Maquia is a member of a special race called the Iorph—mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years and remain separate from the lives and daily troubles of mankind. However, Maquia has always felt lonely despite being surrounded by her people, as she was orphaned from a young age. She daydreams about the outside world, but dares not travel from her home due to the warnings of the clan's chief.
One day however, the outside world finds her, as the power-hungry kingdom of Mezarte invades her homeland. They already have what is left of the giant dragons, the Renato, under their control, and now their king wishes to add the immortality of the Iorph to his bloodline.
The humans and their Renato ravage the Iorph homeland and kill most of its inhabitants. Caught in the midst of the attack, Maquia is carried off by one of the Renato that has gone berserk. It soon dies, and she is left deserted in a forest far from home, now truly alone save for the cries of a single baby off in the distance. Maquia finds the baby in a destroyed village and decides to raise him as her own, naming him Ariel. Although she knows nothing of the human world, how to raise a child that ages much faster than her, or how to live with the smoldering loneliness inside, she is determined to make it all work somehow.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Review 22.11.2018: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou "Every review is subjective, art is subjective your opinion may differ, never trust reviews to make the opinion for you, use them as a guide and make your own journey." Maquia was one of the movies I wanted to watch after it was announced in 2017 because from the few PV’s and promotional videos we got it looked promising being an original work of P.A Works that have done many great works in the past. However P.A Works are very often hit and miss, they either make something brilliant, or something very mediocre and after finallyhaving the Blu-ray release of Maquia I was astonished how overrated it was by everyone and critiques alike.
Your opinion may vary but for me there serious issues within this movie that make it completely lacklustre and I will go into depth why this is so.
The first issue is the presentation in how time flows for an Iorph, while they live long lives the movie decides to present this as a broken VCR that skips over frankly essential parts, in many sense it be ignorant to claim this is a fluid experience, the movie is presented in parts, which have loose connections with each other, it is the Swiss cheese experience of plot holes which makes it feel like mini-episodes rather than a coherent movie.
In many ways I could describe it as trying to cram 12 episodes into a movie but you cut out the odd numbered episodes and only keep the even ones, why this choice was not made to begin with, is illogical to me.
Because of this we have large plot holes that would otherwise explained much more, it is difficult to explain without spoilers but to put it simple, the relationships with the characters develop unevenly and you are constantly thrown into situations you cannot remember why it happens because you are never given a reason why in the first place.
Another issue with P.A Works is how they write stories in general, the characters do not progress the story, the story progress the characters, this works and may not work and in Maquia it just makes it stupid.
At the beginning of the movie the Iorph’s are invaded by a small mercenary sized company who captures ONE Iorph who happens to be very close friends with Maquia, of course. We are however never shown this take place only that it had happened as we see in the trailer.
Where do this scenario fit in to the main story? Firstly, there few of the attacking forces, and there more Iorph’s, why are they not fighting back? If the Iorph’s are hunted in the first place why is there no standing army or militia? Why did they even need dragons to capture ONE Iorph’s from them to begin with if they have no army? Its not as if the men of the Iorph’s do not exist because they do we get to see them a few times. This makes no sense in the overall picture.
This movie is mostly about Maquia which is the main character and her son, she is clearly the main character in development throughout the movie however the movies extremely poorly executed writing wants to make it about her friend who was kidnapped earlier, Maquia and multiple other subplots, but sadly her friend is given so little screen time it becomes nothing but an afterthought its even hard to categorise her as a side character.
This is another issue with Maquia, its trying to cram too many subplots in such a lacklustre short period of time, there scenes that makes no sense and has no connection to the main cast at all, it just really makes it extremely difficult to understand why stuff like this is included when it leads to nowhere or adds anything.
The story of Maquia herself is beautiful while she still is the typical P.A Works damsel in distress and absolutely zero self-confidence a typical trait of almost all characters that P.A Works construct regardless of gender, the story was still good but all these extra bits added onto it drags the entire movie down the drain which is a lost opportunity it is as if they were on a tight budget, but they had a story they put so much work into, then they just crammed all of it into a movie without any respect for the overall coherency.
