The most visually stunning, touching, and contemplative anime.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms is the feature film debut of screenwriter Mari Okada, which became a hit in Japan. It is both a large-scale fantasy with an interestingly conceived world and epic battles, and an intimate drama about maternal love and the sacrifices parents are willing to make for their children.
If you are looking for something equally melancholy and sincere, these five movies and series are for you.
1. Mirai, 2018
Four-year-old Kun enjoys a carefree childhood until his little sister Mirai is born. Since the baby demands all of his parents' attention, Kun is jealous of their love for his sister and often hides in the backyard, where a magical family tree grows.
Suddenly, Kun finds himself in a fantasy world where present, past and future are intertwined. One by one, he meets relatives from different times: his mother as a little girl, his great-grandfather as a strong young man, and his little sister as a teenager. Through these incredible adventures, Kun discovers a new world for himself.
2. Weathering with You, 2019
Weathering with You is a feature film by Makoto Shinkai, the author of the popular love story Your Name. The plot revolves around high school student Hodaka, who runs away from a provincial town to Tokyo, where it rains every day. The boy finds a part-time job at a magazine specializing in supernatural phenomena, and meets a girl named Hina.
She is raising a younger brother and has an unusual ability–- to disperse clouds and stop rain. Like other Shinkai films, Weathering with You dazzles with its scenery – no one paints the sky as picturesquely as he does, even when it is covered in gray clouds.
3. Ride Your Wave, 2019
A bright summer anime is just the thing to finally say goodbye to August. Masaaki Yuasa's Ride Your Wave is an anime full of sunshine about a coastal town, new acquaintances and surfing.
Hinako meets Minato, a firefighter, during a fire in her house. The young people fall in love, but their happiness quickly ends: Minato drowns at work. After that, Hinako can't even look at the sea without crying, but one day she learns that she can sing her favorite song and call Minato from any water surface.
Ride Your Wave is both a light romance with beautiful animation and a heartbreaking drama about the experience of grief.
4. Violet Evergarden, 2018
Violet's life consists of endless battles. In the war, the girl serves under the command of Major Gilbert, but one day she is seriously injured and loses her arms. Instead of military service, Violet finds herself in a completely different kind of service.
She gets a job at the post office, where she has to help deliver puppets that can read, write and, most importantly, describe feelings and emotions. In Violet's world, most of the population is illiterate, so such robot assistants are irreplaceable in everyday life. Traveling with robots gives Violet many discoveries and opportunities to find herself off the battlefield.
Violet Evergarden is a melancholic, thoughtful work that can distract from the rapidly changing reality outside the window. A session of escapism is perhaps the most valuable thing this anime can give you, but it's more than enough.
5. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, 2023-...
Ten years of arduous travel by the hero Himmel and his friends led to the desired result – victory over the demon king. For the immortal elven sorceress Frieren, the years flew by. When she decided to make up for lost time and visit her friends, many of them were already on the brink of death.
For Frieren, who has a different view of time, the aging of her loved ones was a hard blow, and she decided to embark on a new journey. Along the way, the elf hopes to understand what life means to humans and to find inner peace.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is an interesting example of "observational" anime: the elf wanders through the world, for the most part not interfering with the order of things. Her journey is leisurely and contemplative, which creates a melancholic mood.