Review of A Lull in the Sea

STORY - 7 ART - 9 SOUND - 9 CHARACTER - 8 ENJOYMENT - 8 Let's stand on a beach and look towards the horizon. We see the sea, with waves that are peaceful at one point but raging at another. The energy contained within the sea is a perfect representation of the feelings that Nagi no Asukara delivered. An oceanic, fantasy setting dividing the land and sea is the place where the characters were introduced at. It's quite a fascinating concept as most anime that I'm aware of at this point took place on land. We follow a group of childhood friends as they attended a school on the surface,and this commenced the start of the story focusing on various aspects. Many of the plot revolved around the unsteady relationship between the people of the sea and land, as well as the history between those two environments. I'd say the fantasy aspect wasn't handled as well as it can be because there were some confusing explanations. One thing that Nagi no Asukara managed to do was to effectively stir up emotions within me from the characters' feelings. It can be a bit melodramatic at times, but I can feel their emotions as they experienced family drama or complex love relationships. Just as I said in the introduction, the feelings change just like the waves from the sea. You can definitely feel as the atmosphere transitioned from joyful to something more uneasy. While the characters can be annoying at first, they developed really well towards the end which is nice to see after everything they've gone through. Everyone had a purpose in the story and no one felt left out.

Now, I find it really pleasant to see that the art was just as breathtaking as the sea itself. I'm not much of a sea person, but from the few times I've gone to the beach, I know how beautiful the sea can be. Definitely can say that this portrayal was from the astounding efforts that P.A Works did to give a memorable visual for the anime. From the undersea village where marine creatures swims by to the modern town atop the surface, the sceneries were attractive to look at. I really loved the cute character designs too which made me feel more attached to them. As for the voice-acting, the annoying first glance from the characters that I've mentioned partially comes down to the way they talked but I warmed up pretty quickly, especially during emotional scenes and after they've matured. There were many OSTs that contained happiness or sadness but what they all have in common is how soothing they all sound to my ears and how much they hit me right in the feels. All these gave more impact to the emotions, making a lot of scenes more meaningful to me.

To conclude, there were some issues that Nagi no Asukara had but this anime is still as wonderful as the sea. The anime encaptured many powerful feelings as they were awash by the waves, with an enjoyable cast of characters and a high quality in audiovisuals.