Anime 35851 Sayonara No Asa Ni Yakusoku No Hana Wo Kazarou Reviews Filter Check 2

Review 22.11.2018: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou
Written by SMGJohn
"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 finally having 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 made it completely lacklustre and I will go into depth why this is was 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 Jarlsberg cheese experience of plot holes.
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 made is illogical.
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 write the story, the story writes 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.
Why is this a stupid scenario? 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 was it so 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? It is not as if the men of the Iorph’s do not exist because they do we get to see them a few times.
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, 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 these decisions were made to present it this way.
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 incapable of writing a proper story surrounding Maquia herself and her experience outside her homeland.
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, Maquia friend who was kidnapped was done so in order to bear “fruit” to a new prince, as suggested by the movie she was raped multiple times by the prince himself to bear a new son but the movie tries to portray it as a “not a big deal” type of situation.
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 did it 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 seeing Maquia and her son being reunited again, 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 that you are too logical in taste, 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.

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 obtain ... that 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.

It's world building is done very well and very naturally and feels so legit and lived in. It's done in a way that's very show and don't tell which makes it so easy to fall into. It's a light fantasy setting, which is neat since you don't see that in anime very often. The CG is sparse but does kind of stand out, but still isn't the worst I've seen. There's some very nice animation on display here at times. The premise and some of the ideas I think that hey were going for are interesting, but the way it's presented is disjointed and some ... of the character actions confused me, which both hurt some of the intended dramatic emotional beats. On the whole I was conflicted but ultimately didn't like it.

I was told by a few friends that this movie would be the equivalent of the likes of 'Your Name' and 'A Silent Voice' which I consider the pinnacle of Anime movie excellence. What these tall claims state though, was nowhere near what I experienced from this movie. I mean this in a bad way, not at all positive.

Animations and Soundtrack: At the moment, the only positive aspects of the film I can really justify is the artstyle that is NOT cg as well as the score. Animation in this film was buttery smooth. The animations were crisp, finely woven with the world and just ... really really fricken cute. What stains this, however, is that godawful cg. The Renato look so damn ugly, and I don't understand how why they didn't animate it instead because it looks like a fricken animatronic: lifeless and dead. It's especially concerning how this was a high budget movie and not some boned in episode of a certain anime show called Overlord Season 3. Other than that, great animations all around. The soundtrack on this film is phenomenal. Every track was deeply engrossed with the film and meant something rather than a few tunes that accompany the animation. If there is one thing that this film matches in quality with the top guns, it is the soundtrack; easily up there with A Silent Voice and Devilman Crybaby.

Story: Severely cluttered, lacking and unfocused. The first half of this film was well introduced. The characters were introduced swiftly and very clearly to the viewer and the themes were easily captured in being about paternal love. That's cool and all, but the execution of said theme as the movie progresses was what really irks me. There were way too much timeskips in this film. I get that the film was trying to show the maturing nature of Ariel, but Story development based on just timeskips alone is generally going to be pretty damn mediocre (A Silent Voice and The Anthem of the Heart does a much better job at story development across several years through the use of timeskips but are minimal and not at all distracting compared to this garbage mumbo jumbo). The film had a pretty awful worldbuild as well. As the film progresses, you'll start to notice many, many things being introduced with absolutely no information accompanying it. You are introduced with the kingdoms yet they are just mere mentions, nothing more. I don't understand at all how they relate to each other. You are introduced to the renato, dragons that are utilized by a kingdom in war and dying by a disease; yet this very disease is unexplained, as I've said, merely mentioned. The stars of the show, the eternally young Iophorials (I hope I spelled it right) are not explained properly at all, lacking in the basics of how they even function. The concept of Hibiol is briefly touched upon, same old; merely mentioned and never explained. I just don't understand how people would stand to give this story a 8,9,10 with such glaring errors and mistakes. This film had plotholes the size of the Moon, it felt rushed in at times and wasn't coherently sorted at all. IMO this story is understandable but really, really terribly executed; probably the worst I've ever seen. More times than not, you'll be asking 'Who is this guy?, what's wrong with this guy?, why is this happening?' rather than enjoying the film, which really should not be happening.


