Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou

Maquia is a member of a special race called the Iorph—mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years and remain separate from the lives and daily troubles of mankind. However, Maquia has always felt lonely despite being surrounded by her people, as she was orphaned from a young age. She daydreams about the outside world, but dares not travel from her home due to the warnings of the clan's chief.

One day however, the outside world finds her, as the power-hungry kingdom of Mezarte invades her homeland. They already have what is left of the giant dragons, the Renato, under their control, and now their king wishes to add the immortality of the Iorph to his bloodline.

The humans and their Renato ravage the Iorph homeland and kill most of its inhabitants. Caught in the midst of the attack, Maquia is carried off by one of the Renato that has gone berserk. It soon dies, and she is left deserted in a forest far from home, now truly alone save for the cries of a single baby off in the distance. Maquia finds the baby in a destroyed village and decides to raise him as her own, naming him Ariel. Although she knows nothing of the human world, how to raise a child that ages much faster than her, or how to live with the smoldering loneliness inside, she is determined to make it all work somehow.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maquia Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Ariel Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Leilia Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Lang Supporting

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Izol Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Krim Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Mido Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Barlow Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Medmel Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Racine Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Horikawa, Kenji Producer, Planning

Takenaka, Nobuhiro Producer

Kyoutani, Tomomi Producer

Endou, Naoko Producer

Reviews

Mar 8, 2018

lunark

Recommended

Let's start with the obvious: Yes I did give this movie a bold 10/10.

I wasn't sure how to feel about it so I watched it twice in cinemas in Japan with a one week cool-off period in between both viewing.

Honestly, the first time it simply blew me away and stayed in my head non stop for like 3-4 days. This is a heavy statement but it is indeed one of the best animated movies I've ever watched. The second watching was in order to try to find flaws and to focus a bit more on small details of the plot and the music.

Let's structure ... a bit the mess in my head, here goes:

Story:
Well, Mari Okada all right. She is known for her emotional stories and this one indeed enters the category just fiiiine!
The movie feels very long in a good way: The story, the world and places, the character development, the sub plots... All these elements adds up and fill the ensemble to the brim giving the impression to have lived and discovered a lot with the characters ; and that is one of the main strenghts here. Everything is well rounded and the difference of pace in the various plot elements do not leave any space to get bored. There is a well-balanced mix of emotional moments, intense action and everyday life organized in a non generic narrative structure, which I find very refreshing.

The theme developped is that of the relationship between mother and child. It is not a very common subject developped in detail and I really enjoyed the depth and various angles the movie takes to treat the subject.

Art:
Here, we have a very prestigious staff making characters and backgrounds.
For the characters, Akihiko Yoshida character designer on Final Fantasy and Granblue Fantasy did a great job in creating the various types of characters. Even with the adaptation done for animation, you still see his strong influence, especially on the astounding work done on the clothes that are very stylish, diverse and inspired. The resulting chara design is very simple and round on the faces which can be a bit unsettling at the beggining but very cute nonetheless.

About the background: the most prestigious animators of PA Works created incredible places helping to create a very rich world to discover. It is without a doubt the most impressive visual aspect on my end.

To conclude this section, the CGI: globally well done and integrated, some rare sequences stand out too much but it isn't much of a problem in my opinion.

Sound:
Kenji Kawai is quite recognizable as a composer and you get that very easily here with the usual sound and instruments used. Nonetheless it is a very inspired soundtrack that come and goes with some very insistant themes that really shape the movie and the emotions. Also very well paced and used.

Character:
I am not gonna go in too much detail here because I don't wanna spoil the story but once again the characters are very well made, the vast majority of them are very logical in their motives, development and thought processes. The whole focus of the movie is obviously Maquia and Erial (or Ariel whatever) and their relashionship. So much so that you may feel that some secondary characters / subplots are not developped enough... Well it is indeed an argument but remember: It is the story of Maquia and Erial, so it is good the movie doesn't dwelve too much in various directions.

Enjoyment + conclusion:
Well I suppose this is clear enough already!
I very deeply enjoyed this movie that awed me and obsessed me for days on end. It has a compelling story with a not so common theme in a fantasy setting including memorable scenes and very well developped characters with whom you grow fond of very quickly. It gets very emotional towards the end, all thanks to that very well paced development and evolution throughout the film.

