Summary

Maboroshi has stunning visuals and animation that rival some of the most famous anime films in recent years. Unfortunately, the film’s pacing is terrible, with major tonal whiplash in the middle and a meandering second half that becomes unbearably dull. The love triangle in Maboroshi is handled poorly, with a fast-moving love triangle and a final twist that adds an uncomfortable element to the story. The ending is rushed and confusing, leaving many loose ends unresolved.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Maboroshi!!Maboroshi is the latest film by acclaimed director Mari Okada in collaboration with the internationally renowned animation studio, MAPPA. After mysterious cracks appear in the sky above Mifuse, the town is locked in an eternal winter. Masamune Kikuiri is one of the people trapped in the town, and his struggles have bigger ramifications for the world than anyone could have expected.

After its theatrical run in Japan in fall 2023, Maboroshi was released worldwide through Netflix on January 15, 2024. Unfortunately, the film left much to be desired. While the art, animation, and music are all phenomenal, Maboroshi is plagued by hackneyed melodrama, terrible placing, and bad writing that makes it impossible to remain invested in the film beyond the halfway point.

As much praise as Mari Okada has received for previous projects like Toradora! and Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, she’s also often criticized for prioritizing melodrama over plot, and unfortunately, Maboroshi is a prime example of this flaw.

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Maboroshi Is One Of The Most Gorgeous Anime Films In Years
Produced by MAPPA

The best praise that can be given to Maboroshi is for its incredible visuals and overall direction. Everything from the background art to the character designs – courtesy of Yuriko Ishii – is depicted with incredible fluidity and detail that makes every scene gorgeous to look at, whether it’s a moment filled with tense drama or something with more action. That’s especially true when combined with MAPPA’s incredible animation, resulting in Maboroshi having stunning visual flair that rivals some of the most famous anime films that have been released in recent years.

Maboroshi’s art and animation, of course, are perfectly complemented by its excellent score and shot composition. Masaru Yokoyama, who previously collaborated with Mari Okada on Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, delivers a score that never fails to perfectly sell the film’s emotional beats, and Okada’s excellent directiorial style elevates the already stellar visuals to new heights with how great the camerawork is, no matter how tense the scene. As a result, on a purely technical level, Maboroshi excels in all ventures, and anyone looking for a gorgeous-looking film with brilliant direction to match is certain to find it here.

Maboroshi’s Story Is Ruined By Terrible Pacing
The film loses its dreamlike luster by the halfway point

The visual and technical aspects of Maboroshi are all excellent, but everything else is executed far less competently – most notably, the pacing. The film starts as a slow and methodical exploration of Masamune’s struggles with being unable to change, and generally speaking, the art, animation, and soundtrack do a great job of selling that idea. However, seemingly out of nowhere, Masamune has an epiphany about not wanting to let anything stop him from living his life halfway through the film, even though it should have been saved for the climax, and it results in major tonal whiplash.

With Masamune already having his emotional climax, the latter half of Maboroshi spends most of its time meandering as people go back and forth arguing about what to do about the true nature of their world, and Masamune gets dragged further and further along into romantic melodrama between the female leads, Mutsumi and Itsumi. Every interesting thing the movie had to say was explored in its first half, which makes the second half unbearably dull.

Maboroshis Love Triangle Is Handled In The Worst Way Possible
The romantic subplot makes the movie’s second half feel even messier

Another thing that brings Maboroshi down is the previously mentioned love triangle between Masamune, Mutsumi, and Itsumi. After Masamune has his epiphany and everyone learns the truth of their world, the main focus of Maboroshi’s story becomes the will-they-won’t they drama between the principal leads, with Mutsumi fighting her feelings for Masamune for various reasons, and Itsumi struggling after being rejected by Masamune. The romantic drama isn’t handled in a way that stands out from other romance anime, however, so it’s odd that it becomes the main focus of the story instead of the supernatural elements that drove the first half of the film.

Making things worse is how the story never justifies what’s happening between the three characters. Going right along with the pacing issues, the romance in Maboroshi moves incredibly fast, with Masamune falling madly in love with Mutsumi after just a few interactions, and he and Itsumi quickly becoming obsessed with each other despite barely ever doing anything together. It’s one thing for Maboroshi to dedicate so much of its story to a melodramatic love triangle, but doing so little to justify the character’s romantic feelings for each other only further emphasizes how much of a waste of time it is.

The worst part about the love triangle, however, is its final twist. As the romantic drama intensifies, it’s revealed that Itsumi’s true identity is Saki Kikuiri, the daughter of the adult Masamune and Mutsumi in the real world who somehow ended up in the fake version of Mifuse as a child. The incestuous elements are strange on their own, but Masamune and Mutsumi never properly explain anything to Itsumi, and that causes many of the final developments seen in the film to happen, despite them being easily avoidable, thus making the love triangle even more of a detriment to the plot and overall uncomfortable.

Maboroshi Does Nothing To Earn Its Ending
A boring climax in an underwhelming film

All the problems with Maboroshi reach their peak with its rushed and confusing ending. After forcing Itsumi to go back to the real world, the cracks in reality are sealed for a final time, and with Mutsumi beig injured after falling out of a train, it’s implied that the fake Mifuse has become real again, and everyone will finally be able to truly live. How and why that happened is never explained, and while an open ending isn’t inherently bad, with how many other rushed and unexplained elements there were in the film, it becomes impossibly hard to swallow.

Adding to that is how Itsumi’s final moments in Maboroshi are handled. Not only do Masamune and Mutsumi continue not to tell Itsumi anything, but Maboroshi ends with what appears to be a timeskip featuring Itsumi in the real world, and it’s never explained if she reunited with her parents or if she ever figured out who Masamune and Mutsumi really were to her. So many of Itsumi’s problems stemmed from how little was explained to and about her, so her story ends with numerous loose ends, which only exacerbates the problems with the film as a whole.

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All in all, Maboroshi is a complete and utter mess of a film. The art, animation, and music are all great, but the story has nothing interesting to say after its first half, and constantly switches between moving too fast and too slow. It prioritizes frustrating melodrama and a terrible love triangle over any of the genuine mysteries, and leaves too much unresolved to justify its open ending. Mari Okada has continually proven herself as a competent writer and director, but unfortunately, Maboroshi does nothing to properly show off her talents and has little going on for it beyond its visuals and score.

Watch On Netflix