Characters: Firstly, the main characters of this film: Maquia and Ariel. The film went from baby Ariel to adult Ariel in a quarter of the movie and it simply wasn't enough. Ariel had so little development that there really was no empathy or sympathy at all for him. At the climax of his arc, all I could think of was how poorly developed this character was. He comes of as snotty and an overall brat which I had guess wasn't what the film was aiming for. His motives were unclear, his character; confusingly elaborate. If this film focused on just one stage of his childhood likewise to A Silent Voice, watchers would feel for him, understand him. The film doesn't do this. They try to shove every minor moment that Ariel had, trying to create a mishmash character development out of irrelevant timeskips. The result was sadly not up to par. Maquia, on the other hand was the better character. Out of the entire film, she was the only one that had great character development but her entire character was based on the trope of a kid parent learning to be a parent; which isn't inspiring but hey it gets the job done, though it really doesn't bring praise to this movie. The rest of the cast was used very,very,very unwisely. This exact film is what I call a show without secondary characters as they are all third rate. Not a single character in this film had a redeemable moment outside of Maquia and Ariel. Characters are popped in as instantly as they are popped out. Connections are rarely made and their actions are just mysterious and irrelevant as their role within the movie As I watch the events unfold I'll often be wondering to myself 'why does this even matter?' 'Wait, who tf this guy? Why should I care?' Precisely because not a single of these characters were developed well.

Enjoyment: Did I enjoy it? I want to say I did. I really do. But there was way too much to consider that just pulled my overall experience level down. If you're looking at these reviews and seeing these 9s and 10s and expecting something of legendary status like A Silent Voice and Your Name, prepare to be disappointed because as it stands, this film is nowhere near the quality of the king and queen of anime films.

This is my first review, written when I should've been studying exams at 12 in the morning xd. If you spent the time to read my wall of text, god fricken bless you >.<

Aight simple guy simple reviews

This anime shows how men screw things up simple. Jk ok.

Honestly why is the rating so high it was mid. Like good but not good enough

Soundtrack is mid

Story is good not bad I understood everything. I don’t understand how people like say plot holes, time skips? Bro that’s how some people tell stories man. I kind of like story telling like this gives a sense that time pass by so fast for her since she lives so long. Kinda sad but didn’t cry at all. Unique plot.

Characters are cool they grow and shitz but you know like the focus of the ... characters are kinda messy. Are they going to focus on war? Becoming a mother? Relationship of other characters? … but at the end they clear things up but you know messy.

Pacing is good short movie you know didn’t really feel bored

Animation is good but nth like your name or koi no katachi or even the ghbli movies.

Emotions and after thoughts not much just mid thought would feel sadder.

Overall mid I thought it would be a more unique and more emotional grabbing movie. This movie nails how human life is so brief but lacking in execution.

Btw I rate movies on how I feel during and after the movie. If the movie is funny I want to laugh. If the movie is scary I want to be so scared I can’t fall asleep. You get the point.

So 7/10 prolly going to like change how I rate this stuff soon.

An immortal mother and her mortal son, sounds interesting. What could go wrong? A lot.

Ookami Kodomo is a much better movie with a similar setting (a human mother and her mystical children) which did it right.

The pacing, plot development and characters are disastrous. And in movies which should appeal to one's emotional, those are the most important features.

The first quarter of the movie is decent.

Spoilers ahead!
...

One of the MCs goes from cute kid to generic rebel character to saying he'd be a responsible son to responsible parent to being an unresponsible parent within a short time.

The other MC is as plain as it gets.

The rest of the cast is weak, I feel like they could've been much better. Krim seemed interesting, but ended up being quite pathetic. And Leilia, the second mother, the one who wanted to see her child so much and dreamt of being free, once she becomes free and sees her child, she decides to jump of a tower and leave it all behind. What a fantastic development.

The subplot, war, is actually better developed than the main plot and makes sense.

The art, which was the reason I watched this, was disappointing, but that's on me, I was expecting to see more of Yoshida's art.
The scenaries are gorgeous and the animation is good.The 3D animation was ok but offputting.

Soundtrack is barely there.

In the end, it's still somewhat enjoyable.