Another issue I had trouble with comprehending is why rape was normalised in Maquia, while the presentation of rape was never shown, it was symbolised constantly throughout the movie, but the movie tries to portray it as a “not a big deal” type of situation which is honestly a bit off-putting when they spend so much effort into hinting at it, but then go on to do nothing about it.
And you may ask me why I bring this up, the reason is to show why the story is such a mess at one point towards the end of the movie, Maquia herself is suggested to be pregnant suggesting she was raped against her own will because she is literally locked up in a cage, the hair of a Iorph grows long when they are pregnant as explained in the movie but the matter is never pursued, the movie goes on as if nothing has happened, we never get to learn if Maquia was pregnant or not.
The production quality is classical P.A Works, there nothing memorable about its quality but it is not bad either, it is good to put it simple, the art direction is of a typical fantasy setting with unrealistic fantasy architectures and illogical mechanisms but that is the charm of fantasy it does not have to make sense it only has to look impressive and the movie does it quite well in this regard.
Sound wise P.A Works are being more generous and using better sound design this time around, choosing more original audio to work with, less repetition and other annoyances we have heard of their previous works, it is pretty clear that P.A Works has put effort into the production quality of Maquia as a whole with good fluidity in animation that contains very few animation mistakes that was hard to spot even for myself.
The score of Maquia helps in many ways to lift scenes out of their rather dull settings to a more emotional standing, Kenji Kawai proves just one more time how outstanding his variation in music can be if let free to do so.
To describe it perfect, the music of Maquia is contemporary orchestral score that fits the depiction of fantasy very well.
Summary wise, Maquia as a movie is frankly a poor attempt by P.A Works to create an original work that feels rushed, poorly planned, very poorly utilised writing that would fit better as a 24 episode television animation depicting a beautiful story of Maquia and her son growing up but instead we are only given bits and pieces, towards the end of the movie I genuinely got emotional at the end of the movie, but it is wrong to judge movies for their ending, you must judge them whole.
With too many subplots, too many holes in the story, chaotic presentation it is best to perhaps avoid Maquia as a movie if you feel you prefer a more coherent experience, perhaps it would be wiser for P.A Works to adopt this into a television anime series instead as there would be more time to truly explore all subplots in vastly more details and create a much closer relationship with the viewer and the characters portrayed and more importantly, respect their own story.
Recommended
Let's start with the obvious: Yes I did give this movie a bold 10/10. I wasn't sure how to feel about it so I watched it twice in cinemas in Japan with a one week cool-off period in between both viewing. Honestly, the first time it simply blew me away and stayed in my head non stop for like 3-4 days. This is a heavy statement but it is indeed one of the best animated movies I've ever watched. The second watching was in order to try to find flaws and to focus a bit more on small details of the plot and the music. Let's structurea bit the mess in my head, here goes:
Story:
Well, Mari Okada all right. She is known for her emotional stories and this one indeed enters the category just fiiiine!
The movie feels very long in a good way: The story, the world and places, the character development, the sub plots... All these elements adds up and fill the ensemble to the brim giving the impression to have lived and discovered a lot with the characters ; and that is one of the main strenghts here. Everything is well rounded and the difference of pace in the various plot elements do not leave any space to get bored. There is a well-balanced mix of emotional moments, intense action and everyday life organized in a non generic narrative structure, which I find very refreshing.
The theme developped is that of the relationship between mother and child. It is not a very common subject developped in detail and I really enjoyed the depth and various angles the movie takes to treat the subject.
Art:
Here, we have a very prestigious staff making characters and backgrounds.
For the characters, Akihiko Yoshida character designer on Final Fantasy and Granblue Fantasy did a great job in creating the various types of characters. Even with the adaptation done for animation, you still see his strong influence, especially on the astounding work done on the clothes that are very stylish, diverse and inspired. The resulting chara design is very simple and round on the faces which can be a bit unsettling at the beggining but very cute nonetheless.
About the background: the most prestigious animators of PA Works created incredible places helping to create a very rich world to discover. It is without a doubt the most impressive visual aspect on my end.
To conclude this section, the CGI: globally well done and integrated, some rare sequences stand out too much but it isn't much of a problem in my opinion.
