Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms[3] (さよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう, Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazarō, lit. "Let's Decorate the Promised Flowers in the Morning of Farewells"), officially abbreviated as Sayoasa (さよ朝),[4] is a 2018 Japanese animated high fantasy drama film written and directed by Mari Okada, and produced by P.A.Works.[1][5] The film marked Okada's directorial debut and the first standalone feature-length film of P.A.Works.[4]

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
Japanese theatrical release poster
Japaneseさよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう
HepburnSayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazarō
LiterallyLet's Decorate the Promised Flowers in the Morning of Farewells
Directed byMari Okada
Produced byNaoko Endō
Tomomi Kyōtani
Nobuhiro Takenaka
Takahiro Kikuchi
Written byMari Okada
StarringManaka Iwami
Miyu Irino
Music byKenji Kawai
CinematographySatoshi Namiki
Edited byAyumu Takahashi
Production
company
Distributed byShowgate
Release date
  • February 24, 2018 (2018-02-24)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese[1]
Box office$4.3 million[2]

The film premiered in Japan on February 24, 2018 and at Glasgow Film Festival on March 4, 2018.[6] It was released by Madman Entertainment on June 7, 2018.[7] It was released by Anime Limited on June 27, 2018.[8] It was released by Eleven Arts on July 20, 2018.[9][10] The film's English dub premiered on September 21, 2018 in the United States.[11] It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on February 5, 2019. The DVD only has an English track, while the Blu-ray has both English and Japanese tracks.[12]

Plot

The Iorph people live far away from the world of humans, spending their days weaving Hibiol, a special cloth serving as a written chronicle for all of the time. They age more slowly than humans and have the capacity to live for hundreds of years. They are legendary to outsiders, who have dubbed them "the Clan of the Separated".

Maquia, an orphaned girl, serves as an assistant of the chief, Racine, who warns her about creating emotional attachments to outsiders, positing that she will know about loneliness. That night, the soldiers of Mezarte and their ancient flying wyverns called Renato invade the Iorph village, killing most of the Iorph and kidnapping Leilia, one of Maquia's friends. One of the Renato succumbs to the "Red Eye" disease and goes berserk during the attack. It takes most of the fabrics, leaves the village with Maquia on it, and dies in a forest. Maquia wakes up and takes a newborn male infant from his deceased mother at an ambushed caravan. She names her adopted son Ariel. They live with a family in a nearby village.

Six years later, the kingdom of Mezarte, which had once built their strength and reputation over their ownership of the Renato, finds itself in a crisis. The wyverns are dying out; succumbing to the Red Eye disease, leaving only a few left. Fearing the inevitable loss of power and influence, the king decides that in order to keep his power, he will use Leilia to continue the royal bloodline, because of her longevity. Maquia finds a woven message and learns that Leilia is about to be forced into marriage with Hazel, a prince. As Maquia and Ariel leave the village, they meet Krim, a male Iorph who had started a relationship with Leilia before the attack on their village. Krim unsuccessfully tries to interrupt the royal parade. After learning that Leilia is pregnant, Krim decided to leave Maquia in fear of her child Ariel getting in their way, leaving the two alone.

As the years pass by, Ariel becomes alienated from Maquia, revealing that he knows he is not her son. Leilia falls into despair after giving birth to her daughter Medmel, who shows no sign of being an Iorph. When Ariel joins the army of Mezarte, Maquia is taken to the kingdom of Baiera. Ariel, meanwhile, marries Dita, a female villager who becomes pregnant soon after. Krim rallies the support of the surrounding nations to invade and overthrow Mezarte. As they are about to go their separate ways, Maquia helps Dita give birth to her daughter. Maquia reconciles with Ariel, before leaving him and arriving in the palace. Krim decides to go after Leilia while the war rages on, wanting to save what little they have of their relationship, only to be turned down by Leilia in favor of seeing her daughter Medmel, who she had not seen for years. After being rejected in favor, Krim is killed by one of the guards. As the battle ends with Mezarte's loss, Ariel returns home to be with his family. Before departing with Maquia and the last living Renato, Leilia visits and says goodbye to Medmel.

Many years later, with Ariel on the brink of death from old age, Maquia visits him to say her farewell, crying and apologizing for breaking her promise not to cry and remembering all of their pain and happiness together. Before leaving, Maquia receives some dandelions from Ariel's grandchild. The film ends with the last Renato and the surviving group of Iorphs living in the restored village.[13]

Voice cast
Character Japanese English[11]
Maquia[14] Manaka Iwami Xanthe Huynh
Ariel[14] Miyu Irino
Yuki Sakurai (childhood)
Taichi Iwakawa (baby)		 Eddy Lee
Ryan Shanahan (teen)
Barnaby Lafayette (child)
Leilia[14] Ai Kayano Cherami Leigh
Krim[14] Yūki Kaji Kevin T. Collins
Racine[14] Miyuki Sawashiro Lipica Shah
Lang[15] Yoshimasa Hosoya
Xu Bin (young)		 Michael Schneider
Spencer Rosen (young)
Mido[15] Rina Satō Allegra Clark
Tita (Dita)[11][15] Yōko Hikasa
Yuki Kurimoto (young)		 Ryan Bartley
Catie Harvey (young)
Medmel[15] Misaki Kuno Brooklyn Nelson
Courtney Chu (young)
Izor[15] Tomokazu Sugita Marc Thompson
Darel (Deol)[11][15] Shunsuke Sakuya[1]
Junnosuke Shishido (young)		 H.D. Quinn
Micah Gursoy (young)
Barrou Hiroaki Hirata[1] Daniel J. Edwards

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $160,988 in North America in November 2018.[16] It also grossed $4.3 million worldwide, including $1.2 million in Japan and $2.5 million in China in March 2019.[2]

Critical response

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7.85/10. The site's critics consensus read, "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms anchors its colorfully imaginative fantasy setting in universal — and deeply poignant — real-world themes."[17] Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]

References
  1. さよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう [Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms]. Eiga.com (in Japanese). Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  2. "Sayonara no asa ni yakusoku no hana o kazarô (2018)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
  3. "Japan Booth 2017 in American Film Market". Japan External Trade Organization. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  4. 映画『さよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう』公式サイト [Movie Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms official site] (in Japanese). Project Maquia. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  5. Sherman, Jennifer (July 6, 2017). "anohana's Mari Okada debuts as director with Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana o Kazarō anime film". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  6. Ressler, Karen (January 24, 2018). "Mari Okada's Maquia anime film's English-subtitled trailer, Glasgow Film Festival premiere revealed". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  7. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms – In Cinemas Now". Madman Films. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  8. "Maquia". Anime Limited. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  9. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms". Eleven Arts. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  10. Ressler, Karen (May 31, 2018). "Eleven Arts to also screen Mari Okada's Maquia film in Canada". Anime News Network. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  11. Ressler, Karen (August 16, 2018). "Maquia Anime Film's English Dub Cast Revealed Ahead of September 21 U.S. Premiere". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  12. "Maquia DVDs Incorrectly List Japanese Language Track". Anime News Network. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  13. Sanchez, Miranda (2018-07-22). "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Ending Explained and Other Details From the Director". IGN. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  14. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms". Project Maquia. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  15. Hanley, Andy (January 24, 2018). "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms receives international premiere at the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival". All the Anime. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  16. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms". Box Office Mojo. Amazon. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  17. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  18. "Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
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