'Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms' Is a Moving High Fantasy Drama Anime Film

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.