Culture news This Netflix animated film is to die for. I saw Maboroshi from MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen) and it’s a big YES!!!
MAPPA has been on all fronts for several years. Cinema, television and even Netflix, Japanese studios are not idle, and they prove it once again with an animated film mixing fantasy and science fiction. Maboroshi could even rise to the height of his illustrious models that are Studios Ghibli and director Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Suzume).
Maboroshi in a few words
MAPPA (acronym for Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association) will be part of a very closed circle of the most fashionable and prolific Japanese animation studios in a booming sector in 2023. Over the last twelve months, they have produced seasons 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen and Vinland Saga, the conclusion of Attack on Titan, the anime Hell’s Paradise and finally the feature film which brings us together today. Maboroshi is an animated film directed and written by Mari Okadaan industry veteran having worked in the past on Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc as well as several films (Her Blue Sky, A Whisker Away).
Arisu to Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō (アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場) from its Japanese title is an original work, and not the adaptation of a manga or a pre-existing Light Novel, released in cinemas only in Japan in September 2023. The West is deprived of a big screen experience and must “settle” for a release on Netflix. For nearly two hours, the director and her teams tell the story of a city victim of a strange temporal phenomenon and its inhabitants in search of answers and meaning to their singular existence.
After a factory explosion, a small town is literally suspended in time. Masamune is 14 years old, and with his friends, he will have to adapt to an agonizing reality. – Netflix France
The animated film Maboroshi is available on Netflix.
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A doubly “fantastic” experience
To fully understand where I’m talking about, it’s worth pointing out that I’m a big fan of anime. I watch a lot of them (both series and animated films), and I assiduously explore what’s new with each new season. One thing is certain… MAPPA studios have never disappointed me, and they continue their flawless performance in 2024. No more suspense! Maboroshi is in my eyes a real success worthy of Ghibli productions (mainly those of Isao Takahata) and those of CoMix Wave Films directed by Makoto Shinkai.
This decided opinion, to say the least, risks intriguing or even challenging fans of the studios and directors mentioned above, and that is my main objective. The feature film directed by Mari Okada deserves your full attention and viewing in optimal conditions as it is beautiful, powerful, intoxicating. I sometimes lack superlatives to describe what I felt upon discovering this highly poetic and melancholy story which locks its characters in a suspended existence.
Arisu to Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō recalls in certain aspects Your Name or even Suzume (Makoto Shinkai) with the intervention of the supernatural in a contemporary world which for the rest is similar to ours. This incursion into the fantastic serves here as a catalyst for a story which is based on a strong and chilling concept, that of existential agony. experienced by our young protagonists whose lives stopped before they even really began. The main strength of the film lies in this pen which perfectly knows how to strike the sensitive chord in order to immerse us emotionally in its universe.
The visuals are not to be outdone and the opposite would have been surprising as the MAPPA studios have repeatedly proven their know-how. The artists have produced exquisite work that enhances this story written and directed by Mari Okada. The incursion of the fantastic into “reality”, the animation of the characters, the creation of the settings, etc. Nothing was left to chance. The music meets the same level of requirement. Japanese composer Masaru Yokoyama (Her Blue Sky, Fruit Basket: Prelude, Trapezium) delivers a restrained score on Maboroshi that skilfully underlines the ordeals endured by Masamune and his comrades in misfortune.
Maboroshi is the first very good surprise of 2024. This animated film is a must-see.
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