Sound:
Kenji Kawai is quite recognizable as a composer and you get that very easily here with the usual sound and instruments used. Nonetheless it is a very inspired soundtrack that come and goes with some very insistant themes that really shape the movie and the emotions. Also very well paced and used.
Character:
I am not gonna go in too much detail here because I don't wanna spoil the story but once again the characters are very well made, the vast majority of them are very logical in their motives, development and thought processes. The whole focus of the movie is obviously Maquia and Erial (or Ariel whatever) and their relashionship. So much so that you may feel that some secondary characters / subplots are not developped enough... Well it is indeed an argument but remember: It is the story of Maquia and Erial, so it is good the movie doesn't dwelve too much in various directions.
Enjoyment + conclusion:
Well I suppose this is clear enough already!
I very deeply enjoyed this movie that awed me and obsessed me for days on end. It has a compelling story with a not so common theme in a fantasy setting including memorable scenes and very well developped characters with whom you grow fond of very quickly. It gets very emotional towards the end, all thanks to that very well paced development and evolution throughout the film.
Beware, it is indeed a tear jerker and both times the whole room was crying at the end.
Also, in case it isn't clear enough already, this is not a family oriented movie, it is geared towards adults and some themes and element are quite dark and mature.
I've been trying to find flaws but putting aside very minor stuff, I don't see any major problems. Add to that the overwhelming impact of all the goodness I developed above and you get a masterpiece to be remembered. Hence the 10/10.
Not everybody is gonna like it the way I did but if you are okay with emotional stories and fantasy, please give Sayoasa a go without hesitation and you won't be disappointed.
Thank you for reading!
SiSistine-Fibel
August 1, 2018
Recommended
Seeing many of these 10/10 reviews and people saying they cried shocked me. I wondered if we had even seen the same movie. I, and seemly many who left the theatre did not leave angry; but we certainly were not raving about it being a masterpiece either. And in the whole theatre, only a single person cried. I overheard many conversations after the movie of it being "okay" and "a lot of stuff didn't make sense" and a few more criticisms. And I agree with them, this movie is no masterpiece. However, it is not bad either. So, here is my review Story:5/10 Firstly, I find theplot to be all over the place, and it never seems to have enough time to focus on each 'arc' of the story. Due to this, we see a few time jumps that aren't explained and many many many coincidences throughout this animation. So many coincidences it's actually ridiculous. So many unexplainable coincidences made it seem pretty silly many times throughout the film. The best example would be when Maquia one night disappears, and then the next thing we know she's getting her hair cut in some random room and then next thing we know she's heading an invasion of some sort. Like, wtf just happened? I have a general idea, but wow. There is literally no explanation other than she vanishes and then bam shes back again so you're left to put together the pieces. And, of course, the fact that in a massive metropolis city she manages to 'stumble across' every main character multiple times across the entire movie. "The Clan of the Separated"? Yeah right... This for me dampered many scenes that would have otherwise been fairly heartwarming or sad. The overall plot isn't a bad one. It's actually a very interesting concept that I feel was just simply not done right. Or, maybe needed 2 parts and more time to do it correctly.
Art: 7/10
Animation wise it wasn't bad. Certainly wasn't great either. A few scenes looked quite silly but those were few and far apart. Was up and down throughout the film and sometimes is quite plain and boring but decided on a 7. Overall, not many complaints here.
Sound 7/10:
Here I had no complaints. No song really stuck out and made me really think about it deeper but all the songs seemed to match their scenes and OST was well done. No issues here
Characters: 6/10
Characters were pretty good. Clear development was seen in our two main characters which was nice to see. However, many other characters who seemed like they had importance, or could have had importance were simply forgotten about which was very disappointing. The biggest of which is the Army General Izol who swore to atone for his sins to Leila who was seen after that for maybe less than 5 seconds. In addition, the drunk man whom we never learn much of anything about whi randomly appears to save the day or just simply out of nowhere could have been done a lot better too.
In conclusion, it was a Weak 7. The movie was decently enjoyable but was literally coincidences the animation. Had a good concept with potential but didn't live up to it. However, still created a movie that was appealing and a decently enjoyable watch if you don't think too much about it.