Okay, listen...
Let's dissect the entire thing.
Story:
A solid 5/10. I personally found the story to be scattered, and all over the place. There was no logical divide between the "Chapters" of their lives. In one scene Ariel is a kid, and then 2 seconds later he is a teen, and then 2 seconds later he is a young adult. So there were multiple times when I had to pause and go back 5 seconds to see if I missed anything. And, I feel, that if I have to manually do that, then it is not directed properly, and the story has no flow. The beginning hour, ... let's say, of the story was quite enjoyable, however, they dragged it on too long (It is roughly a 2hour movie) and left many things "in the dark", such as the red-eye disease that wiped out the dragons, what happened to the rest of the Iorphians, etc.

Art and Sound design:
9/10 and 9/10 respectively. The art and animation are smoooooth man and it's very pretty. The eyeshines and the general physical appearance of the characters "fit" medieval times and that era in general, whether that be how they're dressed or how their faces are drawn and the colors used. Overall, not the most amazing aesthetics and style but still veeery beautiful.
The soundtrack and voice acting are exquisite as usual, I particularly liked Maquia's voice. I felt that it suited her character very well, and that scream she gave at the end daaaang.

Character:
6/10
I don't know why, but I don't like how some characters behaved in certain situations. For instance, Ariel and Dita; he hated her in the beginning, they didn't have a friendship and she acted like a bully. Then they showed no further interaction between the two, but decide to skip to the part where she is freaking pregnant with their chiiild???? I just felt that there was a lot of missed opportunity with the characters.
Another example: Krim, Leila's "Friend" or "crush" or "boyfriend...?"
An absolute psychopath. He spent his entire life outside hiding from the girl he "loved" and wanted to protect, but when it came to it, he wanted them both to die together, got shot, and then RAN AWAY FROM HEEERR???? Instead of choosing to die by his "lover's" side, he died at the dragon cages away from everyone... y tho? (Hot take) I think they just wanted to somehow include the "Yandere" tag in there ><
Last point:
What was the purpose of the half Iorph dude? He was there at the beginning, somewhere in the middle (I think) and at the end, he gave Maquia a ride.. idk he confused me

Enjoyment:
meh, a 7/10. It was okay, I enjoyed the art and the music a lot, however, I caught myself spacing out at moments and feeling quite bored.

Overall:
A 6/10. Let me explain, pls don't kill me >~<. Personally (!), I think that this would have been better as a series. By making it a movie, they made the whole story seem rushed and they didn't have a lot of time developing the characters the way they should have been developed. Plus, because it was so long and so drawn out, it became quite a bore at times.


Ah! The moment when Ariel pushed her against the table or whatever that was I legitimately thought I was going to witness some hentaι istg...
Their relationship was super weird at times.

Like stated in the movie and the trailer a bit, 'I don't know'.

I don't know how to feel about this movie. I didn't absolutely love it, but I didn't hate it. I almost walked out of the theater, but was happy I didn't. I do not think that it deserves a 10/10 as much as some of the other films I have seen, but it does not deserve a low or average score. I took a shower to try and put my thoughts together, but I just can't.

If you have the chance to see it, do it.

Probably one of the biggest things that ... impacts me is just how hard it is for motherhood and how much it makes you appreciate your mother to the infinite degree. So +1 on that.

There are some things that I have issues that are making it so I do not know. Soooo





























******************SPOILERS!!!!!*******************

The big issues I have with this is following how Maquia feels. Being a young 22 year old male, that has no child I cannot understand how Maquia feels to the full effect I think intended.

At the early raid scene, there is suggested pedophilia rape of the people, which heavily heavily makes me want to stop and leave. Do not know why that was said or kept at all.

The movie time wise, moves really fast for a very long time slows then speeds up. I didn't like just how fast it moved with Ariel and his mother Maquia on the fact it went so fast to where he is now a dad, then jumps to the point of him dying and showing what she, and he left behind. I cried at this point and thinking about it and writing makes me tear up and still cry.

There is this dude that for some reason appears then just disappears at random, who is really not important, but the few moments he is on screen he is super important.

Leiria is forced to bear a child with a mental kings son thinking they could create eternal life in the kingdom. She goes crazy after having this child and becomes a prisoner and not being able to see her only attachment to the world. Near the end, she finally sees her daughter who looked to be around 8ish, basically says hi, then leaves to her home and says "I will forget you. I won't write you. don't remember me." and the child smiles and accepts this, pretty much acknowledging how messed up her kingdom was to her, and her mother.

