Yes (3rd time)
The scene where adult Ariel runs after Maquia’s carriage saying “I’m sorry” — and she smiles and waves and mouths “I know” — is the most beautiful and painful thing I have ever seen in animation. maquia letterboxd
Mari Okada, best known for her emotionally raw scripts ( Anohana , The Anthem of the Heart ), steps into the director’s chair for the first time — and she does not stumble. She soars . Then she breaks your heart. Then she hands you the pieces and asks you to weave them into something beautiful. Yes (3rd time) The scene where adult Ariel
When the invading kingdom of Mezarte — desperate for the Iorph’s bloodline to revive their dying dragons — attacks her homeland, Maquia escapes into the wilderness. There, she discovers a lone human infant, wrapped in the arms of a dead mother. Though Maquia herself is still a child in spirit, she makes an impossible choice: “I will be his mother.” Then she breaks your heart
Also, be warned: the first 20 minutes are dense with fantasy terminology (Iorph, Renato, Hibiol, etc.). Stick with it. The worldbuilding isn’t the point — the people are. “I cried so hard during the final 15 minutes that my roommate knocked on my door to ask if I was okay. I was not okay. I will never be okay.” — @animatedtears , ★★★★½ “Mari Okada really said ‘What if immortality, but the curse is watching your children die’ and then made it somehow the most tender and hopeful movie about motherhood ever. Unfair.” — @weepywitch , ★★★★★ “This is the ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ of motherhood. Bring three tissues. Actually bring a towel.” — @mechastriver , ★★★★ “Leilia deserved her own movie. Justice for Leilia.” — @renatofan42 , ★★★★ “I watched this with my mom. Big mistake. Huge. We both sobbed in the theater parking lot for 20 minutes.” — @arimother , ★★★★★ 📋 Log entry example (as if from a Letterboxd user diary)
The Iorph are a clan of ageless weavers who live apart from the world, preserving ancient texts and tending to looms. Though they appear as adolescents, they live for centuries, and their hearts remain untouched by time’s passage — until loneliness finds them. Young Maquia, orphaned and restless, watches as her clan’s elders speak of a “lonely death” as the price of immortality.