A Lull in the Sea

I made sure I watched it until the end even though I wanted to die, so that people would not say that I hated it just because I missed the best part. It was crap from start to end, they took a nice idea about a fantasy world that could totally become decent and turned it into the most senseless idiocy about "love", a kid's fairytale with no goal whatsoever. The best ideas such as enviroment and history were completely skipped and left unexplained, the setting under the sea could become absolutely awesome and they botched it, because instead of adjusting it to the situationthey simply stuffed a copy of a normal village on the bottom of an ocean with no change at all. They even have stairs. They drink broth. I just don't understand what was the point of such a forced setting. There are loads of things that I don't understand, but just to say a few: why in the world do people from the sea and from the shore hate each other so much if they don't differ among each other in the slightest? They have the exact same culture and habits, they eat the same stuff, they even put the same designs on curtains; Why the hell should salt fall from the sky? I'm fine with fantasy but you could at least try to come up with some kind of explanation; Did someone tell those guys that they didn't have to go as far as to make every possible pairing? There are fanfictions for that; Just where did the other students of the sea school go? That's kind of creepy, they simply melted away, right? Oh, and yes, I totally agree that the series did a 180 turn. The characters visibly leveled up in annoyance. The ending was the best part of them all, it just wrapped things up as uncomprehensible as they were and gave it all that sickly sweet taste that dulls every black hole in the plot to a triviality. The dialogues were awkward, trite and embarrassing to listen to.

Moderator Edit: This review may contain spoilers. When I first saw the description for Nagi No Asukara I really didn't know what to expect. The synopsis didn't really give off much of an idea of what this show was going to be like. So thinking that Nagi no Asukara would be another cheesy romantic comedy. I began watching with low expectations. Little did I know that what I was about to watch would be one of the most enjoyable slice of life anime I have seen in a long time. A long time ago people livedand flourished in the sea. But one day some of the sea people wanted to live in the land, and thus they moved to the land and away from the sea. The story revolves around 4 middle school students who are forced to attend a school on land after their school in the sea village closes. Many problems such as adapting to new environments and dificulties making friends follow. The story presents itself as a slice of life in the beginning with the main focus on problems the main characters have on the surface. Now for some people the pacing in the first half might be a bit slow, but There is good reason for that. As a character driven anime, Nagi No Asukara has to focus on its characters a lot and flesh them out properly, and Nagi No Asukara does just that. The show uses a lot of its time developing its characters and making sure they feel more like actual people rather than flat characters that you care little about. Was it worth it? Definitely. But don't be fooled. Nagi No Asukara doesn't always stay a fun, light slice of life. The mood changes dramatically darker in the second half. The show takes a turn from slice of life to being more dramatic, and this is where Nagi No Asukara falls short on. Many slice of life romances that try to implement drama in their plot tend to be overly melodramatic, and this also seems to be the problem with Nagi No Asukara. Nagi No Asukara's second half is chocked full of drama. From unrequited love to arguing. The show sometimes becomes quite frustrating in the dramatic parts. Many parts felt uncomfortably lengthened because of the melodrama and how the characters are so unwilling to talk and make up after an argument. Now although to me this wasn't a major problem. It still dampened from the experience as a whole. Story isn't the only thing Nagi No Asukara focuses on.The animation of Nagi No Asukara is top-notch, with animation that rivals even The big studios like Kyoto animation The show looks absolutely gorgeous. The backgrounds were created with such detail that it felt like I was watching an art gallery. Character designs were also very appealing and detailed. Seriously, Nagi No Asukara's art is definitely some of the best I've ever seen in the anime industry. I'm not exaggerating at all. The sound of Nagi no Asukara is also paid much attention on. "lull ~Soshite Bokura wa~" by Ray is a great first opening that fits the slice of life aspect of the show perfectly. The second opening "ebb and flow" also by Ray has a more serious tone to it and is also a great song to listen to. ( I have already listened to it 20 times). The