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| Went to see the movie, got the “Not for sale” postcard when entering the theatre, ate my popcorn while watching the movie, and came out a pleased customer. I was impressed most by the artwork. The story was decently good and one character was a bit of head scratcher (though that might get sorted out with another viewing or subtitles in English). Some parts, plot and character wise, gave me the impression of being in the “Haven’t I seen this before?” category but they didn’t detract enough to derail the project. All in all, I felt I got my money’s worth on the price of the ticket. |
| It was a decent movie. I might have set my own expectations a little too high because the same director x art director combo made Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou and I really loved that movie a lot. That was the main reason I was waiting for this show. The art director didn't disappoint however. The movie was beautiful throughout and the sky shots in particular were breathtaking. Where it fell short was in the emotional department - I guess I just didnt feel enough attachment to any of the characters to tear up or anythimg. There were high emotion climax scenes and they were well-done, but ever so slightly missed the mark for me. The story is difficult to grasp at first but once they start revealing the pieces of the puzzle it's actually simple. I did like the plot but wished the ending showed more. Overall I did enjoy the movie, it just wasn't what I waited two years for. Side trivia: The title of the movie is supposed to be a pun on Aristotélēs (Aristotle) in Japanese. It should be written like Aris and Teles in English but it sounds awkward so I guess thats why they just went with Maboroshi officially. |
komasanSep 28, 2023 9:32 AM
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| The great Mari Okada is back with another hit after her previous directorial work on Maquia. Whilst that film set a tough precedent to follow up on, Maboroshi smashed it out of the park with a fantastic, unique tale of romance, family and growth. The premise of a world of illusion was incredibly intriguing with the fact that the full extent of its existence remains uncertain allowing for a more interpretive and thematic reasoning instead. I personally saw it as a warning against stagnation; despite the attempts of the elders to placate the populace and keep everything the same, ultimately the township realizes that it is their attempts to change and improve that allow them to at least feel like they are still living. I also thought the romance was done tastefully, with Mutsumi and Masamune's confusion surrounding love and hate exposing the complexities of one's feelings and the difficulties with which one must unravel their own heart. Whilst previous works by Okada such as The Anthem of the Heart have come across as overly dramatic and silly to me, I found Maboroshi had just the right amount of relationship drama to keep me engaged while still believing in the characters. The ending with saying goodbye to Itsumi served as a satisfactory yet bittersweet way to both inspire hope in regards to family and the future as well as acknowledge the tragedy of those doomed to spend eternity in the confines of the illusive Mifune. MAPPA as usual killed it with the animation. Though there generally weren't any stand-out sakuga scenes, as a whole everything felt life-like and energetic. Yokoyama Masaru also contributed another stellar soundtrack which really enhanced the emotion of the movie. Even the ending song Shin-on has a powerful and emotive sound to it which perfectly wraps up the film. Overall an amazing film that I am really glad Netflix picked up quite quickly (though I wish they translated the name to something like Factory of Illusion as Maboroshi is hardly a marketable title). Hopefully MAPPA can continue to make films like this as so far all of their rare theatrical have been fantastic. "Hope is a dream seen by those who are awake" |
InfinityDude88Jan 15, 6:25 AM
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| That ending song was awesome. |
