Maquia

This is a high fantasy film set among a people with very long lifespans. At the beginning of the movie, the Elder tells Maquia that if she ever meets someone from the outside, she must never fall in love, otherwise she will learn true pain. (Due to the difference in lifespan)

It pretty much seems like a set up for a tale of forbidden romance. She will probably meet a man from the outside. Instead, after their home is attacked (and presumably destroyed), she escapes and finds a baby whose parents were killed. She takes the baby in and decides to raise it. The movie is about her struggle trying to be a mother. Eventually, as her adopted son out-ages her, it creates heartbreaking friction between them.

It was a different choice from the movie to focus on a parent-child relationship in this context. Sure, a star crossed romance would have been Romantically tragic, but shifting the focus to a story where you have a child and you know you are going to outlive the child by a lot ... that is its own kind of heartbreak that we don't often see be the heart of such stories.

This should be definitely a must-watch for everyone! As a matter of fact, this particular story of a girl who actually dared to raise another child perfectly demonstrates how sincere and bold single mothers could be! Undoubtedly, it was flawlessly narrated, incredibly expressed and excellently depicted!! Highly recommended! 10/10! What's more, its storyline and plot were unbelievably enthralling that a viewer could be submerged in the whole atmosphere of fighting, love and compassion between heroes! I was petrified and speechless! Hats off!

I ended up finding this on a random anime website and thought the art style was pretty so I decided to look it up. I barely read anything about the movie though since I didn't want spoilers, so I went in pretty much blind tonight watching this. Because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone else looking to watch this, I won't go into too much detail. I just felt the need to review this as soon as I finished watching because I was in tears the entire time!! This movie has such a bittersweet ending, but at the same time closes the story off in such a perfect way (again, don't want to spoil, so I won't say why/how). Please just watch this for yourself! Everything's amazing about this: the plot, the pacing, the artstyle, the music, the character development. I wish this was hyped up just as much as Your Name or A Silent Voice because if I hadn't found this movie on that website, I would've never had the chance to watch this. Again, please watch this if you have the chance. You won't regret it!!!! I'm editing this because I just found out this was Mari Okada's directorial debut??? BLESS THIS WOMAN.

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.