soundtrack also doesn't disappoint. Pretty much every track and tune fits the mood well. Nagi no Yanagi also does a great job on the ending song.The first ending song "Aqua Terrarium", is a calming song that fits the show very well. The second ending song "Mitsuba no Musubime" is also a very good song that fits with the second half very well. As a character driven show, the characters are the aspects that make or break the series, and I can honestly say that Nagi No Asukara has quite the cast. The main cast consists of 5 characters. The crybaby Manaka Mukaido, the hotheaded Hikari Sakishima, the calm and collected Kihara Tsumugu, beautiful and caring Hiradaira Chisaki, and the handsome Isaki Kaname. Now at first the characters felt very stereotypical. Hikari is the main character that gets mad at many things and gets the viewers pissed off because of how much a jerk he can be. Manaka felt like those characters that were made to be cute and cater to the audience. Tsumugu was the smart one in the show that would preach life lessons to the other characters. Kaname was the handsome guy, and Chisaki is that kind girl who also joins in on the love triangle. As you can see. The cast doesn't seem to be very likable or original in the beginning. What P.A works does an extraordinary job on though, is putting a serious amount of depth to the characters and developing them immensely over the course of the show.The characters develop dramatically and feel way more alive throughout the show. As you get to learn more about the characters through the show. You end up feeling way more connected to the characters.They turn into characters that you actually care about. Not second dimensional characters that you forget about in a few weeks, but characters that really make an impression on you.But that's not the end. There are two more main characters added through the show. Shiodome Miuna and Sayu Hisanuma. Although they only receive development in later parts of the show. They recieve a lot of development through the series and although they might not get as much depth as the other characters. I ended up caring for them just as much as the main cast.Another very interesting part of the show is that Nagi No Asukara has one of the biggest and most complicated love webs I have seen in a while. Almost every important character in the show loves someone else. And watching this web unfold was truly an enjoyable experience. As I watched the characters grow up and see how they coped with their unrequited love. I began to root for their happiness from the bottoms of my heart. The characters truly made an impact to me, and it was a bit sad for me to finish the show. Nagi No Asukara isn't for everyone. It's slow pacing in the beginning and it's focus on the characters are enough to scare off people who have little patience and want immediate action . But for people who are patient enough. Nagi no Asukara is a show that will deliver. With its beautiful atmosphere, great characters, and a very interesting story. Nagi No Asukara is that gem in the rough that should definitely be watched by fans of romance and slice of life.

First a little background, having just watched Golden Time, I was on the look out for something new to watch and first came across Nagi no Asukara in the suggestions list. At a first glance at the anime and having read its description, I thought perhaps it could be worthwhile and decided to chance it. It didn't disappoint at all, this show was magical from start to finish and I couldn't have been happier to have stumbled across this gem. It certainly ranks among my top 7 favourite anime. This show is a "slice of life, fantasy and romance" show in a nutshell, however it takesthese themes and fulfills them really rather well and isn't without some original twists. The story is set in two villages, one in the sea and one in the land. There is a conflict between the people of these villages due to friction about their cultures and beliefs. The people from Shishoshio, the sea village, believe that the people originated in the water and that those who had left in the past for land had betrayed the sea god and had turned their backs on their way of life. This rivalry in the show is actually well developed as the show goes on and plays a defining role in moulding the story. The story starts of with four main characters, essentially around whom the meat of the story revolves around (although there are two other main characters added shortly after). These are Chisaki, Kaname, Hikari and Manaka, the few children in the sea village. They have been childhood friends and in the same school for as long as they can remember and are being transferred to the school on the land to continue their education. Obviously, having been together for so long, they all have strong feeling for each other and the refreshing fact is how realistic their relationships are. They fight, have fun, love each other and are jealous of each other