Is this movie good? Yeah probably... but did I enjoy it? Not at all. Honestly I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. About halfway through I just wanted it to end.

Story 6/10
To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of tragedy but from an objective point of view, most of the plot feels like it was written as a poor attempt to make me pity the characters or something... I guess. We're presented with the point of view of MC who lives much longer than the rest of the cast and also some other challenges people with longevity face which obviously will have its ... cons... except that there were so many it was pretty much a two-hour trainwreck and there was no time to breathe. Though I have to give credit to how the story was presented. As from the point of view of the MC, it was purposely fast-paced to imply how time that seems very long to us passes by her in a flash.

While finishing the movie did leave a bitter taste in my mouth, I eventually realised that some plot elements which I thought didn't make sense or were downright stupid turned out to actually be really clever. I agree with the reviews that say we don't see enough of Maquia and Ariel's relationship, the main focus of the movie, in fact it was hardly there... after a certain point... while other characters I had no interest in got the spotlight.

Art 10/10
I'm no art expert, like at all. But in my opinion it was beautiful, consistent, and the CG Renato was pretty awesome. If something is worth sitting this movie for, its to admire the art and animation and you can just turn the subs and sound off. (just joking but saying this in case)

Sound 8/10
To be honest this might not be a fair review as I didn't even pay attention to the sound, I only noticed the ending song which is quite pleasant to listen to.

Character 4/10
4 for decent because honestly the only decent development was Maquia, but only her. Learning to not fear love and all, not bad. It really makes her the only likeable character in the movie and literally everyone else just gave me a headache right until the end. Did their actions make sense? I mean they were realistic, but on an enjoyment level I couldn't bring myself to like any of them.

Enjoyment 1/10
If Satan made a cinematic masterpiece it would be this. It was like... one fluff up after another. There could've been a better way to portray the concept of the story in less time (less pain), more enjoyment, more love, while still evoking the same emotion at that final ending scene but nah. I'm okay with unnecessary suffering (not a compliment, this is complete criticism like how Jack died in Titanic to save Violet when there were obviously ways for both of them to survive). For one thing I'm glad I didn't attach myself to any of the characters.

Overall 6/10
Yeah I really didn't like this movie to the point I had to make a review about it. I read a similar manga where there were many time skips in 6 chapters (from birth to death and to heaven and then the afterlife) and I loved and cried 10x more for that manga than this movie so just being honest, they probably did something wrong.

I didn't like Your Lie in April either (which is hugely popular and many people can safely call a masterpiece) so I think as a rule of thumb - if you liked Your Lie in April then you should watch this and if you didn't then don't.

I was expecting more from this.
I came in watching Maquia with some expectation of feeling somehing or unraveling some deeper meaning but came away bored and uninterested.

The characters are average, the coincidences stem from the weakness of the writer to create more characters or formulate more organic ways for path to cross again. The dialogue was pretty horrible and too simplistic. The story had steady progression albeit slow but suddenly became discontinuous towards the end. Some weak phrases were thrown around with a feeble attempt to sound like words of wisdom. The only one that even came close to words of common sense was "To ... love is to be alone".

I could have forgiven all this too if it had a better ending but the story was too weak from the start. The animation was good and the sound was bearable but the story left much to be desired.

A tear-jerker, that's definitely over-hyped.

Sure I shed tears on the right cues, so I could've rated it higher, but the fact remains.. this anime is just average.

- Things aren't explained. Random events just happened. Stupid flying dragons suddenly turning red and dying, with no explanation. They don't even bother explaining much about the "EVIL EMPIRE" (people seem to be happy, was the empire even evil or not?).

- The loom nonsense is just a bunch of gobbledygook with elves (or "Iorph", whatever they wanna call Elves in this) being all depressive and child-like (can't have anime without sexualizing 5000 year old children). Only time anything with ... "loom" was interesting, was in the movie Wanted (2008), and it was because of the action, not because of fucking thread weaving skills of the characters.

- Plot-holes maketh the plot, so do the jump-cuts. This movie needed another 30-60 mins to fill in the lore. Characters not only age every few mins, they even have background romance and suddenly are popping children while the viewer is left wondering, "Dafuq, did they even have any chemistry in that 10 second scene an hour ago?". Maybe if they didn't spend time on pointless lingering shots of characters crying, they could've added some dialogue and lore, minus the jump-cuts.

