However, when you get used to the great animation, you start noticing the problems with this movie.
It started off decently, the setting was interesting, I was excited to learn more about the world. The coming-of-age and motherhood aspect of it all was compelling and well written. But at about midway through the movie, the actions of the characters stop making any sense and are basically written/taken to get the story going to lead to the grand finale.
The characters just give up on their ideals multiple time throughout the story.
But really, I am writing this review mainly to get to this one complaint: Leilia refuses to go with Krim BECAUSE she says she loves her daughter and can't give up on her, Krim being supposedly the love of her life and her dilemma was longing for her home and people while also giving birth to her child. After telling him why she can't escape with him she proceeds to let him die in front of her eyes, deciding she is willing to do so to stay with her daughter. All this happens so that later, when Maquia appears, after a very short exchange she realizes she actually DOES want to go back to her people and can't stay with mortal humans and make her daughter happy, so when her daughter sees her mom for the first time, she just tells her to forget about her and proceeds to jump off a clif on the back of a dragon to fly away.
I think I don't even need to go into the details of how the story got there, because really, there isn't much to back up such a ridiculous conclusion. Up to this point, the movie still could be redeemed because it had multiple compelling and good stories and characters being explored. But honestly, this conclusion just cannot be overlooked and was the driving motivation for Maquia all along (saving Leilia) and absolutely ruined the experience for me. I am still very sad such amazing diorection was wasted on this conclusion.