at times. Unlike many other shows this really helps drive the story further on solid foundations. The story then revolves about their life on the land and the interactions between the characters. The new main characters added are Tsumungu, a quiet but reassured boy who lives on the land with his grandpa and two younger girls, Sayu and Miuana. All of these characters are well developed over the show and themselves are involved in secondary themes such as dealing with second marriages in their family and loneliness. Not everything is laid out on a plate however and there are certain things that are left for you to figure out or wonder at. The first half goes through the gears and describes the life of the characters and how they get on, with a few usual bumps and twists, some of which is original and some which is to be expected but by no means boringly cliched. The main plot of the start is the build up to the "Onefeukhi" a ritual which is carried out by the sea and land people together to pay sacrifice to the sea god. I shall say no more. This is one of the very few anime with a twist that is shocking however done in such a way that doesn't irritate but actually works with the story and ultimately makes it better. It is this "twist" that actually helps to make this such a memorable anime. So thats the story glanced over, of course there is so much going on all at once for me to explain but take this much 1) The complex relationships (between sister and brother, children and parents and between the children themselves, even the adults, the villagers too. 2) The character development is paced perfectly with the story and is satisfying to watch unfold. I haven't even scratched the surface of the story yet. The art style is nice, there are no faults and quite mellow. The soundtracks are well used and OPs are definitely amazing. Overall this anime gave me a chance to feel what I had with anime such as Clannad and Little Busters. It's a story driven by the entire cast, there is a whole bigger picture behind everything and the fantasy setting doesn't detract it really defines the show in a way while still making everything absolutely relatable (not in a practical sense but an emotional one). So if you are looking for something with substance, a well paced story and a brilliant cast all blended to amazing effect, Nagi no Asukara is not a show to miss.

Oh, I'm not gonna make myself any new friends with this review. PA Works is one of those studios that you either praise the shit out of or you just don't give a rat's ass about. Even for the number of "successes" that they've had in the past, I don't really find myself feeling anything but indifference toward the bulk of stuff that they've produced. Hell, I'm surprised I found myself giving this show a negative review. Granted, I've never truly liked a single show that they've ever released. PA Works' programmes aren't as visually enticing as A-1 Pictures', they're nowhere near as emotionally involvingas Kyoto Animation's, and they're not as comfortable to watch as JC Staff's. But yeah, PA Works doesn't really rank all that high on my visceral outrage meter. So what is it about Nagi no Asukara that doesn't work for me? Well, it's hard to sum up in just a few words so let's just dive straight into the review. I should point out that I actually quite enjoyed watching Nagi no Asukara when I first started. The fantasy setting was certainly intriguing and I also found myself quite fascinated by the relations between the land and sea people. Of course, another reason why I picked this show up in the first place was that it was supposed to be one of the better anime romantic dramas out there on the market and I was in the middle of a romance binge at that point in time. But over time, the stuff that I found myself liking about the show combined with other things the show was doing as it progressed ended up causing me to actually really hate the show. Allow me to explain. 1) The "romance" is fucking terrible and it eclipses the actual plot of the show Now, I'm not one to despise will they/won't they romances from the get-go (especially given how I happen to adore the shit out of Rumiko Takahashi's works) and I usually don't take umbrage with love polygons because if done well enough, it makes for a more suspenseful read and leads to interesting developments going down (like in the manga for Ichigo 100%). But in Nagi no Asukara's case, nothing of the sort actually happens. This is the kind of love polygon that's just meant to shoehorn some shitty melodrama into the show for no other reason than to give off the illusion of actual romantic development. Kaname likes Chisaki, but Chisaki has the hots for Hikari. Hikari wants to bone Manaka, but Manaka's fingering herself to the thought of Tsumugu. Meanwhile, Tsumugu's just standing there like Kurasama from School Rumble with a blank expression on his face. Hell, this isn't even a love polygon. It's a love line segment, if