Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)
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Today I will be reviewing a somewhat lesser-known 2018 Japanese anime film, Maquia.
The movie follows the story of a young woman named Maquia, who is a member of the Iorph - an extremely long-lived race that can live hundreds, if not thousands of years. In the film, the Iorph are legendary as weavers of fine cloth, living in a remote community separated from humankind. To outsiders, the Iorph appear to remain unaged past their adolescent years.
The long lives that the Iorph are blessed with make them the subject of both jealousy and fear among outsiders - a fear that leads their community to be raided and destroyed by a neighboring human kingdom, their survivors scattered or taken as captives.
Despite its otherwise fantasy setting, however, Maquia is actually a story about motherhood. It is a tale about what it means to be a mother and about the bonds between parent and child. Separated from her people, Maquia adopts an orphaned human boy, who grows to adulthood under her watchful care. Through the years, their relationship undergoes a transformation from childhood dependency, to the rebellious phase of teenage youth, to adulthood - where her adopted son finally comes to terms with all that he owes to the mother that raised him.
This mother-child dynamic is further highlighted, by contrasting the relationship between Maquia and her adopted son Ariel, and that between Leilia and her biological daughter Medmel. Leilia is another member of the Iorph, but one who has become the prisoner of the kingdom that destroyed their community. She is forced to become the consort of the kingdom's crown prince - but is separated from her daughter, Medmel soon after birth.
On the one hand, there is Maquia. Throughout the years, she is constantly doubting her role as a mother: questioning whether she is up to the task, whether she has done all that she possibly could for her son, whether she is even worthy of being called a mother. In stark contrast, Leilia has no such doubts about her own motherhood - but is forever denied the role of mother by the royal family that has imprisoned her and separated her from her child. It is a separation that plunges her into a brooding despair - aware of all that she cannot be.
The film highlights the enduring, and undying love of a mother for her child - regardless of adversity. It emphasizes that this role and responsibility is ever-present, regardless of whether that child was their biological offspring or their adopted family member.
Maquia is at times a heartrending fantasy drama, a paean to motherhood that explores what it means to be a mother, and how much a parent is willing to surrender of their lives for the well-being of their offspring. I am not going to suggest that the movie is without flaws. The story-line can seem a little disjointed at times, demanding that viewers pay close attention or risk missing key elements or scene transitions. But the quality of the animation remains stunning, and the story and the themes that it raises are deeper than what many live-action dramas would dare to discuss.
I therefore have to classify Maquia as one of those special, rare anime finds that was often overlooked at the box office, but which is nonetheless truly worth seeking out.
