Review of A Lull in the Sea

I have complicated feelings about this one, to the point where I don't even understand it myself. I was the first to defend its lack of plot logic in the early episodes, but even I got bothered by how the plot logic just felt way too convenient throughout the show, which was a bit immersion breaking for me, made the world look artificial. It's a pity since a large part of world could have worked even in hard sf setting with sufficient explanations (like different planet, sea not actually being water and having much lower density, etc). Having a mention of land actually being Japan,and a mention of science in the form of publishing papers, which was mentioned at one point, as well as existence of computers and such, along with realistic characterisation, pushes the setting too close to realism and contrasts too harshly with all the magical convenient ways the plot later works.

Being a romance drama, it obviously relies the most on having great characters and having the viewer feel for them. For the majority of the show I felt for the characters and everything worked out nicely, but in some situations I (unlike most other viewers, to my surprise) did find some of their behavior stupid which made me angry and messed with my immersion again. Some characters I loved all the way through, like Miuna, which I did not expect would end up being the best girl for me.

There is a great point around the middle of the show where I loved it the most. Another slight issue I had with it was that I would have liked it to have been even more conclusive, in a feelgood sense. Why is it so hard to animate a warm hug in the certain couple's case? Things like that made the ending feel like a beautiful poem that lacks a period after the last sentence. Yeah, it matters that little and that much at the same time, depending on your level of OCD, or in this case on how much personal romantic satisfaction you expect to get from a romance drama anime. Regardless, ending was wrapped up rather nicely all things considered.

All those flaws really don't matter much in the face of how heart piercingly beautiful this show is when it comes to visuals. Romance dramas that aren't comedies tend to have boredom as their number one enemy. Nagi no Asukara deals with this rather well, so even if plot is often SoL in nature, it's mostly engaging and only rarely does pacing falter. 0% fanservice is commendable, and due to genre and studio, some of it feels like Hanasaku Iroha did, except better in all regards, especially in having more romance.

Though romance wasn't romantic in a feelgood way (pander to me dammit!), it's objectively romantic, as number of confessions is definitely high, but it often doesn't feel romantic enough, as it lacks that feelgood romance that's present in Toradora, Golden Time, or Sakurasou for example, yet it also lacks the fuck-you-you're-gonna-cry-now drama of Ef or Clannad. Or rather, it does have it, but disproportionately little compared to those examples. One could even say romance is a bit too realistic here, something 5cm/sec suffered way more from. Though that's hardly a bad thing, but merely a matter of personal taste.

How is this still kinda amazing after all that? It's due to unique setting, spectacular visuals and what appears to be great character writing.