anything. I mean, I wouldn't mind this so much if the characters were actually capable of carrying a scene without it devolving into melodramatic territory. I wouldn't mind this so much if the farcical melodrama didn't eclipse the actual plot of the story, but it unfortunately does. I have nothing against works that try to tell a romantic subplot whilst telling a larger story at hand, and if done correctly, it can actually be quite lovely (i.e. Futurama, Justice League, Daria, The Spectacular Spider-Man, etc). Unfortunately, it would seem that PA Works forgot that the real story at hand is (supposedly) about two tribes of people with vastly different ways of life that must work together to avoid cataclysmic disaster. I wouldn't mind this so much if the "romance" actually went somewhere but unfortunately it doesn't and it never does at any point in the series. Hell, the resolution is open-ended with only one official couple actually forming by the end of it all (and even then, that pairing didn't have much build-up going for it). 2) The characters are one-note archetypes with no depth whatsoever You know, it seems like just yesterday when I was 15/16 years old so the hormone mixture was still running wild and I was having a shitload of brand new experiences. As such, I can definitely sympathise with what our leading quartet would (presumably) be going through... to a certain degree, anyway. Unfortunately, being able to sympathise with someone does not a good character make. I suppose it's not entirely fair to say that the characters are one-note archetypes but I'd be lying through my teeth if I said they weren't defined by a gimmick or two. Hikari is your typical male tsundere, whilst Kaname is the mature, mild-mannered one. Manaka is the primary love interest who's a crybaby, relies on her friends, and has the hots for some other guy whilst Chisaki is the tertiary love interest who withholds her feelings for Hikari because he knows he wants to fuck the shit out of Manaka. Meanwhile, Tsumugu doesn't even have any sort of characterisation about him. He's just this quiet guy who follows our leading quartet around. Manaka and Chisaki could've easily been fused into a single character, because they both feel like they were meant to originally be one character but were then written into to separate separate characters for some undecipherable reason. On that note, Kaname has to be the most useless character in the entire show. I appreciate how he's a foil to Hikari, but he never contributes anything of relevance to the story at hand. All he really does is just stand there chatting with the other characters. At least Manaka, Hikari, Chisaki, and even Tsumugu (at one point) contributed *something* of relevance to the story at hand. Hell, I can't even call Kaname a Kaworu Nagisa clone because Kaworu actually did more stuff in Evangelion in one episode than Kaname ever does across the span of 26 episodes. Then again, I really shouldn't be bitching about Kaname and Tsumugu not contributing anything of substance to the plot because they (along with some irrelevant side characters) are the only ones I could actually find myself liking. I couldn't help but feel contempt any time I saw Hikari, Manaka, Chisaki, or Miuna in the frame because they're so fucking unbearable. Hikari's tendency to shout at everything he doesn't understand is what ultimately causes me to viscerally despise him because I just want him to shut the fuck up AND HE NEVER DOES. Whilst I hate Manaka and Chisaki, I can safely say that they're nowhere near as infuriating as Hikari is. On that note, let's talk about our two lead "heroines" and why they make me want to shoot up some heroin. Manaka is a moeblob plot device and nothing more. Thankfully, she's not the insufferable hyperactive type of moeblob, but that still doesn't change the fact that she's a useless crybaby who serves no purpose other than to advance the plot. Say what you will about Usagi from Sailor Moon, but at least Usagi grows as an individual over the course of the series. Hell, at least Nagisa from Clannad helped spark Tomoya's growth as an individual. I have absolutely nothing of the sort to say about Manaka whatsoever. Virtually everything I've said about Manaka can also be applied to Chisaki, but it should be noted that Chisaki at least has *some* sense of characterisation about her. 3) The worldbuilding in Nagi-Asu is absolutely appalling. Considering the fact that this show takes place in a fantasy world where one group of people split off from another and then went on to live their own lives whilst still retaining *some* form of contact with one another, one would assume that the cultures of the people on land and at sea would be highly divergent but that couldn't be further from the truth. Aside from the fact that the people of Shioshishio live underwater and worship a sea deity, there's virtually no conceivable differences between the people of the former village