| ok, i did not like this. There were exactly 3 things i liked about this movie. -The ending. It passes it´s message well and that message is in itself something i really enjoy explored. -The ost. I went to see who the composer was and it was yokoyama which makes perfect sense because he is a king. -The visuals in like the first third of the movie. Super great backgrounds most of the time, and the animation is great (wished it was consistent through the whole movie tho). Well, now the things i didn´t like, which was pretty much everything else. -Characters are honestly really forgettable despite them showing some fairly realistic interactions in the beginning, as they all are just characters obsessed with the concept of love and after the first 10 minutes or so of the movie literally have no other personality besides that. -In relation to the previous point, multiple characters do some stuff i honestly couldn´t understand the logic of and made me go ???????? so hard. Like how -Like i said before the visuals are sadly really inconsistent. They started of great, but as the movie goes on it just gets progressively worse and you can feel it. Its not anything awful, but you can feel it getting worse and worse especially considering the "climax" is arguably the weakest part of the movie visually. -Pacing is a mess, im supposed to care about certain characters and events when they happen way too quickly. I can´t get invested in this sadly, and it doesn´t help that there are a lot of characters in this movie, even though most of them dont matter. It just takes up time and makes some scenes overly quick and others overly long. I will say that i can see that this movie has heart, and i do respect that it was made, but its definitely not something i would recommend to other people as i really dont think its a great experience. |
| The stupid love triangle between a father, mother ,and daughter was a new low I didn't think Mari Okada could reach. This movie didn't even have that small element of fun her other shows had. It was just a poor film, like a weird mesh between Angel Beats and Your name. The teenage drama was lull of the sea levels of bad, the pacing was so lethargic the climax felt dull and we didn't even get to see what happened when itsumi met her parents. She returns back to the steel factory to say this is where her heart got broken?? by her Mother?? There's also the whole time nonsense plot hole that i don't want to bother reasoning cause it is just a waste of time Worst Mari Okada show. 5/10 animation and visuals carry. |
| Got a little goosebumps after watching this, it's beautiful as it should be. It also hurts now realizing I'm back to my own boring reality, it hurts but not sweet. |
| I really liked the animation and the concept of the town and its people being trapped in some illusion that repeats itself for years while a kid from reality accidentally gets stuck in their world but wow I fucking hated most of the characters and drama in it. Not touching that shit ever again. 4/10 |
STOP SLEEPING ON ODD TAXI |
| perfect story, art, animations. well done. |
| I usually really like Mari Okada despite what people say but she really lost me with this movie. I felt like I couldn't tell what it was trying to be about most of the time and the part where Itsumi was in love with Masamune was so bizarre?? I felt like this story could have been done a lot better but it just did not work out here. Also the friends felt like such nothing characters and I didn't care about any of them. I'm really disappointed and I hope this doesn't mean Maquia was a fluke. Maybe that was part of my problem and my expectations were so high, who knows. I just hope her next project is better. |
| It was an enjoyable movie |
| Fantastic movie with a fantastic concept which was well executed. Enjoyed it a lot and had a fun time watching it. Liked the main characters and their interactions. Thought Mutsumi was quite lewd at the begining for her age but it later made sense as they are actually 10 years older than they appear to be as they've been stuck in that world repeating the same life for more than ten years. That kiss was hot btw, damn. Masamune really didn't want it to end, sheesh. The reveals were good btw. Love triangle part felt a bit weird but I decided not to think too much about it. Itsumi was so adorable and I'm glad she was able to reunite with her parents and go back to reality. Wish they showed their reunion but it was good to end the movie showing her grown up and back visiting the town. Wish they showed a bit more of our maboroshi protagonists at the end there though. Props to MAPPA, Mari Okada and everyone working on this movie for an enjoyable experience. Gonna go and recommend this to my friends. |
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| just watched this right after finally watching suzume today as well, so i don't know if that made me like this even more but ye i enjoyed this way more. mappa cooked and the concept was interesting. an annoying character or two but its fine really. cinematography was great and i'm happy with the ending. |
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| what a waste of good visuals. all the characters are unlikeable and the plot is pretty much non-existent also, why all the characters looked like they were constantly blushing, so annoying |
Reply to vituanimefan
@VP2003boi "how Itsumi gets randomly mad after seeing her younger parents kissing?".