Art is good, English dub is garbage (muffled dialogues with music blaring in on max volume). Main character is just a weird mess who spends the whole movie crying, ending the movie crying. Movie just randomly ends and you now have to figure out who the new characters are, not that it matters as the movie rushes to end the movie.

Overall, I just felt disappointed at the end. I did like the last scene of the fields, it was beautifully done.. which is why I gave it 5, not 4.

Art saves it, story is a mess. If you shed tears during emotional scenes easily (like I do), you'll do here as well. But don't mistake those tears for quality. Those tears are NOT quality tears.

I'm genuinely a little baffled at the reviews for this movie. It's not a bad movie but it's not the narrative or emotional masterpiece the trailers and review content make it out to be.

The art direction, animation and musical accompaniment largely backpack the rest of the movie. It is very visually appealing. The character designs are interesting, the scenario gets you invested very early into the world being presented to you and the music plays appropriately and swells at key moments.

But the narrative... boy the narrative. It bumbles, it fumbles, it drags on and it's just plain confusing. It feels like one writer wanted ... to do a political drama, the other a character drama and the project manager between them gave up on reconciling the difference.

The characters behave in weird ways and make odd decisions that lack a purpose or meaning beyond purely driving the narrative forward. Key story elements are introduced 90 seconds before they are relevant and then are never mentioned again. There are repeated time skips with no editing, voice over or anything to indicate the passage of time nor how much time has passed. For a story whose central theme is about life and death, having characters die on screen and then are mysteriously alive for un-explained reasons causes a lot of the lines about the meaning of life to really fall flat. Several of the characters drivel on about wanting to live long lives only to be willing to throw themselves off of high places in moments of conflict?

A lot of the super emotional moments have the right elements to make you want to cry but its so hard to be invested in the characters motivations and the overall plot because both are so shallow. It causes these really hard hitting moments to fall on their faces because despite the efforts of the acting talent you just aren't sold that these characters who's motivations shift every 5 minutes really mean what they're saying.

It's a beautiful movie to look at, just don't think about it all or attempt to absorb any meaning out of it.

If you are familiar with Mari Okada as a screenwriter, then you've seen or heard of Anohana, Anthem of the Heart or Hanasaku Iroha. She tends to write strong character driven dramas. Mari Okada's attempt at fantasy is just like Goro Miyazaki's Tales from Earthsea. It falls flat. Her writing is most engaging when she is able to pull from parts of her life, like she does with Jintan from Anohana.

The reason this falls flat compared to Anohana or Anthem of the Heart is due to how emotionally flat the characters/cast are. There are too many characters among the main cast. In addition, there ... are too many time skips for the viewer to be emotionally invested in the characters. There's the main duo: Maquia and her adopted son Ariel. Maquia and her character design reminds me of Hagumoto Hagumi from Honey & Clover: she's that bland with her own love triangle at one point. Her son isn't any better. The time skips make his characterization completely unpredictable. Within an hour, Ariel is a baby, then a sweet 6-7 year old, then a 13-14 year old who out of nowhere develops a crush on his adopted mom and then announces he is father right after he joins the army who are attacking his mom's people. No joke, when he is 13-14 Ariel he gets drunk and could have almost sexually assaulted his mom. That seemed added for the sake of drama. I wished there could have been one age we could have focused on for Ariel.

I did it find it interesting how Ariel learned from his mom how to weave. It seemed that weaving was a means for communication among the Iorphians. I felt that was characteristic to their culture that I wish could have been explored further.

Then there's the rest. Leilia who experiences jumps in her characterization: she who is fearless and able to jump into the water becomes someone unable to run away when her clan tries to rescue her because she is pregnant.

There were too many characters with not enough screen time.

I found the character designs detract from the sadness the Iorphians have to face when they will outlive the ones they love. The character designs for the female Iorphians scream moe: semi flat chested with voice acting found in moe characters. I'm not sure if they are meant to forever look like pubescent middle school students.

