![]() ![]() ![]() Unlike the mother in Wolf Children (a movie I still loved), Maquia is not practically perfect in every way. Parents have these kind of thoughts all the time, and it isn’t that common for an anime to explore them. I also recognised her perpetual “impostor syndrome” - her perception that perhaps she wasn’t good enough for the role she’d taken on, that because she cried she wasn’t up to the task. I deeply understood her self-sacrificial giving of love, resources and forgiveness. As a parent myself, I could empathise with Maquia’s frustrations when Ariel did not behave or made things difficult. I found the central relationship between Maquia and Ariel to be particularly accurate and convincing. Romantic love is powerful, yes, but what is more powerful, and lifelong, than the profound love of a mother for her child (and vice versa)? This is a story about how Maquia comes to love the baby (she names him Ariel) as a mother - and it is also a story of how Ariel grows and learns how to love. But no - Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms steadfastly refuses to conform to such predictable expectations. Given the Elder’s earlier advice, one would think that the natural story progression would be for Maquia to fall in love with a human boy her own age and there would follow an epic, tragic romance as he ages and dies to leave her behind. Overcome with concern and compassion, Maquia pries him from his mother’s cold, dead, rigor-mortis-stiffened hands (with some truly horrid sound effects as she snaps the fingers out of their firm death-grip) and takes responsibility for his care. ![]() This is where the film really begins - she discovers a tiny non-Iorph infant boy, still alive in the arms of his dead mother. Maquia runs from a crazed Renato (dragon-like creature) with Red-Eye, some kind of rabies-like fatal disease. She finds herself briefly alone in a confusing, threatening world. When the Iorph are attacked by the militaristic neighbouring kingdom of Mezarte, Maquia escapes when she is caught in trailing fabric and dragged into the sky by a deranged dragon-like creature. Maquia is only a child of 15 and her relative immaturity fits her youthful appearance. During the prologue, she is warned by the Elder (who even at 400 years of age appears little older than a teenager - the entire race looks like children) never to fall in love with an outsider, as they will surely die long before she does, leaving her alone and bitter. She is a member of the “Iorph” race of near-immortal blonde and beautiful people who live peacefully in a secluded city far from other races. Set in a fairly generic JRPG-esque fantasy world (with original character designs fittingly by Final Fantasy XII’s Akihiko Yoshida), Maquia is the name of our main protagonist. Maquia is full of lavishly painted backdrops with eye-popping colour. They have a deserved reputation for beautifully animating original works, therefore Maquia makes an excellent fit. Works, renowned most recently for Iroduku: The World in Colors (which I loved), plus Sakura Quest, Shirobako and Angel Beats. Maquia is also the first theatrical movie released by animation production studio P.A. It’s only taken me until October 2019 to see it, this time in limited DVD/Blu-ray combo form. Helmed by first-time director Mari Okada, scriptwriter for such varied projects as Kiznaiver, Mayoiga, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Anthem of the Heart and summer 2019’s O Maidens In Your Savage Season, this was the one film I was most hyped for in 2018. It seems unless one is relentlessly plugged into the UK anime twittersphere, it’s easy to miss such fly-by-night events. Apparently there was a wide UK release, but I must either have been unaware of it, or it may not have come as far north as me. I managed to see Mirai, Mary and the Witch’s Flower and My Hero Academia: Two Heroes last year, which (film festivals notwithstanding) may be the most cinematic anime I’ve seen in the space of twelve months. Sometimes I am lucky - anime occasionally shows in rare isolated theatrical screenings here in the frozen north of Scotland. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a film I wish I’d seen in the cinema. ![]()
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