Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Japanese: さよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう, Hepburn: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazarō, lit. 'Let's Decorate the Promised Flowers on the Morning of Goodbye') is a 2018 Japanese animated high fantasy drama film directed and written by Mari Okada and produced by P.A. Works. It features character designs and animation direction by Yuriko Ishii adapted from Akihiko Yoshida's original designs, and music composed by Kenji Kawai. The film is Okada's directorial debut and the first standalone feature-length, theatrically-released production of P.A. Works.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms tells the story of the titular Maquia, a young girl who belongs to a special race called the Iorph, mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years. While escaping war, she finds a lone surviving newborn and raises him as her son.
The film premiered in Japan by Showgate on February 24, 2018, and at the Glasgow Film Festival on March 4, 2018. It was released by Madman Entertainment on June 7, 2018. It was released by Anime Limited on June 27, 2018. It was released by Eleven Arts on July 20, 2018. The film's English dub premiered on September 21, 2018 in the United States. It was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in North America on February 5, 2019. The Blu-ray has both Japanese and English tracks, while the DVD only has an English track.
The Iorph are a humanoid race that live far removed from the world of humans, spending their days weaving Hibiol; a special cloth which serves as a written chronicle for the passing of time. They stop physically aging at 14 and can live for hundreds of years. They are legendary to outsiders, who have dubbed them the "Clan of the Separated".
Maquia, a young, orphaned Iorph girl, serves as an assistant to the clan's chief, Racine, who warns her about creating emotional attachments to outsiders, saying that Maquia will know what true loneliness is if she does. Soon afterward, the neighboring kingdom of Mezarte sends armed soldiers on the backs of flying dragons called Renato to the Iorph village. Unable to find the secret to their longevity, the army attacks, killing most of the Iorph and kidnapping Leilia, Maquia's friend. One of the Renato succumbs to the "Red Eye" disease and goes berserk during the attack. It becomes tangled in Hibiol and flees the village, inadvertently carrying Maquia, who is tangled in the fabric. The Renato later crashes and dies in a forest. Maquia wakes up and meets an alcoholic merchant at an ambushed caravan, where she finds a newborn human boy, held tightly in the arms of his deceased mother. Refusing to let him die, she takes him in as her son. She travels to the village of Helm, where a woman, Mido, takes them in, raising them alongside her two sons, Lang and Deol. Maquia names her adopted son Ariel.
Six years later, Ariel grows into a child. The Kingdom of Mezarte had once built their strength and reputation on their ownership of the ancient Renato, but the Renato have started to succumb to the "Red Eye" disease, leaving them with less than ten as they begin to die out. Fearing the inevitable loss of power and influence, the king of Mezarte tries to claim ownership of another ancient and legendary power: the Iorph's longevity, leading him to attempt to introduce Iorph blood into the royal bloodline. Through a message woven into a Hibiol Maquia finds in a shop, she discovers that Leilia has been forced into an arranged marriage with the prince of Mezarte. She travels on a ship with Ariel to try to free Leilia. On the ship, she meets Krim; an Iorph friend of hers from their homeland, who was Leilia's former boyfriend. Krim is also seeking to free Leilia. Once in the capital of Mezarte, the two meet with a number of other Iorph, and unsuccessfully ambush a royal parade. Maquia briefly frees Leilia, but learns that Leilia is pregnant with the prince's child. Maquia flees on Leilia's orders and avoids capture with the help of the merchant, revealed to be half-Iorph. Krim, undeterred, resolves to continue trying to free Leilia, and leaves Maquia and Ariel behind.
Nine years later, Maquia and Ariel move to the iron-forge city of Dorail, where Maquia works as a restaurant waitress. Ariel grows to be a teenage forge worker. He becomes alienated from Maquia by the ever-decreasing difference in their apparent ages. Meanwhile, Leilia, still in the palace, is a prisoner of the royals. She has been cast aside because her daughter, Medmel, shows no signs of having Iorph longevity. She has not been able to meet Medmel ever since her birth, leaving her in despair. One day, Ariel and Maquia happen to meet Lang, now a soldier in Mezarte's army. Their meeting pushes Ariel and Maquia farther apart, allowing Ariel to join the army of Mezarte. Moments after he leaves, Maquia is kidnapped by Krim.
Six years later, Ariel has returned to the capital and married a girl he knew in Helm named Dita, and she is pregnant with their first child. Meanwhile, Krim has gathered the support of the surrounding nations to invade and overthrow Mezarte. He takes a still-captive Maquia with him, trying to reach the palace in the battle. They are separated in a forest outside the capital, and after a brief encounter with Ariel, Maquia goes to the town and finds Dita in labor. She helps deliver the baby, while Ariel continues to fight and is wounded in the battle. Maquia finds Ariel and they share a heartfelt conversation before she offers him an emotional goodbye. Maquia heads to the palace. Elsewhere, after finally finding Leilia in the palace and being rejected in favor of Medmel, Krim tries to commit double suicide, but Krim is ambushed and killed by the chief guard. As the battle ends with Mezarte's defeat, Ariel returns home and meets his newborn daughter, Millia. Maquia takes the last living Renato and flies away with Leilia, who manages to reunite briefly with Medmel before leaving her behind.
Thirty nine years later, Maquia returns to the village of Helm once again with the half-Iorph merchant. There she encounters Ariel's granddaughter and daughter on the way to his home. Finding Ariel as an old man on his deathbed, she holds his hand and shares some parting words during his final moments. Leaving their home, she shoulders the pain of her loss, breaking her promise and crying as she remembers the moments of her life she spent with him. Maquia rejoins the merchant and continues on the road, remarking to herself that despite the profound pain of loss, loving her son brought her happiness.
A post-credit image shows the Iorph village being reinhabited once again by the surviving Iorph and their descendants, along with Maquia and the last Renato.
The film's score was composed and arranged by Kenji Kawai. The film's ending song, "Viator" (ウィアートル), was composed, arranged and performed by Rionos, with lyrics provided by Riya. The soundtrack was released by Bandai Visual on February 24, 2018.
The film grossed $160,988 in North America in November 2018. It grossed $4.3 million worldwide, including $1.2 million in Japan and $2.5 million in China by March 2019.
The film received 100% rating based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. It said, "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms anchors its colorfully imaginative fantasy setting in universal — and deeply poignant — real-world themes." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Makoto Shinkai called Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms a "fantastic film that can shake up memories within you that you normally forget."
Takehiko Shinjō called it a "heart-warming, wonderful film which teaches that love makes people stronger and nurtures them."
Miranda Sanchez for IGN gave the film a 8.5 out of 10 and wrote that it was "a beautiful story about motherhood, aging, and loss".