English Dub Review: Maquia-Where the Promised Flower Blooms

These flowers are giving me the eye sweats…

Part of the struggles of parenthood is wondering what you’re leaving behind for your child when you’re gone. Wondering if you can teach them to be an independent person once they’re on their own. Thinking about how you’ll be able to let them go after raising them so for so long. And sometimes, assuming the unspeakable happens, what to do if you outlive them. This and many other concepts themes are at the heart of what makes “Maquia-Where the Promised Flower Blooms”, a heart-wrenching emotional assault on those who watch it. And I mean that in the best possible way.

The titular Maquia (Xanthe Huynh) is a young girl from a race of ageless, immortal, and secluded people called the Iorph, known for their special brand of thread weaving called a Hibiol which form artistic patterns that can hold messages as simple as a get well card or even as long as their people’s history. When their civilization is attacked by a nearby empire wanting a long living heir, Maquia is forced to go into hiding and runs across a baby being clutched by his now dead mother. She names the child Ariel (Eddy Lee) and the rest of the movie is about their ever-evolving and increasingly complicated relationship. Basically, if you are or know someone who is or has been a single parent, a teenage parent, a parent in witness protection, a parent who cannot physically age and watches their child become older than them in the relative blink of an eye, or just a parent in general, this movie is for you.

Being a product of P.A. Works, it’s no surprise this film is gorgeous to look at from the start, with both serene and rapturous set designs from a small countryside cottage to a enveloping castle, but what’s more stunning is the work done by Mari Okada, who cut her teeth on directing for this. Long being lauded for her writing in the industry from such emotional roller coasters as Anohana and Hanasaku Iroha, to even Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, Okada has honed her craft in making your eyes sweat when she so chooses. To be honest, I had never particularly sought out her work specifically before this movie’s hype pushed her name in such a huge way, and was surprised to find out I’ve actually been a fan of hers for a while now. If you like this movie, keep an eye out for that name in future productions.

I also managed to the subtitled version of this prior to the dubbed release, so I can further complement the English cast for their work in translating the amazing job of the original Japanese. Besides Huynh and Lee, voice acting vet Cherami Leigh soars in her performance as Leilia, an Iorph friend of Maquia that was captured during the invasion and has her own child, acting as a dark reflection of Maqua’s own journey throughout the film. Michael Schneider also adds his own in the role of Lang, a character we first meet as a child and see grow up similarly to Ariel. Needless to say, that, while most of the cast have fewer credits to their names currently, that should soon change with the release of this film.

While the core of the movie is the bond between Maquia and Ariel, the world around them is equally fascinating in its own right, as the story covers long jumps in time to show things somewhat from Maquia’s perspective of being someone who sees decades as mere minutes. The other characters we meet of Maquia’s species give their own views on this, with some seeing attachment to those who she will outlive as naïve and only inviting pain down the road. And though that is true, as life is known to be quite painful for all those involved in living it, what’s important is to take the life you live as a whole, no matter what tears and folds it might have along the way. The Hibiol that the Iorph make acts as a metaphor for this, being at once artisanal fabrics and encapsulations of intense and emotionally complex moments in time that carry new meanings as the story goes on, much like the growing and changing lives of the cast over the course of the runtime.

I can’t really come up with any more things to say about this movie that doesn’t just go back to “it’s really good, go watch it.” It’s sure to go down as one of the most intentionally sad and simultaneously uplifting moments in animation since the ending of Toy Story 3. If you’re a fan of anime, animation, and sniffing onions, buy it as soon as it’s on DVD.