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REVIEW: Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms Blu-ray




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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Totally agree with you on all of this. While my personal grievances with the movie were various undeveloped subplots (Like the Renato and their Redeye issue never being explained) and one character acting way out of character near the end, I still love this movie to pieces. I've watched it three times, twice in Japanese and once in English. I'd gladly rewatch this a million times, and I probably will in the future. I definitely want to show this to all my friends and family! Very Happy

Also, one note on the character designs: The person who designed the characters was Akihiko Yoshida, who worked on famous games such as Final Fantasy, Bravely Default, and Nier: Automata. I read somewhere that Okada really liked him and specifically picked him to design the characters for the movie, which explains why all the characters look kinda cutesy-looking. But yeah, I love this movie, flaws and all. I'd rather watch a flawed but still genuinely good movie over a straight up bad movie overall.
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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 1:24 pm Reply with quote
I can't wait to see the dub, but I ordered the limited edition version from RightStuf because I loved this movie so much ... of course, I'll have to wait to sit down and watch it when I'm ready to cry for 2 hours. As a mother of two sons, I literally can't even think too hard about this movie without tearing up.
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KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:06 pm Reply with quote
Just a reminder to anyone buying the DVD version, it is dub-only.

I really enjoyed this film, even if I feel it sometimes ventured too far into overly dramatic melodrama when it didn't need to. Its very ambitious for her first film, and hits most of its marks. She could have easily done another high school romantic drama similar to AnoHana or Anthem of the Heart, but she went full out with fantasy worldbuilding, and a decades-spanning timeline and that's impressive.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:41 pm Reply with quote
My one gripe with it (which may even be a general gripe I have with Okada, come to think of it) is how the viewer is expressly forbidden from seeing inside the heads of any of the male cast. It makes sense that we wouldn't see Ariel's entire romance, as Maquia wasn't around for that part of his life, but to then suddenly let us in on an intimate moment at the end (without Maquia present) felt like an oddly cheap play at resolution. And that's without even getting into poor Krim. Sure, he does lots of things, but why? We're never meant to know, I guess.

It's perhaps simply the inverse of basically every male-directed film ever, and really amounts to only a minor gripe when held against everything that the movie does right, but it is the feeling that stuck with me most.
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crazieanimefan1



Joined: 18 Feb 2015
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:30 pm Reply with quote
I'm a mother of two...I bawled my eyes out with this movie. I never thought so many scenes would just have me in tears, but the last scene, not the post credits one, but the one where spoiler[Maquia is leaving after Ariel died as an old man and she's having flashbacks to his childhood and says she can't help but to cry now] was what got me. I almost had to pause the movie...it is definately an emotional rollercoaster.

But I did like it.
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:58 pm Reply with quote
In retrospect, it's kind of weird how much I loved this movie, considering I don't even want kids. But it sounds like Okada actually wrote this about her own mother rather than from personal experiences as a mother, which is even more surprising.

In any case, though... yeah. Easily one of the most engrossing pieces of media I've ever seen, and the only time I can remember being so incredibly anxious about the fate of a character spoiler[(in the whole simultaneous battle/birth part)]. And just when you think the emotional onslaught is over you get that scene, described in the previous post. I mean, I've cried watching movies before, but like... I had trouble seeing the screen for parts of that. Speaking of which, where the heck is the soundtrack CD, I need it.

wolf10 wrote:
My one gripe with it (which may even be a general gripe I have with Okada, come to think of it) is how the viewer is expressly forbidden from seeing inside the heads of any of the male cast.


I'm... really not sure where you got that impression. Strictly speaking, it doesn't go inside anyone's head. While it does follow Maquia around most of the time, because she's the main character, it's almost entirely third-person; only exception I can think of is the part at the very end showing spoiler[Maquia's memories of Ariel]. And there are certainly cases where male characters express their thoughts or feelings--for Ariel, there's spoiler[the scene where he and Lang talk/argue about joining the army (and the crappy thing he said to Maquia), the other scene later where he explains why he wants to stay and fight rather than running away to his wife, the whole heart-to-heart thing between him and Maquia after the battle,] not to mention some of the childhood scenes, like the whole "I'm going to protect you!" thing.

In regards to Krim, spoiler[in anime-fan terminology, he's a yandere. Many years of separation from his lover and homeland drove him crazy.] More than that, though, he's a foil to the general theme of moving on, not clinging to the old ways of doing things, and (literal) rebirth. He can't handle any of that, and when he's forced to confront the fact that the world and people he cares about have changed, spoiler[he decides to end it all because, in his mind, the world has basically ended anyway. Ironically, but also appropriately, this leads to him dying along with the kingdom, which fell due to over-reliance on old methods (the dragons).]
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 5:21 pm Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:
wolf10 wrote:
My one gripe with it (which may even be a general gripe I have with Okada, come to think of it) is how the viewer is expressly forbidden from seeing inside the heads of any of the male cast.