Beware, it is indeed a tear jerker and both times the whole room was crying at the end.
Also, in case it isn't clear enough already, this is not a family oriented movie, it is geared towards adults and some themes and element are quite dark and mature.

I've been trying to find flaws but putting aside very minor stuff, I don't see any major problems. Add to that the overwhelming impact of all the goodness I developed above and you get a masterpiece to be remembered. Hence the 10/10.

Not everybody is gonna like it the way I did but if you are okay with emotional stories and fantasy, please give Sayoasa a go without hesitation and you won't be disappointed.

Thank you for reading!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 8, 2024

SMGJohn

Mixed Feelings

Review 22.11.2018: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou
Written by SMGJohn
"Every review is subjective, art is subjective your opinion may differ, never trust reviews to make the opinion for you, use them as a guide and make your own journey."

Maquia was one of the movies I wanted to watch after it was announced in 2017 because from the few PV’s and promotional videos we got it looked promising being an original work of P.A Works that have done many great works in the past.

However P.A Works are very often hit and miss, they either make something brilliant, or something very mediocre and ... after finally having the Blu-ray release of Maquia I was astonished how overrated it was by everyone and critiques alike.
Your opinion may vary but for me there serious issues within this movie that make it completely lacklustre and I will go into depth why this is so.

The first issue is the presentation in how time flows for an Iorph, while they live long lives the movie decides to present this as a broken VCR that skips over frankly essential parts, in many sense it be ignorant to claim this is a fluid experience, the movie is presented in parts, which have loose connections with each other, it is the Swiss cheese experience of plot holes which makes it feel like mini-episodes rather than a coherent movie.

In many ways I could describe it as trying to cram 12 episodes into a movie but you cut out the odd numbered episodes and only keep the even ones, why this choice was not made to begin with, is illogical to me.

Because of this we have large plot holes that would otherwise explained much more, it is difficult to explain without spoilers but to put it simple, the relationships with the characters develop unevenly and you are constantly thrown into situations you cannot remember why it happens because you are never given a reason why in the first place.

Another issue with P.A Works is how they write stories in general, the characters do not progress the story, the story progress the characters, this works and may not work and in Maquia it just makes it stupid.
At the beginning of the movie the Iorph’s are invaded by a small mercenary sized company who captures ONE Iorph who happens to be very close friends with Maquia, of course. We are however never shown this take place only that it had happened as we see in the trailer.

Where do this scenario fit in to the main story? Firstly, there few of the attacking forces, and there more Iorph’s, why are they not fighting back? If the Iorph’s are hunted in the first place why is there no standing army or militia? Why did they even need dragons to capture ONE Iorph’s from them to begin with if they have no army? Its not as if the men of the Iorph’s do not exist because they do we get to see them a few times. This makes no sense in the overall picture.

This movie is mostly about Maquia which is the main character and her son, she is clearly the main character in development throughout the movie however the movies extremely poorly executed writing wants to make it about her friend who was kidnapped earlier, Maquia and multiple other subplots, but sadly her friend is given so little screen time it becomes nothing but an afterthought its even hard to categorise her as a side character.

This is another issue with Maquia, its trying to cram too many subplots in such a lacklustre short period of time, there scenes that makes no sense and has no connection to the main cast at all, it just really makes it extremely difficult to understand why stuff like this is included when it leads to nowhere or adds anything.

The story of Maquia herself is beautiful while she still is the typical P.A Works damsel in distress and absolutely zero self-confidence a typical trait of almost all characters that P.A Works construct regardless of gender, the story was still good but all these extra bits added onto it drags the entire movie down the drain which is a lost opportunity it is as if they were on a tight budget, but they had a story they put so much work into, then they just crammed all of it into a movie without any respect for the overall coherency.

Another issue I had trouble with comprehending is why rape was normalised in Maquia, while the presentation of rape was never shown, it was symbolised constantly throughout the movie, but the movie tries to portray it as a “not a big deal” type of situation which is honestly a bit off-putting when they spend so much effort into hinting at it, but then go on to do nothing about it.

