Waves of Time

 Time, a concept that everyone knows. The passage of time is a cruel one, something that affects us all. It does not discriminate, everyone is equal in how time pulls the punches. If you have watched as much anime as me or more then you’d come across anime’s of similar topics and stories. Today, I’d like to share two anime of high calibre quality about the concept of time; which I can also use a big brain move and talk about some philosophy or teachings while I talk about the anime. This is high elo ranked blogging as usual, a very special one.

Of course I’ll be talking about time, mortality, and spoilers so if you’re triggered by those subjects be advised. I even got emotional remembering and writing this :')

Your name -

“Comin’ together to form a shape, twistin’ and tanglin’, sometimes comin’ undone, breakin’ off, then reunitin’. That’s a braided cord. That’s time. That’s musubi.”

Your name aka Kimi no na wa, a groundbreaking movie for anime which is comparable to how Avatar changed 3D animations. Everyone when it came out only focused on how good it looked and not the story, me included until I rewatched it recently and realised this movie animation is only half of why it’s good. This movie shows how time and memories are very connected and how people’s strings of fate can be woven to each other with the boundaries being time. The two characters which are connected to by fate are separated by years apart, he must save this dead girl from the future by preventing a town from being wiped out by a meteor. This hurdle that they call time, seems like an impossible obstacle to fight but to make it work for the first time in this curse’s history they mustn't give up; it shows that the heart and desires and destiny to survive can change time as the human spirit never yields and can do the impossible.

Once she is saved they manage to meet face to face but once it’s over they will forget each other, I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too. As years pass and he doubts if the unknown girl was even saved, he moves on with life as the visions stop but deep down it is known that she still is out there. Then at the end of the movie when years and years have passed they meet randomly again crossing paths their fate was meant to be. This movie was very heartfelt more than any of the Shinkai films, I liked how the movie is about strings of fate which is popular in Japan, in Japan there is a legend of a red string that everyone has one their pinky finger which is invisible to us but your string is connected to some random person that you’re meant to be with or has some importance to you. This string acts as a guide that will lead you to them. The concept of this legend is very sweet and I loved how this movie intercepted the legend and executed it so artistically, which shows how much of a genius Makoto Shinkai is.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms -

“It’s okay you won’t ever forget”

“It hurts so much… but I won’t ever forget such a beautiful world”

From how time works and brings people together even though we don’t notice it to experiencing how time works and a bystander to it. Yes, I’m talking about the soul crushing, heart breaking, emotionally beautiful movie known as Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms. Maquia is about a race of people who age much slower than humans and this race of people’s world is invaded and this girl is forced to escape her kingdom to the human world. In this human world she comes across a barn which has a dead mother holding a baby which she has adopted. Now you can see what you’re in for with this movie, as the boy grows up she stays the same age but the girl tries to be his mother regardless. This movie is really a movie about how a mother’s love is unconditional no matter what. As the kid grows up he begins to dislike that his mom is not like others and resents her because of how she is. You can really be put into her shoes and feel a lot with this movie as how well done it is.

The girl learns how mortality is from their dog and is aware of this. As he grows up and leaves the nest to fight and goes to war she meets with another of her race that she saves and has to abandon her daughter is when the quote from the start of this segment is said which really gave me the idea for this blog as I rewatched your name then this movie and I felt their synergy together. From this movie, it really puts into perspective how forgiving true love can be from a mother that cares about you. Which teaches you about cherishing the time we have with others and never take things you have for granted as one day it will be gone, time may forget you but you will never forget the time you had with others. Watching these two movies together was like putting peanut and jelly on a sandwich for the first time. It created an amazing lesson and really had a lot of “emotional damage” but that damage is why life is worth living for because of the people we have for life.

Even though I already watched this movie the ending still broke me and made me cry like a baby. The only anime that has made me cry multiple times while watching is Clannad and now this movie, the first time I saw Maquia I literally cried for 20 minutes after it finished. The subject matter about mortality is sometime that hits deep with everyone and these anime do it so well while being so mesmerising in creative endeavours throughout makes me love this movie with all my heart. This movie is one of my favourite anime because of how spectacular it was and deserves more attention so go watch it. (Bring Tissues!)

Thanks for Reading!