This is a film that seems to have too much going on. This reminds me of the reverse of Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood in that the blond haired humans (Amestrians aka Iorphians) are the ones to be targeted and attacked. Additionally, there seems to be too much facts surrounding the world building that we are given that it's difficult to form a coherent narrative. What is the Hibiol tapestry they are weaving? Why is that important? Then there are those dragons that look like they were ripped out of Tales of Earthsea. Why are the locked in cages?

All and all, it was sort of a mess of a film. It is stunning to look at, if you don't mind the pubescent character designs. I was bored and disengaged throughout the film. This is coming from someone who has seen three of Mari Okada's works. I would pass on it.

I watched this on my birthday yesterday (17th June) with my parents and brother and had obviously been expected great things from it only to be disappointed. I can't remeber where I was recommended to watch this movie, nonetheless, I was excited to be blown away only to finish feeling meh afterwards.

I'll keep it brief with minimal spoilers.

[Story]

> The story was a good premise, immortal beings, war and family. Yet, the lack of storytelling or focus on anything left me feeling empty with no understanding of why I was even watching this. It just didn't have anything worth rewatching, the plot points were nothing special ... but also not explained properly. There was a severe lack of narrative and direction that I simply didn't like.

[Art & Sound]

> I had no issues with the art or the sound, maybe the character design could have been improved but it was an interesting style.

[Characters]

> They weren't bad but I didn't connect with any of them really so it was hard to root for them.

[Enjoyment]

> As you can tell, I didn't enjoy it but it wasn't terrible. It just didn't provoke much emotion or interest in me after a while. I feel like if they halved the time, it would've been better.

[Overall]

> Wouldn't watch it again or recommend it to someone else. Sort of surprised that this is the same studio that made Angel Beats.

I have seen many comments, reviews, and even a video on how that viewer cried and that this was an amazing movie. Sadly I can’t agree with those viewers. I didn’t cry during this movie nor did I think that this was a good movie. The story was sub-par due to the time skips, the characters where flat, the music went unnoticed, the character art is fine but the environment art is good, and I kinda enjoyed the show. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, or Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou, was sold to me as a gut-punch of an anime ... movie, but sadly it simply didn’t deliver. 5/10.

*Spoilers beyond this point*

The story is very disappointing. The prospect of a girl meets a boy who will die sooner could work. It actually has worked in Plastic Memories and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, all be it with the genders flipped. So, what makes this story so disappointing? Well, it is the time skips that make vertical cuts into the main characters’ lives. In theory, this makes sense, but in practice, it gives the characters little depth and it makes the viewer have to “learn” a new character.

On the subject of characters, most of them are unlikeable, irritating, or bland. With no motivations, no depth, and/or no development, it really makes the characters boring to watch. One of the characters I did like was Izol. Not because of his development or depth, but how the viewer sees him climb up the ladder in their version of the military. I also liked the farm owner Mido. She was smart and caring, loving but firm, and this made for a great character.

There is very little to say about the music and the animation so, I will lump them in together. The animation is good. I got some good screenshots of landscapes and towns, but the characters look kinda bad. They are animated to look like they are melting into themselves. For example, most people have no chin an/or no nose. The final point about the animation is that the Iorphs all have the same body type and hair type. This makes them all fold into one another and they don’t stand out. Speaking of not standing out, the music is fine. It doesn’t have any memorable tracks, and I also didn’t remember it being used at all. It’s almost like it wasn’t even there at all.

In the end, I didn’t enjoy this movie. Maybe I have become a jaded and cynical adult, or maybe I have something wrong with me. But whatever the reason may be, I found this movie bland and uninteresting. The story is a 4, art is a 6, the characters are a 5, the sound is also a 5, and enjoyment is another 5, coming out to a 5 overall.

Summary- I guess why I didn't like it as much was the fact I expected some Shakespeare level writing because it was rated so highly (definitely didn't deserve such high scores). Moreover the trailer fools us thinking it was about two lovers when it was all just mostly about a mother's love, which I had no problems until they added in what felt like forced romantic love stories (read below to see what I mean). If you want a movie about a mothers love as well as maturity of children just watch Wolf Children it's so much better. If you like to disagree with anything ... I said, missed or failed to understand then just leave a comment.