And you may ask me why I bring this up, the reason is to show why the story is such a mess at one point towards the end of the movie, Maquia herself is suggested to be pregnant suggesting she was raped against her own will because she is literally locked up in a cage, the hair of a Iorph grows long when they are pregnant as explained in the movie but the matter is never pursued, the movie goes on as if nothing has happened, we never get to learn if Maquia was pregnant or not.

The production quality is classical P.A Works, there nothing memorable about its quality but it is not bad either, it is good to put it simple, the art direction is of a typical fantasy setting with unrealistic fantasy architectures and illogical mechanisms but that is the charm of fantasy it does not have to make sense it only has to look impressive and the movie does it quite well in this regard.

Sound wise P.A Works are being more generous and using better sound design this time around, choosing more original audio to work with, less repetition and other annoyances we have heard of their previous works, it is pretty clear that P.A Works has put effort into the production quality of Maquia as a whole with good fluidity in animation that contains very few animation mistakes that was hard to spot even for myself.

The score of Maquia helps in many ways to lift scenes out of their rather dull settings to a more emotional standing, Kenji Kawai proves just one more time how outstanding his variation in music can be if let free to do so.
To describe it perfect, the music of Maquia is contemporary orchestral score that fits the depiction of fantasy very well.

Summary wise, Maquia as a movie is frankly a poor attempt by P.A Works to create an original work that feels rushed, poorly planned, very poorly utilised writing that would fit better as a 24 episode television animation depicting a beautiful story of Maquia and her son growing up but instead we are only given bits and pieces, towards the end of the movie I genuinely got emotional at the end of the movie, but it is wrong to judge movies for their ending, you must judge them whole.

With too many subplots, too many holes in the story, chaotic presentation it is best to perhaps avoid Maquia as a movie if you feel you prefer a more coherent experience, perhaps it would be wiser for P.A Works to adopt this into a television anime series instead as there would be more time to truly explore all subplots in vastly more details and create a much closer relationship with the viewer and the characters portrayed and more importantly, respect their own story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 14, 2018

Sabaisms

Not Recommended

I haven’t watched anime in over a year and I wanted to revisit its form through a good entry point. There was a lot of social media buzz surrounding this movie. People on this site were giving it 9’s and 10’s and even one of my favorite musicians, Porter Robinson, tweeted about this movie and how good it was. And so, I selected this movie on a cozy Friday night with a bowl of soup and high expectations.

Wow. It is disappointing in countless aspects over the course of its two hour runtime. I am writing this review so that you can save yourself the ... time I wasted!

To say the least, disappointment started to creep in before the halfway mark had even hit. If you’re looking for a film that dives head-first into a deep, emotional, and realistic exploration of paternal ties, then forget this movie. This introduction starts off with a good premise. The story revolves around an ancient clan isolated from the other factions of the world due to their immortality. This sets up a good framework for the exploration of isolation, segregation, and xenophobia but its actually never explored to its fullest extent. The movie is riddled with ridiculous plot holes, nonsensical character development, and layered with incestual undertones between a mother-son relationship. Often times, many of the side characters introduced are one-dimensional and completely stray from their motives in later sequences to elicit a cheap, emotional response from the audience. Their arcs make no sense in regards to the plot and indicate a lack of respect for coherent storytelling. The only saving grace of this movie is the animation, which is detailed and breathtaking in some sequences.

You’re better off watching Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki than this garbled mess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Question about what happened to Maquia during the time she got "imprisoned" by Krim. aLotQuestion_ - Dec 23, 2018	14 replies	by Blacklotus011 »» Nov 5, 9:41 AM
	Poll: Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Kisaragi - Feb 24, 2018	319 replies	by bakakisima »» Nov 3, 9:30 AM
	Ariel x maquia anyone? ( 1 2 ) Shiyuru99 - Nov 1, 2018	59 replies	by tessituraa »» Jul 31, 3:12 PM
	Only reason it isn't perfect. Kamikoto_kl - Apr 18, 2022	5 replies	by shuffle_017 »» Jan 20, 8:00 AM
	Question about krim Bruhdotmp3 - Apr 9, 2022	3 replies	by shuffle_017 »» Jan 20, 7:56 AM