Maboroshi is a Japanese supernatural anime movie written and directed by Mari Okada. It was produced by MAPPA and made its way to the United States in 2024 by Netflix.

In 1991, the small Japanese steel mill town of Mifuse experiences a supernatural event where the sky cracks. Mill worker and shrine member Mamoru Sagami (Andrew Kishino) reveals that the mill was built on his family shrine and that the Sacred Wolf spirit has cursed the town by freezing it in time. Teenaged artist Masamune Kikuiri (Max Mittelman) and his friends try to make the best of it, but when his father Akimune Kikuri (Robbie Daymond) seemingly disappears, he becomes frustrated. He confronts classmate Mutsumi Sagami (Jeannie Tirado) after she steals another student’s shoes. In exchange for keeping quiet, she reveals a secret. She is the stepdaughter of the shrine leader Mamoru and he is hiding a little girl named Isumi (Kitana Turnbull) who acts like a child. He soon learns that she may hold the key to breaking the curse around his town.

MAPPA may be facing controversy for how they treat their artists, but this movie shows that their artists are some of the best. The animation for this movie was brilliant and MAPPA should be paying them for it. It was beautiful, stunning, and showed the love they had for this story.

There was one flaw in the movie. The ending left a lot to be desired. While the climax of the movie is very strong, I did want a little bit more information about what happened to some of the characters. It would have been helpful to know where some ended up.

That being said, wow, the movie had a lot of important things to say. It discusses time and how we use it as humans. With the town being cursed, they are told to do the same thing over and over again, but the residents just want to live their lives. It also discusses the power of faith and how some elites will abuse that faith to hold onto their own power. Of course, it also touched on the power of love and how it brings people together.

The story was poignant and Okada tells it with a certain passion that you do not want to miss. You are pulled into Masamune’s world and how he wants to be free, but freedom could be an impossibility. You feel their frustration, their angst, and their despair as their town sinks further into this curse.

Bottom line, while I think the conclusion of Maboroshi could have been fleshed out a bit more, it was a moving film. You are pulled into this world and the desperation of a town that just wants to live.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Crude Humor, Frightening images, Some foul language

FAVORITE QUOTE: I’m just glad he liked my drawings.

Check out the trailer below:

This review is based on the dub by Iyuno-SDI Group featured on Netflix.

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