Dear guy, have you ever heard of Carl Jung philosophy called Electra Complex? If not, let me tell you. Basically it's a phase in which girls between 3 and 7 years old feel a loving attraction to their father (and see their mother as an enemy), as they want to feel this type of relationship with sex opposite. After a certain age, it takes a whole conversation to understand the difference in love between father-daughter and husband-wife. And then the maturation process takes place. Itsumi said it hurts because of course it's not easy to accept certain things and deal with frustrations. Near the final scene, Itsumi passes the wedding veil to her mother (in a metaphoric way), thus accepting her love. When Itsumi get back to her reality and visit the steel mill again, she said: "This is where my heart was broken", because according to Electra Complex, the girl's heart must be broken for the first time so that she can reach maturity in a psychologically healthy way. After all, I hope I answered all your questions. Thx
Dear guy, have you ever heard of Carl Jung philosophy called Electra Complex? If not, let me tell you. Basically it's a phase in which girls between 3 and 7 years old feel a loving attraction to their father (and see their mother as an enemy), as they want to feel this type of relationship with sex opposite. After a certain age, it takes a whole conversation to understand the difference in love between father-daughter and husband-wife. And then the maturation process takes place. Itsumi said it hurts because of course it's not easy to accept certain things and deal with frustrations. Near the final scene, Itsumi passes the wedding veil to her mother (in a metaphoric way), thus accepting her love. When Itsumi get back to her reality and visit the steel mill again, she said: "This is where my heart was broken", because according to Electra Complex, the girl's heart must be broken for the first time so that she can reach maturity in a psychologically healthy way. After all, I hope I answered all your questions. Thx
| @vituanimefan I indeed have not heard of that. Definitely do not believe it, at all, and it seems that there is no true empirical evidence for it, but if that philosophy is something okada for some reason believes in then sure, i cant change her mind in a way and i would say she did pass that philosophy well. |
| Loved it, so beautifully executed, so bittersweet. |
| Quantum ille canis est in fenestra |
| Mixed feelings for now. Got to give it a thought. Maybe rewatch it sometime later. I know it doesn't really matter (as the story tells us) whether people inside are dead, in a limbo, in a different dimension, stuck forever, disappear shortly after Itsumi left, BUT I'm still anxious about that world and why it exists or what its purpose is. Considering how people inside still have emotions, fall in love etc, it's an incredibly sad existence (like that pregnant women who will never give birth)... |
| The metaphor of the problematic nature of living in the past turned out to be much more obvious than I expected, having heard so many complaints about the excessive complexity of the film. But I'm interested in something else. What happened to the illusory world? Is it implied that it was saved after Mitsumi felt alive again and started feeling pain again? After all, Masamune previously said that characters do not feel pain in this dimension. And anyway, what happened to the people who cracked and disappeared? |
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| Pretty meh... at least it was mostly entertaining |
| I liked! the characters have incredible designs, I liked each scenario, simply incredible. The realistic colors are very beautiful, matching each event. I delved deeper into the drama, there are scenes that stand out and I'm surprised, it could even be more dramatic with that heartache. But the work was good, I just wanted to know where they were, that left me scratching my head. good rating 7/10 |
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| Not Mari Okada's best work, but still pretty enjoyable Just as Shinkai shows us life through love and hope, Okada shows us life through pain and reality I really wanted for this movie to leave me emotionally devastated the same way her other works have done, but it didn't happen this time Still hopeful for whatever she makes in the future |
| I came to say the same stuff a lot of y'all already said. Everything except characters and some unnecessary plot moments were great. Idk I didn't feel any emotions at all with this the way I did in Maquia (one of Mari Okada's best works hands down), literally emptied my tear glands towards the ending on that one. It's really important to make viewers feel what the characters feel, which is where I rated this down to 7, I felt nothing at all throughout the movie, watched it for the animation or would've dropped midway Adding depth to our main characters plus removing some useless plot fillers would've made this a masterpiece with all that animation (mappa was great, ost amazing) |
| bro this movie was a god damn mess, with its only good aspect being its visuals. Can't say I liked any of the characters, the plot was a trainwreck, and the overall consistency and feel of this movie was clumsily done and comes off as laughable. I took a look at the director and it's weird, because clearly she has been in the industry for a long time and has directed Maquia, yet she fumbeled HARD on this 3/10 would not recommend to anyone, both new and old fans |
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| I liked the story a lot and the ost was amazing. Beautifully animated too. Some out of thin air events but still overall very good, really recommend 8/10 |
| Though i had high hopes for this movie, it did not live up to my expectations. One of the few things i liked was the animation. Overall the characters were ok, none of them really stuck out and the plot felt like it didnt kick off until the second half of the movie. The thing between the mother daughter and father was just weird. It really ruined the movie for me. 3/10 |