I'm... really not sure where you got that impression.

I got it from watching the movie? You don't really need to defend it or change my mind about it, as I did enjoy it for what it was.
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Jayhosh



Joined: 24 May 2013
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 8:30 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed this film, but I had my fair share of issues with it. I think the narrative would have been much stronger if they'd spent more time just focusing on the mother/son relationship and having the war and other stuff be background world-building fluff. Plus, despite the Kawai score itself being god-tier, some of those sound cues were downright laughably melodramatic. I know Okada's work has that stigma though so I expected some of that going in. Overall the dramatic impact I think she intended with certain scenes just felt unearned at times. I admire its lofty ambitions but one film probably wasnt enough to fit all of the complex moving parts if she wanted to give equal focus to all of them. Ultimately its clear that the woman is very passionate about what she's doing though, and this was a relatively impressive directorial debut, all things considered. I'm looking forward to what she directs next (because of course there's going to be something after this). For me, a light 7.

Also: character designs are the sole weak point? Really? Wow, the disrespect. I mean, the guy's a legend who's created some of the best character designs in video game history, and I think they were adapted to anime very tastefully.
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Dark Mac



Joined: 17 May 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:08 pm Reply with quote
This doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so I guess it's just me, but I thought all the rape in the movie and the way it handles it was pretty odd. Like spoiler[Leilia gets kidnapped and raped, and then when people come to rescue her, she decides to stay with her rapists? WTF?] And then there's the scene later on, where spoiler[Maquia gets kidnapped, raped, and impregnated,] and the movie barely even addresses it. Shouldn't that have been a really big deal to her?

I liked the mother/son parts of the movie, but all the rape stuff was a big turnoff. The movie would've been better without it.
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Jayhosh



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
This doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so I guess it's just me, but I thought all the rape in the movie and the way it handles it was pretty odd. Like spoiler[Leilia gets kidnapped and raped, and then when people come to rescue her, she decides to stay with her rapists? WTF?] And then there's the scene later on, where spoiler[Maquia gets kidnapped, raped, and impregnated,] and the movie barely even addresses it. Shouldn't that have been a really big deal to her?

I liked the mother/son parts of the movie, but all the rape stuff was a big turnoff. The movie would've been better without it.


O_O Uhh... I'm not sure if I missed an entire section of the film somehow (I watched the official bluray) but I don't recall there being a single instance of the second spoiler actually happening. I think I would have remembered something like that.

And the first one is actually quite simple to explain: spoiler[Yes, it is implied that she was impregnated unwillingly, but it was still her child. There's an inherent maternal instinct to raise your own kin there. It's not like she's doing it because she actually has been brainwashed to rely on and idealize her kidnappers (though this is also a thing that can and does happen)][/i]
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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:55 am Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
This doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so I guess it's just me, but I thought all the rape in the movie and the way it handles it was pretty odd. Like spoiler[Leilia gets kidnapped and raped, and then when people come to rescue her, she decides to stay with her rapists? WTF?] And then there's the scene later on, where spoiler[Maquia gets kidnapped, raped, and impregnated,] and the movie barely even addresses it. Shouldn't that have been a really big deal to her?

I liked the mother/son parts of the movie, but all the rape stuff was a big turnoff. The movie would've been better without it.


Maquia doesn't get spoiler[raped and impregnated. It's been awhile since I've seen the movie, but that dude is making a crack about the length of her hair and her connection with her adopted human child. He doesn't mean she's actually pregnant.

Also, doesn't Leilia give herself up to save Maquia in the initial chase? ]
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Key
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:58 am Reply with quote
^
This is correct, but I'd also add that spoiler[Leilia very pointedly said that she didn't want the other guy seeing her like that.] So it was addressed and there were reasons.
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FireChick
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 6:13 am Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
This doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so I guess it's just me, but I thought all the rape in the movie and the way it handles it was pretty odd. Like spoiler[Leilia gets kidnapped and raped, and then when people come to rescue her, she decides to stay with her rapists? WTF?] And then there's the scene later on, where spoiler[Maquia gets kidnapped, raped, and impregnated,] and the movie barely even addresses it. Shouldn't that have been a really big deal to her?

I liked the mother/son parts of the movie, but all the rape stuff was a big turnoff. The movie would've been better without it.


I was under the impression that she couldn't leave because if she did, Mezarte would just try and track her down and hurt Maquia and everyone else. Plus, it'd be pretty hard to be pregnant and raise a child on the run. Considering the empire will do anything to get what they wanted, I wouldn't be surprised if Leilia tried to run and they forcibly took her back and did whatever they could to keep her there. She probably felt she couldn't leave, and if she tried, she'd just wind up putting herself, Maquia, and the others in worse danger.

And no, Maquia doesn't get raped or impregnated. If you're referring to the part where Krim comments on how long her hair is, all he says about it is that it's Iorph tradition to keep one's hair a certain length until after they became a parent, nothing else.
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