Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is an anime film set in a
fantasy world where a tribe called the Iorph lives. Their lifetime is considerably longer than
that of normal human beings; an Iorph remains looking like a teenager even
though he or she is already hundreds of years old. Because of their remarkable nature, they
choose to live far from other humans, and spend their lives weaving a special
fabric called “Hibiol,” which chronicles history through the passage of time as
textile patterns.
The focus of the plot is the
titular Maquia, a young Iorph girl who gets separated from her people when dragon
riders from the neighboring imperialistic kingdom of Mezarte invade their
village in order to exploit the Iorph.
While wandering through the forest, she stumbles upon a caravan ambushed
by bandits, and the only survivor is a bawling baby boy in the embrace of his
murdered mother. Falling in love with
the baby, she decides to take him in, and gives him the name “Ariel.”
The rest of the film shows Maquia
raising Ariel through the years, and the evolution of their relationship as
Ariel grows in age while Maquia remains the same.
First of all, as a high fantasy,
it was somewhat of a unique experience to me.
Why? Because it’s a drama. Now, it’s possible that I might have
encountered some high fantasy stories that lean heavily on drama in the
past. But if so, they were so rare that
I’ve forgotten ever encountering them.
Usually, a high fantasy premise would result to an action adventure
story.
Honestly, I was anxiously half-expecting
that the relationship between Maquia and Ariel would become a Freudian romance
down the line. Anime, after all, is not
above such creepiness (the readiness to push the envelope is a characteristic
that makes anime both awesome and trashy).
Thankfully, that isn’t the case here.
Maquia – with its main storyline, recurring themes, and subplots – boils
down to being an anime about motherhood.
And having such subject matter is a sure-fire way to give the
feels. Thus, in a way, the movie has its
work cut out for it in terms of emotionally connecting with its audience. Nevertheless, it doesn’t phone it in. There’s still tremendous care and thoughtfulness
put into its storytelling.
I admit that this film felt tedious
at times to me. Though I immediately recognized
what the film was going for, a part of me was still annoyed that it wouldn’t
get more exciting considering the wondrous fantasy world it was set in. I was hoping for a sense of adventure and
action (now, there are actually action scenes in it, but they are more in the
background than being front and center).
But in the end, I think Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
is splendid. It has a poignant plot,
gorgeous animation, and atmospheric music, and their combined effect is
quite moving. And thus, unless Mirai convinces me otherwise (when I get
to see it), it’s my pick for best anime film of 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment