watching a movie was thanks to Hachiko. Just go and watch it, there is a high chance you'll like it.

Plot: a very beautiful story. It has a lot of deep messages and scenes. And there is also that magic that only Japanese can manage this well... Probably it would makes you cry (like I did).

Animation: perfect, smooth.

Drawings: particular, they have their fingerprints and it is a very good one.

Soundtrack: another very good thing. It is very enjoyable and pleasing.

Conclusions: an amazing, deep work that I can surely recommend to everyone. Especially for moms or who have doubts about being one.