I’ve been trying to catch up on a lot of anime films and watch newer anime as of late, because I tend to be a serial rewatcher, so I had my boyfriend who rarely ever rewatches things pick out a few anime.
Maquia was one of the films that got a lot of praise and was on both our want to watch lists.
So we broke out the popcorn, and gave it a watch.
Unfortunately, Both of us were pretty disappointed at the end of it, me more than my boyfriend was.
So much of the film was littered with unfulfilled setups, followed with almost random time skips and odd character motivations.
The animation quality was simultaneously very good, but in the same sweep the animation style was restrictive and overly simplified character appearances to the point of having almost comedic designs that couldn’t be taken seriously.
[The main character Maquia] >!being essentially stuck as forever 15 years old(she doesn’t age) made it so the character was fairly difficult to take seriously as well, and many moments fell flat because of the lack of real development and synergy of her character with her son.!<
She has very little development and is a stagnated character, and this is made even more [incredibly apparent with] >!the way Leilia and Krim DO have reasonable developments and changes to their characters. It makes Maquia’s lack of real development a significant juxtaposition.!<
The weight of the character’s position, and many short sighted swings in the story that skip over so many things, make it very difficult to become emotionally invested and find anything to empathize with the character.
A lot of people in reviews talked about how it was a reasonably emotional portrayal of motherhood and the challenges that come with it… But there’s another movie that came out 5 years before that handles practically everything Maquia does in terms of the portrayal of motherhood VASTLY better in every regard.
From the animation style that allows a significant range of character detail, and an incredibly immersive and drama supporting animation to the Main character who deals with her children growing up, and making choices and her developing along with them.
Wolf Children doesn’t randomly skip around through time frame, and instead smoothly transitions through many age mile stones for the children, without dropping bait and switch and dropping setups.
Wolf Children also cleverly develops Hana’s children away from their initial expectations into their end of the film growing selves incredibly well. [Spoiler] >!You simply don’t expect Yuki and Ame to take the paths that they do,!< and it so skillfully executed that it’s absolutely marvelous every time.
And all the while, Hana is learning and growing with them, taking the falls in stride, working through the struggles and finding the positives where it matters.
Especially considering [Spoiler] >!Ame and Ariel. Both being characters that pull away from their mother to learn to go their own path!<.
The problem I think with Maquia isn’t necessarily that it was written poorly, or anything to that degree. It’s that it didn’t have enough run time.
I think every single problem that the Maquia film had was rooted in the fact that it’s a 2hour movie, when it would have been ideal as a 24~26 2 season long anime. OR at least 13 episodes with an OVA(like Violet Evergarden). So much of the setup, skipping around, and lack of pay off in so many of the situations in Maquia come from the fact that it had to portray almost 2 lifetimes worth of a story in a 2 hour movie.
This is something Wolf Children essentially had mastered, it was ideally set for a film and paced things carefully and quietly so that it’d fit nice and neat and hit the right beats while as a film.
I tend to be the kinda person that cries a lot during anime and movies, and Maquia just didnt give me anything to emotionally invested in [except]>!Leilia and if she ever got to see her daughter.!<
Where as Wolf Children, the 2 times I’ve watched it, I just cried my eyes out, especially the second time.
TL;DR
Both films are about “mommy struggles”, and Wolf Children blew it out of the water, where as Maquia didn’t seem to know what to do with it and should have been an anime series.
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