Review of A Lull in the Sea

"A Lull in the Sea," or as would make more sense, "Pining Away: The Anime." I wish that I could say nicer things about this anime, because I somehow liked it despite how immensely flawed it was, but alas. Spoiler warning. 1.) The Little Mermaid (TV show) did a better job realizing a society living underwater than Nagi no Asukara did. I'm sure this can be attributed to simple laziness or lack of creativity, but the underwater society is basically no different than normal Japanese society. People would have no need for sidewalks and steps underwater, liquids wouldn't stay in bowls, and girls wearing skirts... wouldn'twork. No matter how pretty you make it, the world just makes no sense. It also feels really small, because even though they mention with a throwaway line that there are 14 other sea villages around Japan, this is the only one we see anything about. Also this village itself feels tiny, as we only see the 4 main characters from Shioshishio coming to the middle school on land, even though Miuna's vision/imagination show a bunch of other students attending that school.

Far more could've been done with this concept, but the idea was wasted.

2.) Emotional manipulation runs rampant in this anime.

I challenge you to find a single episode where characters don't cry. Characters crying should be used sparingly to punch the audience in the gut at particularly intense moments. It shouldn't be used every 10 minutes, as it just ends up making them look like actual babies (which makes sense when it comes to Manaka).

The opening and ending themes and sequences are much better than this anime deserves. I rarely skipped them, and as is the goal with most anime, they made me think the show was better than it was while I was watching it. It was only after I took time to think about the show after finishing it that I could separate my love of those themes from the quality of the writing.

3.) Characters are defined almost entirely by who they're attracted to.

Seriously, I've never seen so much dialog wasted that quintessentially amounted to characters pining for their love interest. So much of it can be summed up as characters dialoging or monologing about how strong their feelings for someone else are. They do this instead of using this time to develop characters themselves or giving justification for why they love their interest in the first place. Once you realize this, it gets old really fast. There is absolutely no need to emphasize that character X likes character Y so strongly, so repeatedly, yet that's what most of the screen time, character motivation, and plot "development" stem from. It's what I blame the character and plot stagnation on.

Manaka is obviously intended to be the mascot moeblob of the show. Like, she has gills that look like wings?, while nobody else does? Also she acts more like she's 7--not 14. Hikari is characterized by his ability to shout while getting angry or overreacting and not much else. Chisaki and Kaname are largely doormats who just occasionally say something insightful while generally not affecting events much. Tsumugu is so painfully unemotive for no reason I can't take him seriously as a person, which sucks because he had potential with his background with his parents.

Miuna is probably the best character in the show, but unfortunately, is also reduced to who her love interest is in the second half. I somehow found myself rooting for her; why, I don't know, because this anime refuses to let people get together and be happy.

4.) The characters' ages are a problem.

Most of the characters are 14, so treating the characters' feelings with such intense import is farcical. I'm not going to pretend middle schoolers can't feel strong feelings for each other, but this is silly. Also, they act like their feelings are final and they can't change who they love later in life. A bigger problem is that there are 9-year-olds who quickly develop what is treated as serious romantic interest in the middle school cast, which quickly goes into squick territory (at least until the time skip bandaids this). Nine-year-olds feel nothing more than puppy love at that level of maturity, so expecting me to take seriously their holding onto feelings for 5 years is ridiculous. It would've made far more sense if they had started feeling something after the middle school cast woke up, with them now being middle-schoolers themselves.

Also, after the 5 year time skip, Chisaki is 19 and Hikari is still 14, yet she's still attracted to him, and 14-year-old Kaname is still attracted to Chisaki, and all this drama is played completely straight. Thankfully, nothing comes of this, but it's still concerning that it isn't seriously discussed as an issue.

5.) Did I mention the time skip is a problem?

There is a 5-year time skip in the middle of the series. Time skips aren't inherently bad. This time skip had a lot of potential to explore characters' psychology, development, coping with changes in the world, etc. However, this show more or less glosses over those things quickly so it can go back to the characters pining for their love interests again.

In fact, it's kind of amazing how little actually changed in those 5 years. Despite going to college, Chisaki and Tsumugu are still bumming around this little fishing town for whatever reason and haven't actually moved on in life. Why? Allegedly the fish people (which are called humans for some reason?) were going to be asleep for 50-100 years, but I guess everyone who mattered is still bumming around this nothing of a town.

Nagi no Asukara's characters emphasize how they haven't changed over these 5 years, but pointing that out doesn't solve the problem. Five years is a long time for a person to not change at all. The fish people who hibernated not changing makes sense, but not people who are conscious and go through many developmental changes aging from 14 to 19 years old.

6.) Almost nothing has changed by the end of the show.

Which is ironic after all the events in the world, but when you get to the end and really think about what the characters wanted and compare it to what they got, the truth jumps out at you: Almost nothing was resolved. The final episode is presented in a way that makes you think something happened, but it didn't. I just felt empty and unfulfilled, which is inexcusable considering how much time was wasted in the last half. Two couples were established, but we never see what happens after they're paired, since they're paired right at the end of the show. When you consider the eventual love polyhedron, this is kind of sad.

7.) This kind of writing didn't deserve amazing production values.

Nagi no Asukara is beautiful, but you don't need me to tell you that. I don't know of many other animation studios that could make water, fish, snow, and sunlight look so pretty. I was just hoping this would be the magnum opus for P.A. Works, where their beautiful animation matched with great writing, but this sadly wasn't to be.

The show was just interesting enough for me to finish it, but I didn't get any satisfaction from doing so. The amount of time wasted by ineffective pining makes this more of a frustrating slog than it should have ever been.

Would I recommend this anime? If you're just looking for something pretty to look at, sure. If you hate will they/won't they stories, though, no. It's laden with melodrama. It wastes a ton of time. And it's not fulfilling. The OP and ED are the best part of the anime.