Maquia, When the Promised Flower Blooms

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.

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 saw this movie during its limited theatre release in Australia. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is the directorial debut by Mari Okada. She also wrote the film. The writing, voice acting and animation is great. The main characters Maquia and Erial are realistic and convey the relationships between Children and their parents. The film also explores themes of motherhood. The film however is dragged down by some of the side characters and several flashback scenes which I thought were unnecessary. Overall I thought this was a great movie and it was only held back by some minor flaws.

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.

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.