![]() ![]() Her works are as divisive as she is, and if you are an anime fan, you either love her or hate her. If you are an anime fan, chances are you’ve run across her work more than once. She’s been in the business for more than 20 years and has amassed quite a long resume of works to which she can claim credit. Mari Okada is a…controversial figure in the anime industry, to say the least. In a time when I’m just about to enter the workplace and our relationship is again undergoing change, Maquia struck a chord with me in the way that few anime films really do. Not only did it make me bawl like a baby, call my mom and tell her how much I loved her, but it also made me appreciate her all over again. It takes a lot for films to elicit an emotional response from me, but this one did it. Plotwise, I did not expect how tightly focused and how surprisingly personal this film was. From a technical standpoint, it’s a beautifully and professionally conceived film of a kind I would expect from Hollywood. After mulling over what I saw, and continuously telling my mom how much I love her and am grateful for all she has ever done, I am ready to impart my thoughts on this Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms.Īs a directorial debut, Mari Okada hits a home run when her track record has been hits and misses. There were a lot of meeting and separations in the actual script and in our personal lives as well.” And though this is not necessarily for what’s next for Maquia's director, Okada said she’d like to write a feature-length film geared toward children sometime in the future.One of the local theaters in my county showcased this movie today, and I have just come back from seeing it. It was such a strong and meaningful experience for me personally, so the question for me is how do I do the next thing? I need a little time to figure that out. “Horikawa-san, our producer, is his final work directly in production as a line producer. ![]() I had a great staff and they put everything they had into the film,” Okada said. With such critical acclaim for this film and Okada's other work, my final question was whether or not Okada would like to continue directing, and, of course, what's next? “I feel like I was a little bit too fortunate in this situation as a first time director with so many resources and so many things offered. The film is, as of this writing, sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and already won the Best Animation award at the Shanghai Film Festival. What's next for Mari Okada?Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms was Okada's directorial debut. Her little interactions with other women and everything sort of signaled that she was thinking about the Iolph people, so it felt okay to delete that scene.” And that was really what we decided to go with in terms of communicating that. But her expression ended up being drawn in a way that, even if she’s laughing, there’s a sort of a sad side to her look. That sort of thing, or she’s just moving on with her life. “When I was writing the script I felt like if I didn’t include this scene, then it would come across as if she doesn’t really care about the Iolph people or she’s not worried. She’s got insomnia, basically, thinking about all the Iolph people, and Ariel sort of saves her from this difficulty,” Okada said. “There was a really big cut of one scene where Maquia can’t sleep. Okada also told me about a big scene that was cut from the film. In our review, I wrote how though the time jumps can be a little disorienting, they ultimately are a good reflection of Maquia’s agelessness and potentially how Maquia herself feels time pass. What was cut from the film?“At first we had these titles said how many years later, how many years later, just because it was kind of hard to get how much time had passed, but I said I don’t want to do that,” Okada said. ![]() “If one person is sort of able to leave the past behind and go forward a little faster than this other person, then that kind of hurts, and that’s what I wanted to depict. Not only the race like the Iolph who live for a long time but also just normal people like you and me, the same sort of thing happens,” Okada said. Krim felt like Leilia and Maquia were speeding up time. Krim's story was important in not only showing a different challenge for Iolph living among other people, but also to help explore the challenges the Iolph face with time. Why did Krim kind of turn evil?Okada said she draws from real life when creating her stories. How long was Maquia locked up?Okada said Maquia was held captive by Krim for approximately 10 years. “At the end, Maquia sort of states that she’s going to keep meeting new people even though she’s going to have to say goodbye every time, and that’s the representation of that,” Okada said. She also said this image was meant to represent Maquia’s growth in learning to continue on with her life. YES NOThis scene was not originally planned to be in the film, but Okada asked the team to include it. ![]()
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