Review of A Lull in the Sea

This anime was a severe waste of my time. I started watching it with my sister because, after looking at some reviews, we had a feeling that it would be one of those shows that is dumb but fun to make fun of. It turns out that it was so pathetically stupid that making fun of it didn't make the show any better. She ended up abandoning me after four episodes, so I watched the rest by myself so I could write a review. I'll go over the different categories to explain my deep hatred for this anime. STORY I wanted to enjoy the story, but therewasn't really anything to like. With this idea, the writers had the chance to write a compelling tale about overcoming racism and coming together, but they didn't deliver. There were also things that happened that were never elaborated upon; so the viewer is left with a lot of questions. For example, why could people eat soup under water? Why did Chisaki skip gym on the first day? What's the point of having stairs in an under water village? No one will ever know the answers to these questions because the writers didn't feel like writing a story that made sense. It's also strangely slow in some parts. In the middle of the show there's a time skip, and it takes several episodes after that to get the story back on track. I know that this is supposed to be a romantic middle school drama anime, but a lot of the love stuff is extremely unnecessary and most of the problems could've been prevented if the characters knew how to communicate with each other. Also, the ending wasn't very satisfying. The couples that are confirmed and highly implied make sense, but it does feel rushed and under explained.

ART
The art style is good, but it still has some problems. One thing that annoyed me is the characters' eyes. Yes, this is anime, but they're huge. They also reflect the sun a lot, so they look like they're crying at all times.

SOUND
The music is what you'd expect for a normal anime. It doesn't top the Naruto soundtrack, but it isn't horrible either.

CHARACTER
The main problem with the story is the characters. Most of them were written poorly and half of them didn't need to exist. It seems that the less significant the character was, the more I liked him. Here's what I think of the main characters:
HIKARI
I really dislike this character. I know that he's a tsundere, but I can't forgive him for the first episode. He's annoying and when he doesn't get his way, he yells at people and might end up crying. He does improve a bit and become easier to watch throughout the series, but he's just way too annoying at the beginning. He's also really loud and doesn't know how to shut up. It's sad that he's the main character because his presence ruins some of the better scenes.
MANAKA
With her being the main female lead, you'd think that she'd be interesting and have some character depth, right? Well, she does not. I don't necessarily hate her, but she doesn't add that much to the plot. She exists merely to accidentally cause drama and have other people be jealous of her for no reason. She's the baby of her friend group and cries the most out of all the characters. Crying isn't always a bad thing, but she just does it too often at unnecessary times. She also could've prevented a lot of problems if she had been honest with a couple of the characters and not withheld important information from them.
KANAME
I wanted to like him; I really did, but he's just too annoying. At the beginning, I thought that he'd be my favorite character; he seemed sensible and actually knew how to stop talking. Unfortunately, after a few episodes he began to act like the idiot that he was. He started kind of trying to force his feelings for someone onto her even though he knew well that she liked someone else, with the excuse that he felt lonely all his life because everyone always went for someone other than him. I'm sure that some people can relate to that, but I can't forgive him for the annoyance that he caused. He also takes part and is the cause of most of the really embarrassing scenes in the show. I genuinely wanted this character, along with some of the others, to die.
TSUMUGU
He is the best character in this anime by far; he actually knows how to shut his mouth. The other male characters end up hating him at different times because of jealousy, but other than that he doesn't cause drama. I will admit that he's oddly philosophical for a fourteen-year-old, but that's significantly better than the idiots that this story supplies. He's also extremely straightforward and honest to everyone. Some viewers dislike him because he seems cold and somewhat stoic, but when everyone else is so loud and constantly crying, a less emotional character is something I can really appreciate.
CHISAKI
She was, in my opinion, the best female main character in the show. That being said, her competition isn't great and neither is she. She's shown to be a self-conscious girl who envies Manaka because she is cuter than her (even though people give her more attention for her looks than they do for Manaka), but luckily that's not her main personality trait. Unfortunately, the thing that she does most in the series is lie to herself. It's something that a couple of the characters get on her case for throughout the show and it causes a fair amount of drama and inconveniences Tsumugu. She also has this weird obsession with hating change; I guess that some people can relate, but I just find it odd. In the end, though, she accepts change and it helps a lot of the other characters.
MIUNA
This character was really weird to me. She had feelings for a certain person with whom she knew she had no chance, and even if they got together, their relationship would be frowned upon and make their family situation really weird. I guess that her backstory is interesting enough, though it seems that half the characters have to have mothers who are dead or were disowned by them. Some people would probably be able to relate to her struggles at the beginning of the story, so I guess that that's good. She seemed like she would just be a side character, but she ended up being really important at the end. She's probably one of the characters who got the most character development throughout the series, so kudos to her. I don't hate this character, but I don't like her either.
SAYU
She is the female character whom I hate the most. The only good thing about her is that she's loyal. She was annoyingly loud and obnoxious and a bit of a crybaby as well. She's also a tsundere, so her attitude is way over the top. There was honestly no need for her existence and I don't see how someone could think people would like this character.

Side note: I don't hate tsunderes, they're just poorly written in this anime.

ENJOYMENT
I can't say that I enjoyed this show at all and I already summed up why in the other categories.

OVERALL
I gave this a 1/10 because of how unbearable it was to watch. I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone I care about, so please don't watch it. To everyone who made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read my review. I hope you found it helpful.