![]() ![]() It is exquisite in every way - sometimes almost too exquisite in its precious sensitivity to the hardships of life as an outcast single mother - but against such intricate magic-hour backdrops, the only thing not beautiful here is the ugly-cry its devastating, happy-sad finale induces. “Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms” is the directorial debut of prolific and successful anime screenwriter Mari Okada (“Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day”), and though set in a medieval-styled, distinctly “Game of Thrones”-esque fantasy world of dying dragons, imprisoned princesses, warring kingdoms, and mystical cloth into which is woven the stories of our lives, the trembling, overflowing heart of the film is a story of motherhood, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness that is informed by Okada’s own fraught relationship with her mother. But mother or no, it’s a promise any viewer of this gorgeously rendered, acutely sentimental animated phantasmagoria would be foolhardy to make. “I’m a mother!” she says, beating her fist lightly against her belly in a gesture of defiance that makes the boy smile. “I won’t cry, I promise,” vows the ethereal, long-living Maquia (voiced by Manaka Iwami) to the little mortal boy she is raising as her son.
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