ART AND MUSIC

The art is pretty good, if only they decided to add more variety to looks since the Iorph race all look around the same to me as I will explain below. The ending song (the humming in the trailer) sounds so meaningful filled with nostalgia and sadness, couldn't have picked a better song. Though the music for everything else wasn't that memorable.


CHARACTERS

Leilia (favourite) is a character filled with so many complex emotions especially when she broke down and snapped off all her jewellery we can see her psychological state and love for her child. Maquia is another wonderful character who tries so hard to be a good mother. A true shame there wasn't more scenes with Izol who we can tell does not truly agree with the king and is actually a respectful decent person. I would have wanted a scene where he betrayed the king unfortunately that didn't happen. Getting rid of a bad king That would have made such a good story plot. a much better reason the country was at war in the first place lets be honest no one cares who won the war anyway there was nothing personal about it. Every other character seemed badly done to me. One went psycho one was boring and the others we just see for a couple of minutes for plot convenience and know next to nothing about them.

STORY PROBLEMS

Biggest problem was all the forced love interest in it. You do not see your sister or mother in a romanic light. Sure they aren't actually blood related so if your fine with that then sure but I can't stand that sort of thing, since young they have all being raised as a family.

It has a slow start but one of the worst things about it was the wasted potential the had. It could have dived better into themes such as war, racism, betrayal it would have been so easy to do but none of that. Let me explain...

A few minutes of war was shown but why was there a war happening? instead of just giving us the common because they want more land duh, why not take it more personal then that so it could be more climatic. It was said that Iorph race were treated unfairly but it would have being better to actually have one of those scenes where they go down a street and get food thrown at them or actually end up executed. A reason that could have also connected for a war to happen. Watching the trailer thinking it was going to have all that I was disappointed hoping it would be a big thing.

Character design was absolutely terrible. Genuinely had trouble telling the difference Maquia and Leilia when Maquia hair turned long blonde again. At the start it never told us why her changed to brown in the first place and gave no reason for it turning back to normal. As why was she even pregnant in the first place? did she actually get captured? then why is Krim there with her? how did they even manage to escape? And I guess the writers forgot she was even pregnant in the first place since it was never ever mentioned or shown again.

They used too many time-skips with a failure to show any beforehand build up in order for it to make sense. We all get throw suddenly into a war leaving the audience completely confused on what has happened and happening.

Spoiler- Ending was a good idea but I just don't see why Leilia still needed to to separated from her daughter when they clearly love each other. It would have been fine if it was just a reunion scene added in with a hug while Maquia flew away symbolising their freedom. I just don't care about the ending after that.

One of the things I think actually did pretty well was the topic of mortality. Everyone would sooner or later die. That was why it was mentioned " if you fall in love you will truly be alone" At first I was confused how can you be even more lonely? It's because if you don't love someone you can't miss them. You can't miss something you never had or wanted. Living old enough to see everyone die we can see this happen.

Maquia is the directorial debut of Okada, Mari, who has written series like Anohana and Nagi no Asukara. Maquia is very different from those two yet also similar. All three shows are very emotional, yet Maquia strays away from the typical melodrama used in the other two, and portrays a more family oriented story rather than friendship and love. Unfortunately, this film could have been so much better.

Characters and Story: The story of this movie should honestly be a series. Too many plot points were squished into the tiny time slot of a movie without being able to fully flesh out every aspect. Many plot ... points felt rushed over and, in the end, made half the movie feel very forgettable. The main societal conflict especially felt in the end lacking in relevancy due to a lack of development. So much was unclear and all over the place that it left a bad taste in my mouth despite my love for many other aspects of the movie.

Being a fantasy movie, there was just not enough time dedicated to fleshing out the world and society. When you bring me to another world I want to feel immersed in the world. In this aspect Maquia falls far short of expectation. Don't get me wrong, as for the world, Okada has amazing ideas, I just feel like she didn't give her own idea the justice it deserved in this case. Thiis could easily have been a 10/10 story.

The parts where the story does shine Is when it focuses on Maquia specifically, as she tries to be a good mother. The relationship between Maquia and Ariel is heart wrenching, I do however still wish that the pace was slown down during some of the development scenes, and again I believe this would have worked much better as a series rather than a movie. In terms of characters, other than Maquia and Ariel, every other character seemed to be left behind.

