Anime Review: Maquia - Video Version

For those who would rather watch the review:

Anime Review: Maquia

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.

Anime Review: In This Corner of the World - Video Version

For those who would rather watch the review than read it:

Anime Review: In This Corner of the World

In This Corner of the World (2016)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had been debating on how best to cover the many literary and artistic influences on my writing - and ultimately concluded that the most thorough way to do this would be to post individual reviews of the books and artistic sources that have colored my approach to writing fiction.

As a writer of fiction, among the many artistic sources that I have learned from and drawn upon for inspiration over the years, has been anime.

Throughout much of the United States and the West, animation has come to be viewed as an art form aimed primarily at a childhood audience. The term "cartoon" has become synonymous with children's entertainment. This is not true, however, in all parts of the world.

Although much of Japanese animation is also aimed at children, this is not necessarily true. Anime has come to be respected as an art form in Japan, as a medium for conveying mature ideas and themes, in a way that it has not been respected throughout much of the United States and the West. And this is where the connection between Japanese anime, and my own interests in writing Fantasy-Fiction lie: in exercising an art form that allows its creators to explore real-world themes in an alternative environment.

As an example of this, I will be reviewing "In This Corner of the World," a 2016 animated film following the experiences of a young woman living in Japan during World War II. There is nothing fantasy-related in a film such as this. This is a serious drama, tackling a very serious subject. This is a movie and theme that could very easily have been produced as a live-action motion picture. But it wasn't. The writers, directors and producers chose to make this an animated film for a very real reason.

The hand-drawn animation of the film is beautifully rendered, its characters lovingly developed. And it is this charm that the movie's producers and directors were aiming for. The beauty of the animation is disarming, luring the audience in - allowing the viewers to get closer to the characters and events than might otherwise have been possible in a more conventional, live-action drama. This was a story that was told as an animated motion picture, because it needed to be told as an animated motion picture. The animation allowed the creators of this film to do things, and to tell this story in a way that could not have been possible otherwise. To bring the message of this story home to a wider audience.

The movie tells the story of World War II Japan, as seen through the eyes of a young woman named Suzu. It begins with Suzu as a school girl during the pre-war years: a kind-hearted adolescent who loves to paint and draw. As war sets in, she is pressed into an arranged marriage. Suzu moves to live with her new family, in the coastal city of Kure - a town where the Second World War unfurls all around her in the years that follow. It is through her eyes that the horror and futility of war is understood, in a manner that would have been too heartrending for an audience to sit through in a live-action drama.

Suzu matures, learns, laughs and mourns, as the world around her disintegrates amid the chaos of war. The movie depicts in meticulous detail everyday life in wartime Japan, from the food rations imposed, to the raids of U.S. bombers, to the destruction of buildings, neighborhoods, and lives during a war that mystified many of those who lived through it. The directors of this film went to painstaking lengths to reproduce the images and events depicted, utilizing old photographs and interviewing elderly Japanese citizens who lived through that era, to provide a vivid recounting of wartime life. Suzu enters the film as an adolescent teen, just entering womanhood. She leaves the film bearing the scars of a pointless war that left only death and devastation in its wake. Yet the message of the film is not one of hopelessness. Through it all, life goes on. Even after sorrow and loss - no matter how pointless. Suzu must find in herself the strength to move forward, and continue living.

This was a serious subject, and was respected as such when it was released in Japan. "In This Corner of the World" won numerous awards - not only in the animated film category, but also repeatedly beating-out live-action films for awards and accolades. It was repeatedly awarded in both "Best Film" and "Best Director" categories, across a variety of Japanese film festivals and award events.

It is in this way, that anime has been an inspiration for me as a writer of fantasy fiction. It is not merely the ability for animation to transport us to fantastical worlds, but more importantly in its ability to convey serious topics in a manner that might not otherwise be accessible.

If you haven't seen "In This Corner of the World," I would highly recommend the film - for lovers of drama and animation alike. But I will warn viewers, this is not a movie intended for young children. It is a drama that takes on themes where live-action movies often fear to tread.