Mari Okada made her directorial debut with Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. The film, which she also wrote, is a high fantasy, set in a world inhabited by humans, dragons, and a race known as Iorph. The Iorph stop aging in their teens, and (as you might expect) others covet...
but when the peace of this town is shattered by those who want the secret to their longevity for themselves, a young girl named Maquia is forced to escape. Wandering the land alone, upon finding an orphaned baby she chooses to raise him, but as this boy grows up so...