Anime Movie Review & Ending Explained: Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Another Superb Mari Okada Film)

When you see P.A. Works, most people would associate the anime with wondrous beauty in its artstyle and that certainly holds true for Maquia. P.A. Works has been from the trend of having a good series one season, then having a poor/average one the next season. I'm not really sure why, but perhaps it's due to the adaptation of original series. As we all know, most original series never pan out well. Maquia, however, is a unique case to the library of original series works, despite being a movie. When I saw Mari Okada as the director and writer of this series, I knew that this was going to be something special, and special it was.

The movie was a beautiful series and was paced very well despite having many timeskips. Maquia probably has the most timeskips I seen in a movie, but that was one of the main aspects of the movie. The importance of time was prevalent, perhaps less so from our protagonist - Maquia. There were many other themes regarding human relationships and qualities, and that was one aspect that Mari Okada always did well in movies she directed.

Ending Scene Speculations:

After the credits, the audience is treated with a stillshot of the last Renato and the surviving group of Iorph who are living in the restored village. We also see a prominent individual with red hair, who we speculate to be Leilia's daughter, Medmel. This theory makes sense and it would be a wholesome one, since we can assume that Medmel eventually reunited with her mother again. I'm sure there are many theories out and about, regarding who the other individuals are within the photo. According to an interview with Mari Okada from IGN, the setting was "many, many years later", but that doesn't really close off any theories since Iorphs live a long time, so the theory that the picture depicts Leilia and Maquia and other survivors, could hold true.

The theory that these are another generation of Iorph could also hold true too, but that seems a bit weird since a lot of the Renato died so quickly of the Red Curse. For me, it doesn't seem likely to be in the far future, so that's why I think the first theory is more likely. No matter what theory you support, this scene wasn't originally planned to be put into the film, but Mari Okada intervened and asked for it to be put in. A good decision indeed, Mari Okada. Very wholesome!

Loss, Death, Happiness, Love, Sacrifice - A Necessary Part of Life

The movie delves into human emotions that we all will encounter throughout our lives. This is even more so for our protagonist, Maquia, where time is the least of her worries, so she inevitably will encounter more of this hardships. As the movie progresses, we see the struggles and feelings that Maquia discovers as she tries to live her life with her adopted human child. Being an orphan, Maquia had to discover what was love and happiness for herself, as well as the harsh aspects of life - loss and death of friends. That is what makes this movie so engaging and relatable, despite the audience being completely different to Maquia. Everyone, no matter race, will experience these emotions, and it is our choice to control our emotions or let these emotions control us.

At the end of the movie, we see a matured Maquia, who comes and visit the near dying Eriel many years later (her dying aged son). She accepts that loss of loved ones is a part of life, and that it was necessary to move on. Crying and mourning is necessary to prevent these emotions from penting up, and what's more important is that you don't dwell on this loss, and that is what Maquia did. Furthermore, she understands that it was more important to cherish the happy times and the love she experienced with Eriel. We see this in the fast timelapse of what happened in the movie, and it was truly a heartfelt moment. There was no way you wouldn't tear up.

What's even more interesting is that if you look into Mari Okada's previous works, her life experiences is translated into her works. I remember looking at the transcript for the interview regarding Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda (Anthem of the Heart), and the story was kind of based of her childhood where her parents went through a divorce and she was blamed for it. It shows that people who have survived through tough times can present to us the best of works involving these harsh aspects of our lives.

Overall, Maquia is an exceptional movie and I definitely recommend everyone to watch it. It seems like this movie went unnoticed for a while. I downloaded it a long time ago, but I never went about to watch it, because I usually don't watch movies unless I am wanting something different. There could be times where the story can get confusing or boring, but I found the movie paced generally well. The art is beautiful and the OSTs are pleasant on the ears.