News culture This Netflix animated film is a dream. I saw Maboroshi from MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen) and it’s a big YES!!!
MAPPA has been working on all fronts for several years. Cinema, television and even Netflix – Japanese studios are not idle and prove it again with an animated film that mixes fantasy and science fiction. Maboroshi could even reach the top of his famous role models, namely 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 hottest and most prolific Japanese animation studios in a booming sector in 2023. In the last twelve months they have produced the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen and Vinland Saga, the conclusion of Attack on Titan, the anime Hell’s Paradise and finally the feature film that brings us together today. Maboroshi is an animated film directed and written by Mari Okada
Arisu to Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō (Alice and Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō) is a Japanese title an original work and not an adaptation of a manga or an existing light novel, will be released in cinemas in September 2023 only in Japan. The West is denied the cinema experience and has to “make do” with a release on Netflix. For almost two hours, the director and her teams tell the story of a city that is the victim of a strange temporal phenomenon and its residents who are looking for answers and meaning for their unique existence.
After a factory explosion, time literally stands still in a small town. Masamune is 14 years old and has to get used to a painful reality with his friends. – Netflix France
The animated film Maboroshi is available on Netflix.
Take a Netflix subscription card for Micromania
A doubly “fantastic” experience
To fully understand what I’m talking about, it should be noted that I am a huge anime fan. I watch a lot of them (both series and cartoons) and eagerly research what’s new in each new season. One thing is for sure…MAPPA Studios has never disappointed me and they continue their impeccable performance in 2024. No more tension! In my opinion, Maboroshi is a real success worthy of Ghibli productions (mainly those of Isao Takahata) and those of CoMix Wave Films directed by Makoto Shinkai.
This strong opinion risks, to say the least, intriguing or even challenging fans of the aforementioned studios and directors, and that is my main goal. The feature film directed by Mari Okada deserves your full attention and viewing under optimal conditions because it is beautiful, powerful and captivating. I sometimes lack superlatives to describe what I felt when I discovered this highly poetic and melancholic story that traps its characters in a suspended existence.
Arisu an Teresu no Maboroshi Kōjō is reminiscent in certain aspects of Your Name or even of Suzume (Makoto Shinkai) with the intervention of the supernatural in a contemporary world that is otherwise similar to ours. This foray into the fantastic serves as a catalyst for a story based on a powerful and frightening concept, that of existential torment. experienced by our young protagonists whose lives ended before they even began. The main strength of the film lies in this pen, which perfectly knows how to touch the hearts in order to immerse us emotionally in its universe.
The look cannot be beaten and the opposite would have been surprising, as the MAPPA studios have proven their know-how again and again. The artists have created exquisite works that enrich this story written and directed by Mari Okada. The intrusion of the fantastic into “reality”, the animation of the characters, the design of the settings, etc. Nothing was left to chance. The music meets the same requirement. Japanese composer Masaru Yokoyama (Her Blue Sky, Fruit Basket: Prelude, Trapezium) provides a restrained score for Maboroshi that skillfully underlines the hardships that Masamune and his comrades had to endure in the misfortune.
Maboroshi is the first very good surprise of 2024. This animated film is a must-see.
Take a Netflix subscription card for Micromania
This page contains affiliate links to specific products selected by JV for you. Any purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-retailer will pay us a commission. The prices shown in the article are those offered by the retailer sites at the time the article was published. These prices may vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without notice to JV.
Learn more.