Recommended
I saw this movie already few weeks ago, but I am posting my review for it delayed because for the first time in several years, I was lost in what to say. *might contain light spoilers* Let me start by giving some backstory information: I am huge fan of drama series, but unlike most people who consider themselves a fan of drama: I hate almost every drama that is being made today. No matter how highly praised the series and movies I watch are, they always end up disappointing me. Shallow teenagers cry in them for no reason whatsoever. Emotional depth is at near 0% ifachieved at all. Story telling and characterization rely too much on spoon-feeding the feelings. The world building is miniscule since the sole point of the series is always just to offer some cheap tearjerking for those who never ask for more. Execution-wise, silence; situations where nothing needs to be said are the heaviest possible way to convey drama, but the audience is almost never respected or trusted in this way. So instead, the drama is directed at viewers via over-exaggerated voice acting, crying scenes and downright pathetic yelling sequences which only purpose is to show how much emotions the characters are feeling, but the viewer is always forgotten. What 'When the Promised Flower Blooms' does is different because the feels are not hitting the characters: they hit the viewer instead. For the first time in 7 years, the anime industry has managed to create something that made me cry.
I will keep this as simple and honest as I can.
Story:
-Takes place in a world that is a mixture of high-tier utopia fantasy where peaceful beings similar to elves are coexisting with nature and medieval human race in where kings and knights rule their part of the land in highly immoral and not-so-peaceful manner.
-Mixes together political thriller, war, drama and daily life of both races.
-Focuses on interracial willing and unwilling relationships. The main plot line being about elf-woman and a human child starting a family together where she takes the role of a (foster) mother. Another heavy motherhood-related concept is related to another elf-woman who is raped by the human king and becomes a (biological) parent to her child, but never sees her.
-Deals with heavy questions about family, love, living, finding your own place in the world. As well as regret, adapting and one's purpose in life.
-Several different themes are presented via different characters and their circumstances to a point that it is hard to see how at least one of these POV's wouldn't resonate with its viewer.
-All of this is build around a solid story and inside a world so masterfully crafted that despite its drama-heavy content, it could as well be called just a fantasy movie.
-Build together in such an impressive manner that after finishing the 2 hour movie, I felt like I had seen a 24 episodes long tv anime. So much content, hardly any filler, smooth and impressive from writing to directing.
Characters:
-Simply put: they are genuine, often very lost, trying their best, miserable beings at times, yet developed into something beautiful.
-Most of them struggle to face reality, some simply can't. Ideas such as suicide are brought on the table. In generally, great many characters are put in places that are against everything they would prefer. The best part is how much sense the drama makes in the series and how honest the character reactions to every situation are.
-Elf-people are have close-to-immortal lifespan which creates confusion especially in the main plotline where our mother realizes she is cursed to outlive her adopted son. The son simultaneously has to deal with his own confused feelings where he starts maturing and surpassing this person who no longer starts to seem like a mother to him, but a litle sister.
Art:
-Fucking amazing.
-Very familiar feel to it. Fantasy world similar to video games such as ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian + also the Disney Movie Atlantis.
-Character movements can look occasionally weird for they can never truly match the backgrounds that are so insanely beautiful.
-No money was saved in the making of this piece of art. It looks cold and brutal at times, yet so often incredibly beautiful. Water surfaces work like mirrors, the lighting and color pallet make details come alive.
-In generally, the art serves the immersive nature of the series so well that it can't really be said to be none less than its very own thing. Something that can't quite be found anywhere else.
Sounds:
-Some of the cast are voiced by annoying "shonen-like" seiyuu's which is a minus.
-The important roles are highly fitting to the characters. They offer personality and practically never go over board with the seiyuu work. Even the rare emotional voice acting feel real and genuine.
-Music is used in the smartest possible way. Otherwise this doesn't have an OST I would listen separately, but it really feels like it was made just for this movie.
Enjoyment:
-The first 15 minutes made me think this is going to be highly mediocre drama like all the other recent drama.
-Rest of the movie quite literally flew by.
-It left me with a long lasting impact, highly memorable piece.
-My eyes got wet in total of 3 times, and I legit cried during climax of the story where everything went down.
Conclusion:
-Highly recommended.
![[Oshi No Ko]](https://myanimelist.net/images/anime/1812/134736l.jpg)