Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

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.

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.

To start, I watched this in theaters in Japan. The art for this series is fantastic. Backgrounds, buildings, and landscapes are all works of art. The characters, on the other hand, are not so great. I hope they improve them for the Blu-ray release. The voice acting was pretty good, but there were a couple places that had me wondering how it passed pre-screening. The story starts out kinda slow, kinda jumps to a bit of action, then slows again. There is a lot of character growth, and you do get attached to them. Finally, this movie is an emotional rollercoaster. I usually don’t cry in movies, but thisone had the whole theater (including me) crying at the end. Overall, I would say it is worth seeing at least once, maybe even worth buying. But I can’t see myself going to watch it a second time in theaters, mainly because I don’t think my heart can take it.

Back when the first trailers dropped, I was pumped to watch this movie. The artwork looked so stunning, the premise felt original and full of potential. After waiting for half a year until it finally became available to watch, I have to say it didn’t live up to my hopes. This review will contain marked sections with minor spoilers, mainly to illustrate certain points that contributed to the overall stale taste that the movie left in my mouth. The story itself is pretty interesting. A clan of near immortal beings, weaving history into pieces of cloth. A neighboring empire that, when their power fades, tries to obtainthat longevity to regain its foothold. A young girl, that gets caught up in that conflict, is driven from her home and has to find a new place to belong in an everchanging world. The world design is fantastic. It feels like an actual place, not a set piece. It is well thought out, colorful and an overall joy to see unfold. I found the character design beautiful, though I know that is up to individual taste. The occasional CG used for the dragons is forgivable. It’s a real shame that despite its stunning visuals and sweeping orchestral music, the movie is lacking relatable characters and a cohesive script. Maquia is kind of meek, cries a lot and is shown to be burdened by her loneliness. This doesn’t fundamentally change throughout the movie. Ariel, her adoptive son, is aged up through time jumps so sudden and inconsistent, that it is incredibly hard to grasp his personality or motivation. Some of his actions really came out of nowhere for me and were hardly ever explained. The bond between mother and son is the main focus of the movie, but with the few glimpses of their relationship shown between the time jumps, it doesn’t feel like they have actually gone through anything together. It’s more of a laundry list of events that gets checked off as the story rushes on. Mild spoilers in the next paragraph: Neither of the two main characters felt relatable, mainly because their actions often didn’t make sense in the context of the story. Maquia never once tries to go back and find out what exactly happened to her home and her people, which bothered me immensely. Important parts that could have defined their relationship and help the viewer understand Ariels feelings and motivations, like him finding out he is adopted and what Maquia really is, are glossed over quickly. Also, his behavior changes dramatically after the time jump into early adulthood, with his reasoning for lashing out towards his adoptive mother being questionable at best. The backdrop of the story, more precisely the conflict between multiple nations (which were non-descriptive at best and cartoonishly evil at worst), should have been more important. With all the focus on Maquia and Ariel, the surrounding events that had a lot of potential just got used as a facilitator for an underwhelming finale. Also, beautiful as the world and the multiple locations shown in the movie are, there is a definitive lack of explanation as to where everything is in relation to each other. People are transported from place to place without establishing from where to where the journey leads, sometimes in between time jumps, so the viewer just gets utterly confused as to how they ended up there – or where “there” is. This becomes worse leading up to the final conflict. A lot of lore is touched on, but never properly explained or given context. The plot is rushed so much that the whole thing falls flat in the end, since it was – at least for me – hard to become attached to any of the characters. I think the story would have made a great series instead, with 12 or more episodes to flesh out the characters and their relationships, establish the geography of the world and to give equal importance to the overarching plot of the conflict between the warring nations. It’s not an awful movie by any means, but it is one with a lot of wasted potential, which sadly leaves it at an average level.