Review of A Lull in the Sea

Nagi no Asukara (NoA) or a Lull In the Sea (it's English title) is an interesting anime with lovely art and a wonderful score of music. I feel like folks who are a fan of high school shoujo or drama anime/manga/shows will probably enjoy this one (especially if y'all like tsunderes). That being said, I do have some critiques: 1. The main character: I'm sure there are a million other reviews that cite this critique as well, but the main character, Hikari, is incredibly annoying. He's stuck up, rude, unwilling to compromise, and overall, gives the viewer very little to root for in him. That beingsaid, he is a child and while irritating, his childishness is upfront and center in all of his negative qualities. There is a plot twist that changes things at about the half way mark of the story and past that twist, Hikari becomes much more digestible (in short, he is forced to mature), so there is a light at the end of the tunnel with this one, but the tunnel is long and at some points, viewers are crawling through it.

2. The pace: This may be a slightly invalid take given drama anime tend to be slow and, well, dramatic, but this anime can be very, very, very slow at times. The first half of the story centers on the dynamics of the 4 main characters from the sea (Hikari, Manaka, Chisaki, and Kaname) and a land-dweller who is adopted into their group (Tsumugu) as they navigate middle school together. Middle school is that exact tween time where hormones start to kick in and suddenly the opposite sex seems more interesting, so it makes sense that this group starts to form feelings and then proceeds to trip over said feelings toward one another. But regardless of how relatable that may be, there are definitely some cringe-worthy, needlessly dramatic problems in this soup of feelings and vibes that take up whole episodes (or god forbid, multiple episodes) to resolve. I wouldn't consider this a deal-breaker for watching this show, necessarily, but I do advise that viewers multitask (get something else to focus on while watching) or grab pillows to scream into, because there are parts where you will be frustrated. Even the second half of the story contains some of these moments, but there are markedly less given that the characters have somewhat matured.

3. The world-building: This one is going to go into the con and pro category of this review, because some of the world-building interesting and beautiful, while other parts can only be described as shoddy. An overarching conflict of the story is that between those who live in the sea (sea-dwellers) and those who live on land (land-dwellers). The story starts off with both parties in this conflict being angry with each other due to issues with fishing territories and consumption of the resources offered by both the land and the sea. Seems interesting, right? Well, unfortunately most of this remains unexplored even by the end of the story. I think a part of this is a conscious decision to focus attention on the drama of a very small group of people, but given that they exist in a world where these conflicts are a part of the daily lives of many of these characters, I expected a bit more. Additionally, the sea-dweller's home village is stylistically uninteresting and mimics the land-dwelling village more than I think it should have. They live under the sea. Why would they build a fishing village under the sea? There was so much room to creatively think about how the sea would function that is entirely ignored (for examples, the sea-dwellers still drink out of tea cups in the sea) and it would have created interesting storytelling (for example watching a sea-dweller on land letting go of a tea cup randomly and expecting it to stay there since being in the sea would allow that to happen) that would feel more realistic. Don't just tell me that sea-dwellers and land-dwellers are fundamentally different, show me!

I also have several reasons why I personally enjoyed this anime:

1. The plot twist: I'm going to have to try very hard to avoid spoilers here, but this is one of those plot twists that I don't think anyone saw coming. The story starts off very focused on a small group of children and zooms in on their petty conflicts so much so that I genuinely thought that managing this group of people was going to be the whole anime, but I was wrong. Through the plot twist, the anime is able to explore many of the themes that they quietly lay the groundwork for in the first half.

2. The characters (generally): I do have my complaints about how irritating some characters can be, especially in the first half, but after the half-way mark, I was surprised to see how many characters genuinely grew on me. Through sitting with the children in the first half of the story, viewers get a very good idea of who these people are. When plot points happen in the second half of the story, viewers are able to reference back to the first half and marvel over how much or how little they have changed. Chisaki, in particular, was one of my favorite characters by the second half, and I did not see that one coming at all.

3. The world-building: I told you this one was going to be a good and bad point. Despite some of the world-building being rather nonsensical, part of the world-building is amazing. For example, the sea-dweller village is headed by a man who is the a scale of their sea god personified. There are legends of how the sea god got to his seat of power as well as other fables, explained in a fashion similar to mythologies told around the world. For most of the story, it is unclear whether the sea god is real or was every real, and that echoes the prophets of modern religion in a way I did not expect it to. Additionally, through focusing on the dynamics of personal relationships, viewers are able to watch some of the broader land vs sea conflicts unfold on a smaller level. For example, Hikari's sister falls in love with and then marries a land-dweller which obviously involves some personal and larger drama (she is exiled from the sea). Later, when she has a child, there is the complicated matter of the child's heritage given that they are part sea and land dweller, but are being raised on land.

4. The art: This is a shoujo drama anime. The art is pretty - no complaints.

5. The theme: The theme of this anime is growth and change. Without giving too much away, I will say that the anime managed to communicate and explore this theme through a variety of different characters and perspectives in a way that felt fresh. Though much of the setting left something to be desired, I would say change is something very well integrated into the background of the story. From the change fostered by the creation of a fishing village right next to a sea-dweller community to the change of having to attend middle school on land despite the 4 sea dweller children being raised in the sea all their lives to the change of growing up and what that can mean to the people around you, this story points to highlights facets of change and growth in each of its characters in a way that is interesting.