and the people of Oshiooshi. I mean, their names are just anagrams of one another's for Christ's sake! On another note, I love how the series claims that all of humanity originated from the sea and moved onto land but we only really see two locations throughout the span of the entire series. By sheer implication, Shioshishio would've been the origin of all humanity since that's the only sea village we're ever made aware of and it's never stated whether or not other sea villages exist. So how is it that a faction of people could emigrate from a single village and then go on to populate the rest of the planet? I mean, Nagi no Asukara does exist in /some/ space of reality. We have electrical grids, motor vehicles, grocery stores, and other such things that would imply that the history of the world that Nagi no Asukara also follows real world events to /some/ degree. I wouldn't be bitching about this so much if the show didn't bring up all this shit and decided to do absolutely fuck-all with it. Hell, I wouldn't have minded any of this whatsoever if the actual "romance" went anywhere meaningful, but both plots are fucking awful and half-baked. 4) The second half of the show is a poorly paced time skip and has a resolution that forces a happy ending The second half of the show starts us off with a time skip after a MAJOR event occurs, which is already an indicator that these episodes are bound to suck because PA Works already proved that they're incapable of writing a cogent plot in the first half of the series. With that in mind though, it's not like the first half of the show was entirely without merit because the actual plot of the story, though extremely atrophied in terms of depth and detail, was still interesting enough to keep my attention and the episode before the timeskip was nothing short of intense to the point where it was almost enough to make me forget about all the shit I was complaining about previously. On that note, I should point out that I don't have anything against time skips in general. When you get right down to it, a time skip is a literary device and what ultimately matters is how that literary device is used. Oyasumi Punpun, one of my all-time favourite mangas uses time skips to great effect, as it covers life-changing events throughout various points in time that ended up shaping the person that Punpun would eventually become. Unfortunately, the guys at PA Works lack the tact of Inio Asano so they just ended up using the time skip as a crutch to avoid actually writing up the direct aftermath of what just happened after said major event. If that weren't bad enough, the pacing is just dreadful. There's almost no sense of transition whatsoever, so events are brought up like there's no fucking tomorrow. Random plot details are also introduced at random intervals with almost no sense of foreshadowing whatsoever and effectively diminish the impact of events that previously happened. The events pre-timeskip implied that the world was doomed because the sea god was angry at the fact that people abandoned the sea to live on the surface, and the land dwellers aren't appeasing him with regular offerings. It's not a perfect set-up, but at least that seems like something meaningful, right? Post-timeskip, apparently the sea god is just lonely and he needs someone to cuddle on those cold winter nights. Way to ruin what little good there was to be found in your shitty programme, PA Works! On top of that, the actual ending to the entire series just feels forced beyond all belief. I understand the desire to see everything work out for the better in regards to your protagonists, but god damn it, you have to fucking EARN that happy ending and I can safely say that nobody in Nagi no Asukara deserved that happy ending. The entire conflict is just resolved without any hint of subtlety, foreshadowing, or anything of the sort. Hell, nobody ends up getting sacrificed to appease the sea god's raging boner by the end of it all! Like, what the actual fuck PA Works? Is it so hard to actually write up an ending that doesn't stick a gigantic middle finger to anyone with a functioning brain? Of all the things that I dislike about Nagi no Asukara, the ending would definitely have to be the thing that I hate the most. *** So, in conclusion: this show sucks the chrome off of doorknobs. In between the farcical melodrama, the shitty worldbuilding, the hackneyed "romance," AND that shitty ending, I just have one question to ask: Why? As in, "why did PA Works even greenlight this show in the first place if it had such obvious problems?" I guess this is the level of quality we should expect from a studio that's effectively the poor man's Kyoto Animation. Whilst Nagi no Asukara is far from the worst thing I've ever watched, it's still undoubtedly the most disappointing thing I've ever sat through. Here's to hoping that PA Works won't fuck up another show beyond all belief... oh wait, we have Charlotte. *sigh*