The twist here comes with an immortal, adolescent parent raises a mortal child, but doesn’t age herself. “…a personal story about motherhood from Mari Okada.” Many a romantic tale has been told of the immortal lead falling in love with the mortal and the moment comes to a head when the mortal becomes too old for the immortal. The most notable issue tackled in Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is immortality. All told in the beautiful hand-drawn animation we come to expect from Anime and told in the slow-paced, deep-dive storying telling we expect from Anime…with a few twists. In the spirit of anime, we embark on a long, almost two-hour explorations of issues of immorality, parenting, misogyny, and racism. So, your standard Middle-Earthian tale of warring factions, elves, and dragons. Showing compassion, Maquia takes it upon herself to the infant’s mother and names him Ariel (Miyu Irino). The man feels the baby’s only destiny is to abandon the infant, so he can join her mother in the afterlife. Alone and afraid, Maquia comes across a local villager in the forest, who is holding the baby of a woman, who died giving birth. For an extra dose of torture, Leilia is imprisoned, never to be a mother to Medmel.ĭuring the invasion, Maquia is grabbed by a Renata and flown hundreds of miles from her homeland. Leilia is captured and betrothed to head knight, Izor (Tomokazu Sugita) for immediate reproduction and Medmel (Misaki Kuno) is born. “…legendary, immortals, who spend their days on a loom weaving ‘Hibiol’…where seemingly the history of humanity is woven together.” It is decided by the clan’s leader to invade the Lolphs, capture its women, and produce an army immortal Merzarte. But the Renata are on the verge of extinction, and when the last one dies the Merzarte will lose its military might. Having encaged every known Renata, the Merzarte are the most powerful clan in the land. Meanwhile, there is the Mezarte clan, who keep the also legendary dragons known as Renata. Leila warns Maqia that loneliness comes to those who fall in love with an outsider. Known as the “Clan of the Separated,” the lolphs never venture into the outside world. Her mentor/best friend is Leilia (Ai Kayano). Her appearance and maturity are that of an adolescent girl.
A symbolic record of history, if you will. The vertical strands in the loom represent time and the horizontal threads represent the individual lives. Maquia (Manaka Iwami) is a Lolph, legendary, immortals, who spend their days on a loom weaving “Hibiol” and valuable piece of cloth, where seemingly the history of humanity is woven together. So, can you teach an old dog new tricks?įrom screenwriter Mari Okada comes his directorial debut, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, the story of motherhood, adolescents, racial identity, and the environment. I suppose as Film Threat’s resident Asian, I should be a little more knowledgeable and appreciative of Anime, and you would be mildly racist for agreeing with that.
Then my kid became obsessed with Ponyo and The Secret Life of Arietty. I don’t remember the plot, but that was one weird movie. In high school, I was a fan of Robotech, but never really sat down and watched a tradition film until seeing Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. While I’m not necessarily a fan of anime, I’d consider myself an admirer of anime.