So before anything, I did put a 10/10 for this movie, which apparently seems to tick off a lot of people, and I exactly understand why, but I'll get to that later. Also, this is my first review on MAL, but please do not let that affect the way you feel about this review. So for those of you who just skim reviews, here is my overall opinion:
Maquia is a masterpiece and you should all watch it.
...
Now for the detailed review:
-Story 10/10 : Given there is no cinematic composition, or even a script section in the review noting I assume this all falls under the story section. See, a lot of people I think have been put off by the way this anime was set up. By that, I mean the anime felt disconnected, like mere parts of Maquia's life put together, and due to the maturing of the characters, didn't feel like the previous section. While it may have disturbed a lot of people, it felt purely normal to me, it actually felt impressing. I mean, this is a story told through Maquia, and given how much longer she can live, time must go by in a blink for her, so the "unconnected" parts of her life felt to me as an actual amazing addition from whoever thought of it (I know Mari Okada directed the movie but maybe it was someone else's idea). So that was for overall script direction, as for the story, it's gorgeous. You dive into a world whose fantasy is slowly fading away into legends, add to this the use of those fading fantasy species, which includes Mquia's species as political and military weapons and you have the whole base of this anime's story and of Maquia's reason for being in the world of humans. It's happy, it's sad, it's funny, you just go through such a huge amount of emotions in under a simple 2 hours that it's close to unbelievable. I would go into more details as for the plot, but I went into this movie close to fully blind and I loved the hell out of it, so I recommend you do the same.
-Art 8/10 : Would I have not seen Your Name and its beautiful and deatiled background art, The Shape of Voice with its amazingly expressive animation, or Violet Evergarden and its way of making everything constantly pretty, I would have put a 10/10 on the art and animation. The backgrounds are as defined as Makoto Shinkai's maybe sometimes even more, the animation expresses so much warmth and happiness when needed, while also being able to express sadness without going over the top, and still managing to do some sick action shots. The characters are pretty simple and do not require much lineart, which I would usually say is a bad thing, but hell is it well used here. They probably have the same amount of lineart as your usual seasonal anime, but it allows for the colors to show more, for us to notice that slight shine on the hair we would have usually completely ignored, a change in the eye even from a considerable distance, but also allows for the backgrounds to shine while completely fitting in, a close to perfect blend that even Your Name, at least to my tastes, didn't achieve. It makes it seem as if the characters are part of the background, without making us lose focus of them whatsoever, probably being closer to Violet Evergarden on that stage. The one thing I would say is "badly" done is the CG. Crowds are fine by me when using CG, and even then the anime sometimes fully draws full crowds, which made me quite happy. However, there's a few shots where its obvious CG was used, wether on the dragons or even sometimes on important characters, and that sort of stuff sort of pulls me out from the experience, the characters and the world setting being a major part of the movie
-Sound 7/10 : Maquia is quite special when it comes to music. Maquia is a character-driven anime, and one of the main features of this type of anime is the close to constant(or at least it feels like it) usage of music, in order to express the emotions of the character, and emphasize them whenever they're clearly exposed. But Maquia went about this differently. When I figured out it was a character-driven story, the anime directly felt weird. There was not too much usage of music. Actually, I'll be honest, it felt like there was none in the first half (I mean there was at a few moments, but most of the time it was extremely basic and could barely be noticed). However, I feel like it worked out for the best. The lack of music made it so that when the music went all-out towards the ending of the anime, it literally blew you away, more than any anime I've seen before. Because not only does it blow you away significantly more, but the OST on their own were already amazing, like, really really really amazing. They don't use nay special instruments, the chords are not innovative either, it's just orchestral music, taken to its roots, and done perfectly. And as an orchestral music fan, that just left me in pure awe (and tears).
- Characters: 10/10. I have seen many dramas, slice of life, romance and all other genres that tend to be thoroughly driven by the characters for the simple reason that they tend to be my favorite animes. And, well, in terms of characters, Maquia holds quite a high spot. And it seems only logic given how the anime works. You see the characters growing, so the character development that is usually done through flashbacks or other means of going back to the past are not necessary here as you are literally seeing all characters grow from children to adult. That means that the character development is close to complete, as you see all the important moments of their lives but get to live it at the same time as them and really gets you to like the characters a whole lot more. Along with that, although I'm not really sure whether what I'm about to say falls under Story or Character, the fact that you see the characters grow along the whole movie means you see their departures and deaths making it sad or at least gloomy, but it also makes you feel incredibly happy when friends that you had left at the beginning of the story reappear as adults, even if you saw them for only a minute or two before. For that simple reason, I consider this worth a 10/10 as i have just not seen anything better than that done before in terms of characters.
-Enjoyment and Overall: 10/10 I put those two sections together because, in my opinion, the only thing that genuinely matters in the end is whether you enjoyed it or not. As for me, this became my favorite anime of all times. What I seek from anime is a beautiful world that is close to ours while having its own uniqueness that will get me to either like or dislike the place depending on the director's wish. I seek to feel emotions that I would never get to experience in real life because it is too dull (at least mine is). I seek to cry my heart out, to laugh, to love; I seek from anime to make me experience "something else" without having to resort to an empty character like a lot of animes do. And Maquia fits perfectly in everything I seek. It allows you to experience the joys of the countryside, what life in the city feels like, what losing someone feels like, the anxiety and pain of a full-on war, the madness that is brought about through loneliness and the pain brought about by the loss of all you have.
Final thoughts, I am telling you if not obligating you to watch this anime. This is definitely a one of a kind movie that will probably not have something come even close to it anytime soon. If you don't like it, then don't like it. If you do like it, you're in for one of the most amazing journeys you'ever had through anime. Which is why, if you're not sure whether to watch this not, for my sake, and the sake of the huge quantity of tears i let run down my cheeks while watching this, give this anime a try. Go entirely through with it, because maybe you'll prefer the older characters to the younger ones, or maybe you'll prefer war to a calm and happy countryside story, So please, with all my heart, I beg you to watch this.
This ends this review, thank you for your time.
Jan 2, 2019
So before anything, I did put a 10/10 for this movie, which apparently seems to tick off a lot of people, and I exactly understand why, but I'll get to that later. Also, this is my first review on MAL, but please do not let that affect the way you feel about this review. So for those of you who just skim reviews, here is my overall opinion:
Maquia is a masterpiece and you should all watch it. ... |
