Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)
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Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Movie Review
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is a 2018 fantasy anime film directed by Mari Okada. It’s such an emotionally wonderful, though inherently flawed flick.
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“Why does time continue forward?“
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I am not going to explain in-depth the plot as it’s so complicated and better to be experienced on one’s own. I personally found the entire storyline admirably ambitious, but definitely overly ambitious for its own sake at times and way too complicated in certain parts. It strikes an uncomfortable balance of respectably complex and needlessly complicated, but I mostly respected the hell out of it for being so epic in nature.
The movie is awfully paced, there is no getting past that. The movie is too long, but actually manages to be rushed despite its long runtime because the story is way too epic and should have been condensed a bit, especially its high number of characters. I found especially the first third quite rushed and although I appreciated almost every plot point, I wanted to spend more time with each of them, again especially the characters.
I mention the characters constantly for not being greatly developed, but they are actually still very good despite the film’s abrupt pace. Maquia is such a sweet person whom you root for from the beginning and she was an excellent choice for our protagonist. Ariel is also great and the mother-son relationship between the two drives the entire movie and is its heart without a doubt. Krim is also memorable and Leilia is excellent herself.
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Yes, despite Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms being a fantasy (and a very high fantasy at that), it’s at its core an emotional drama about a mother and her son. It’s a tale of motherhood and what it means to be a mother, a committed mother at all costs. I loved that and it truly made the movie special in terms of emotion and it transcended its time period so superbly to make for a universal movie thematically speaking. I also found Leilia’s forced marriage subplot very well realized and the movie is surely a feminist picture so wonderfully directed by newcomer Mari Okada who showed real potential here.
Yes, Maquia turns the entire Dark Ages concept on its head by focusing more on women than men which I appreciated and it commented on sexism of the day so smartly without ever being too on-the-nose. Yes, the script is quite sophisticated as is the dialogue which I really appreciated how clever and sometimes even deep it was.
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But the movie is also a very beautiful fantasy which is underutilized in most of its plot points and world, but still the world building is absolutely extraordinary and from the very first sequence I was in awe with this world. I loved its attention to detail, the creatures are great and the score is wonderful. The animation is absolutely mesmerizing with a gorgeous color palette and a lot of highly memorable, exceedingly beautiful imagery at display. It also features some cozy cottages and villages which I adored. Despite the movie being obviously set in the time period I dislike, it still managed to transcend it thanks to its themes, animation and characters.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms most certainly is immensely rushed in its pace and overly ambitious and complicated for its own sake, but still I admired the wonderful world they created here and the extraordinary, gorgeous looking, very polished animation. The theme of motherhood drives the movie and is the heart of it while the characters are also very well developed and the third act is quite emotional. It’s a feminist film done well and not too on-the-nose owing to its very sophisticated script that admirably favors real human drama instead of constant action.