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| What a boring movie, the production is good and the concept seemed interesting, but these characters are all so annoying that I saw no reason to care about any of them.. Ps: Misaki Kido has the most unbearable voice I've ever heard. |
 |
 Kids Got Some Issue . Also , Falling For Her Dad ... Creepy! |
Reply to DOKE__HYOU
One of the worst movie I have ever seen in my life
The story is shit
The plot was meh
The worst cast in any type of media I have ever seen in my life every single character was bad
I don’t know who is the author of this shit but he’s definitely don’t know what he’s doing
The production was average
The art and direction was good at times and bad at some moments
The only good thing about this movie is the animation and it wasn’t that crazy also
Truly mappa being mappa
And unfortunately nowdays anime fan are stupid they gonna like this shit
The story is shit
The plot was meh
The worst cast in any type of media I have ever seen in my life every single character was bad
I don’t know who is the author of this shit but he’s definitely don’t know what he’s doing
The production was average
The art and direction was good at times and bad at some moments
The only good thing about this movie is the animation and it wasn’t that crazy also
Truly mappa being mappa
And unfortunately nowdays anime fan are stupid they gonna like this shit
@DOKE__HYOU You Have A Point .  |
| Visually stunning sometimes, but the story is one of those when the less would have had more effect. Somebody should have slaped slightly the scirptwriter's nape when they were working on it to have them prune back their excessive imagination. It felt like they were so focused on wringing out emotions from the viewer and for that reason packing so many things into the script that in the end they lost sight of that how the simplest everyday things can be more touching. And I don't want to go into such minor details like in reality how extremely badly should have effected Isumi's social and intellectual development the way she has been brought up. |
IshitatesoMar 23, 4:24 AM
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| What a disappointment. 3/10. The concept alone of dead ghosts stuck living in an illusion of their undestroyed town before am explosion killed them, through the power of shrines is intriguing. Unfortunately the characters are mostly distasteful, and worse of all, the romance and inclusion of suggestive incest on several occasions ruins the story, even without the dull events leading to the end. The epilogue doesn't help the story as a whole at all in any way. Instead it ultimately leaves it as the disgusting fail that it is. Some of the ghosts vanishing out of depression doesn't make sense either. The twist itself is also weird and nonsensical. The daughter of the present living versions of the main protagonists through an alternative reality stumbles upon a train that connects the two odd worlds. The Ghost Aged Teen Mother tries to deny and neglect her 5 year old "future" daughter out of bitterness and fear to love her and accept her alternate reality as her own. Her father, a weirdo wannabe cultist wants to continue living in this illusionary world as ghosts by hiding the fact that his granddaughter is part of the cause in keeping this illusion alive, thus he traps her for years. Later on, he tries to marry her somehow as a sacrifice to the gods or whatever, who cares, I don't know, but it's disgusting either way. Worst and uncomforting from the start is how she licks her "future" father's tears and falls in love with him because she's completely unaware of who he is. In the epilogue she mentions it as her first heartbreak... No father, mother or daughter, regardless of being from the future or past versions would react or feel this way. It's fucking disgusting and plain stupid. Even less so as matured individuals who are technically over 18 at least from the time they've stayed in this cursed town as ghosts. The romance itself is cheap. There's no hint of the years of real feelings for each other. Even though they're technically over 18, it comes out of nowhere and looks implausible. How can they be attracted to one another. The guy is awkward and always trips over nothing, while she's an odd sadist who insults him. Logically, he should clearly be a masochist for falling in love with a woman who belittles him. Then out of nowhere, with no real context, simply explained by how him he's just attracted by her toxic personality, and they start passionately making out. It's all fucking stupid. Even the stupid uncle tries to take his "double dead" brother's wife, his sister in law, while she doesn't strongly reject him after he insists again. Despicable bullshit. ... Excluding the incest shit, it was almost acceptable, even with the subpar romance. What an awful overrated disgusting movie. Typical. |
| It was such a beautiful movie, not expected and found by accident on Netflix. Quite a tear jerker |
| I really enjoyed it up to a point but the ending felt kind of lacklustre and then I ended the film thinking it was just okay. Wasn't a fan of the retarded girl and felt like it hyper focuses on her toward the end. Why couldn't she speak properly? When we see her younger than her current age speaking coherently? Interesting concept tho and the animation looked gorgeous! |
| I have a third testicle that gives me psychic powers |
| Pretty good but it would be even better if daughter was the winning girl. |
| So I wasn't the only one who felt annoyed from watching this movie. I started watching this with zero expectations and......nearly all of the characters are unbearable and obnoxious. I can't find anything to like about any of them at all. Easily forgettable. Itsumi fell in love with Masamune....but Masamune and Mutsumi should be Itsumi's "parents" from the world she's been from. But Itsumi has been upset for the entirety of the 2nd half of the movie from being jealous and heartbroken. Okay, uhh, my mind cannot process this. While the visuals were stunning in this movie, the entire film was just too hard to finish. I can't stand these characters, especially the side characters. I couldn't care less for any of them. What a waste of 2 hours of my time. 5/10. |
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