Maquia, When the Promised Flower Blooms

We often have so many question in our life and reality isn't as easy as it seems , and that is what Mari okada tried to depict through gorgeous animation, soundtrack, although there are flaws in the plot, a lot of things which left untold. character developments were lacking, the pacing was bit off and second half can be bit surprising. Despite of that, it's still a thought provoking movie.

What is like to be a mother?what is love?what is like to live forever?is there any limit to human's greed?How far will you go for the love one?and what is it to die?

PLOT Literally, the whole movie is like a roller coaster ride, here our little immortal maquia is a loner, leaving her kingdom after invasion by the king men, how will she fetch with a new born baby she just found?being a mother to her, the consequences to be followed, how the relation between them will turn out as the mortal kid grows up. The pacing is bit inconsistent tho.

CHARACTERS There are lot of characters who can have their own back stories, with different motives, the reason for their action and when I said they lack development, it's mainly because of the so little time frame to fit in.

ANIMATION Top tier animation, no doubt about that. 10/10 for that, you can set wallpaper for each frame.

This film is really so underrated, hope for more people watches and appreciate it :)

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!

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.

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.

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.