Okada knows how to hit the emotions just right. Even if you found a hundred flaws in the progression of the story, somehow you will still end up in tears by the end of the movie.

Sound: The music is beautiful. Many of the emotional impact this show has is greatly enhanced by its beautiful soundtrack, and I cannot tell you how many times I listened to the main theme of Maquia.

Art and Animation: The movie looks amazing for the most part. I could be nitpicky here, but overall, I don’t have many complaints. I still wish that it was a series and feel that the high-quality art and animation is not enough to justify this being a movie and not a series.

In the end Maquia is a good film, that could have been an Amazing series. More time needed to be given to flesh out the characters, world, and conflict but the ideas themselves were great.

Been on this site for quite a long while and yet I haven't done a single review. Well, looks like this'll be my first.

To start off, the animation work in this film is quite a spectacle. From the lustrous grassy fields to the immaculate castle and town, everything is shown off beautifully. You got to hand it to P.A. Works for the designs of these backdrops as they are seriously a treat to the eyes.
The character designs were pretty alright as well. They nailed the medieval fantasy look nicely with the characters. Colorful, diverse, and clean, the designs got the job done.
However I ... can't say the animation was all perfect. Of course, there were some instances of the dreaded "quality" shots, some scenes even looking really odd compared to others, but overall it was fine.
I can say the same with the sound, it was amazing. Nothing more to add there.

Now, here comes the main part.
Man, what a mess of a story. The concept of a mother who can't age living alongside a son who does seems like it can be interesting but the way it was handled in this film is downright confusing. Obviously with a story like this there's bound to be times skips here and there but oh man, they really love those time skips. I get that they're supposed to show the life of this child grow up next to his forever teen mom but can't they just put some brakes and let us see their development a bit better? It's like there's one scene here explaining something, giving background or plot details, then next scene later it's a couple years in the future. There were plenty of parts of the plot that I would've loved to see fleshed out more but sadly we don't have the time for that. This really affected the character development between Maquia and Ariel, which was supposed to be the main focus of the story, by not allowing the audience enough time to truly care about the child (Ariel) similarly to how Maquia would. This also applies to the events of the story as because of these seemingly random time skips certain scenes are missing key background information, making the viewer confused on what exactly is going on. Minor spoiler but there was a scene at the end involving an escape which made me almost burst out laughing at how absurd it was.

Overall, I'd say this film is a feast to the eyes and can even be recommended for the animation alone but is riddled with wasted potential for a concept that could've been so interesting.

I will not lie after I watched the movie I was really shocked when I saw it has this high of a score in MAL. This movie proved and reminded me of how people can think,like,and see different side of things.

As you can tell I did't like the movie very much,but first I will talk about what I did like

positives:
1-the first few part of the story I liked really much especially the opening seen.
2-the sound track was really good , nothing memorable but it gave you a good atmosphere.
3-the design of the main heroine was good,i find her really cute. She is also ... one of the only good characters in this movie in my opinion, more on that later.
4-the art of was really really good.
5-the relationship between the two main character was really amazing.

Negatives:
I have a lot of negative things to say and I will try my best not to spoil any thing.

1-this movie has two major plots ,one about the relationship between the main two characters and one about the kingdom and the king and what ever ,i think both of those ideas should've been their own movie , I don't think the two ideas go will together.
2-the main male character is really stupid and I don't think he make sense at all.
3-the story goes in a really strange way ,it starts slow then some action happen then it return to the slow bass.(this point was not so much of a negative but it was kinda annoying )
4-and finally my biggest problem with this movie, the final arc.i will just say this arc ruined the movie for me,there is a lot of things to say about the final arc but I will not talk about it to avoid spoiling the movie.

This movie definitely needed at least another 30 minutes or an hour of length, or like other reviews mentioned, should have been a 12-24 episode anime.

That being said, the art and animation was gorgeous. The setting and world building really draw you in. Things start to fall apart in the story aspect though.

It started off okay, as it was fairly slow (but well) paced. However halfway through, once I became aware that a lot of the questions raised in the beginning of the story would never be answered, I started having my doubts. Plot holes start popping up left and right. I ended off ... the movie just feeling very confused, which took away from what were supposed to be emotional moments.

Maquia had a lot of potential that was unfortunately squandered in trying to fit it into a movie.