Review of A Lull in the Sea

In my opinion, it is my belief that most anime that have been hyped beyond belief (at least the ones that have been airing recently) are of significantly poorer quality that most would've hoped. This happened with Sword Art Online, Kill la Kill, and for what has been shown already, Black Bullet (keep in mind I've only seen 4 episodes of that show at the time of writing this review). The worst thing about hyped shows are not actually the shows themselves, but their effect on other anime airing in the same season as them. Many anime that are arguably better than those shows areoften overlooked by the general populous. This happened with shows like Shinsekai Yori, Golden Time, and the anime I will be reviewing today, Nagi no Asukara.

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Story:

The thing that I like the most about the story is how it has a multitude of themes and messages to send to the viewer, but it does it in a way that feels very subtle. Even during the dramatic moments, nothing really feels too overbearing, and has a more lighthearted scene (but not completely comedic and out of place, mind you) almost directly after that to ease you out of it. It almost feels like the pacing and timing of the story was trying to mimic that of a wave crashing onto shore. A dramatic moment would resemble a strong wave full of emotion, and, most of the time at least, retreat back to where it comes from.

As previously said, there are a multitude of themes and messages throughout this anime, ranging from rascism, to climate change, unrequitted love, and of course, change. Focusing on the first half and the "rascist" aspect, the thing I liked about this was that it didn't shove the theme down you're throat like you're mom forcing you to eat brussel sprouts. It's not like the two villages were on the brink of war or anything, just a very bitter relationship.In this case, it works with the atmospheric mood of the whole anime.

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Characters:
One really weird thing to talk about concerning this anime is that of character development. I say this because of the whole "change" aspect of anime. A lot of the anime focuses on how the various characters want to stay how they have been. This is actually one of the best parts of the show, as the characters are noticeably aware of their own "character development", and they want to stop it from occuring. I won't spoil how that actually turns out, but it's rather enjoyable to witness.

Moving on to individual characters, let's start of with Hikari (Hii-kun as Manaka would say). There is one line in the anime that Miuna, Hikari's friend and another main character, says. She says that Hikari is straight (among other verbs, but I can't bother to find the particular line). Now, I don't mean in the sexual preference kind of straight. He fixates on one particular goal, and never stops until that goal is complete. He brash, and speaks before he thinks, but he truly cares for his friends (and his love interest). Although the way he goes about things is not really the way I would do it, it's interesting to see how he reacts to the various occurences that happen during the course of this anime.

I don't want to drag on much longer than I already have, so I'll just give brief sentence summaries for each character, and then you can witness each of their greatness for yourself. You have Manaka, the bright and bubbly girl, and Hikari's main love interest. Kaname, the more logical of the group, who always tries to be in control of the situations and his feelings, even though thats the root cause of his pain sometimes. Chisaki, a busty purple-haired girl who is fairly silent (and probably my least favourite character of the bunch, but I won't go into detail on that). Tsumugu, the land dweller that has a strong passion for the sea. Last but not least, you have Miuna and Sayu, the two younger best friends who are also troubled with love.

Although the amount of screentime and focus of some of these characters (mainly Kaname) is very inconsistent, you really do feel their dilemna, and you have a strong sense of really getting to know who they are.

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Animation:

Atmospheric. That's the best term to describe the animation of Nagi no Asukara in my opinion. The backgrounds are absolutely stunning, the movement, albeit a little limited at times, is fluid and precise, and the distinct look between land and water was phenomenal. At times, it almost feels like this anime had the budget of a movie. It's something that is pretty hard to match.

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Sound:

This is probably the least enjoyable thing about this anime. Not to say that the music is bad, because it isn't. It's just that everything else is so great that the sound kind of gets buried by it all. A lot of the music is very simplistic, sometimes only using one or two instruments for any given song. This can be seen as a pro and a con. It fits the atmospheric and scenic tone of the anime to a T, but most of it is really that memorable in the slightest. Fortunately, it knows when to kick it up when you have more dramatic scenes coming up to play. Lastly, the openings and endings. To be honest, I found almost all of them to be pretty generic. The exception to this would be the second opening. It still wasn't great, but it was a good notch above the other OP's and ED's this show had to offer.

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The great thing about this show is how well it knows who it is, and how every single aspect of the show has a place. There are very few moments where the characters, music, pacing, etc. stray off from what the show is. What this show is is a feast to the eyes, portraying an enjoyable romance, relatable characters, and a well written story, all while doing it in such a manner that feels natural and realistic (well, as realistic as you can be with a tribe of people living underwater). And to discuss the ending, I can safely say that it was very well done, if not just a tad unsatisfying. I won't spoil a thing, but let's just say there is a major point in almost any romance anime shown near the end that the show forgets to add, and it just made me a bit sad. Overall, this anime gets a high recommendation from me, so make sure to watch it sometime.

Also, remember me saying how every single aspect of the show has a place?
Well, there is one line in the first episode that breaks that, but in the most hilarious way possible. SMELLS LIKE YOU'RE OVULATING. Like seriously, I laughed for a good ten minutes on that shit.