Review of A Lull in the Sea

People have told me that Nagi no Asukara is P.A Works' one of -- if not -- their best anime that they have ever produced. Since I'm not the kind of person who jumps in the hype ship right away and that the cover totally put me off because I thought this was going to be some mermaid crap, I ignored this show for a while until I finally decided to watch the series. I can totally say that this is one of P.A Works' best anime ever. [Story]: (8.5/10) When I first looked at the cover and read the synopsis, I thought this series wasgoing to flop from the start. I mean, I thought this was going to be a high-school romantic drama cliche expect they live underwater. Now that I have finished the series, what I got was different from what I expected. I expected mermaids and shit and what I got was a show that explores themes like racism and a beautiful (but not the greatest) romantic drama that made me shed tears a few times.

To some people, the early first half of the series was extremely boring and honestly, I don't blame them. I understand that they're setting up the world, the characters and a lot of expositions so we can understand why there are people in the surface and in the sea. They surprisingly did a good job explaining the history behind the 2 separated human race. That doesn't make the early first half of the series less boring so that's what you gotta watch out if you're planning to watch this series.

You know how in real life, even though we're all humans, we still hate each other for absurd reasons such as different cultures, different skin colours, and etc? Nagi no Asukara did not ignore that part of our reality. Even though both races in the show are humans, they're still different and are divided because one can breath underwater and one cannot. As such, the underwater people are always frowned upon by the surface people since they think they are a superior race. Just like how the white people, back in the day, thought they were more of a superior race than black people.
Anyways, the show did a great job exploring the strained relationship between these 2 similar yet different human races. For example, when the main characters' underwater school shutdown, they transferred into a school that's in a surface. The students in that school would constantly make fun of/bully the main characters just because they're a bit different than them.

The show isn't afraid to make changes...huge changes to advance the plot and we clearly see this at the second half when a show did a time skip because of what the characters did in the first half. The world around them changes significantly and it looked like they were hit with an apocalypse. Honestly, I have a love and hate relationship with the second half of the series. I love the second half because of how much the characters are explored and developed. Literally every single main characters in the second half was developed to a certain extent and no one, and I mean no one was left behind in terms of character development. I also have a hate.......hate may be a strong word so I'll use; I disliked the second half's love triangles.

If I were asked to summarize Nagi no Asukara's romance in one sentence then I would say something like this:
"Sometimes we love the person who ignores us and we ignore the person who loves us".
I have never seen so much love triangles in an anime before..The maximum amount of love triangles that I have seen is about 2 and that's it. In Nagi no Asukara, most of the main characters are in love with someone and there's like over 5 love triangles..Gah, I don't even know because there's a lot and when I try counting, it confuses the hell out of me. The love triangle isn't as simple as other romantic shows out there like Toradora. Just by looking at one of the love triangle maps for this show, you'll see it's spread out like a goddamn spiderweb and don't even bother trying to trace the line because it will cause you major headaches. I'm actually not a fan of love triangles so I can only handle about 1 or 2 and that's why I was pissed off when they introduced countless love triangles in the second half. There is a reason why I didn't hate it though (Note: There's a difference between me hating something and disliking something). It's because all love triangles eventually got solved at the end, meaning someone will be with somebody. Be it being outright shown to the viewers or are just implied/left to the viewer's speculation.

Another small issue that I have with the show is because of the amount of love triangles in the series, there are melodramatic scenes here that are way too unbearable for me to watch. Unbearable in a sense that I would sometimes skip it because it's way too dramatic and sometimes unnecessary because they could have done it the other way instead of all the shouting and running away. There's only so much drama that I can handle. Nonetheless, they still did a pretty good job with most of the dramatic scenes which is one of the main strengths of the show.
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[Art/Animation]: (10/10)
One of the many things I've heard about this show is its amazing and boner-approved "Scenery Porn". I agree with them..The art looks gorgeous as f*ck, the animation is smooth and it's consistent all the time and the character designs are your usual P.A Works "Character Design style". The surface looks almost realistic and the underwater city and the water itself is simply amazing. The studio is really living up to their name. "Progressive" Animation Works. Progressive....sound's about right.
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[Sound]: (9.5/10)
I don't really have much to say about the show's soundtrack since none stood out for me..Though, they were all pretty decent and they weren't that bad. Especially the OSTs that plays during the dramatic/emotional scenes. Now the OP and ED theme song(s).

The OP theme songs are "lull ~Soshite Bokura wa~" by Ray and "ebb and flow" by Ray . The ED theme songs are "Aqua Terrarium" by Nagi Yanagi and "Mitsuba no Musubime" by Nagi Yanagi. I've heard Ray's songs before and after hearing both OP's, I have now come to the conclusion that most of her songs sounds almost the same but I honestly don't care. The 1st OP is pretty relaxing and captures the atmosphere the 1st half has and the 2nd OP fits with the changes that occurred in Nagi no Asukara's world. It's like you know something sad or dramatic is going to happen. I could care less about the ED theme songs because both are just plain average to me and didn't really catch my attention.
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[Characters]: (9/10)
Just by watching the first half of the series, I can guarantee you that there is a 100% chance, not 99%....100% chance that you will hate the main protagonist of the series whose name is Hikari Sakishima. Honestly, I almost dropped the show because of this little f*cker who has a serious anger management issues and to make things worse, screaming at the girls for absurd reasons. The latter was so uncomfortable to watch because it was like watching a father abusing his wife except Hikky is just shouting and not using his fists at the girls. His over protectiveness over Manaka is also super annoying and this relates to Hikky shouting at the girls which in this case is Manaka. Puberty was hitting him like a bitch in the first half. In the second half, he did turn out to be one of the most likable main characters in the series. In the second half, his character matured, his personality got better and he turned into a guy who will sacrifice (not literally) himself to save the people he truly cares about. He still have some few anger management issues that he needs to deal with but at the end, he turned out to be a great and likable character.

One of the major things I love about Nagi no Asukara is its character relationships. It's evident how much they explored the character relationships in the first half and even more so when a time skip occurred and explored more of the character's relationships. For example, in the first half, they explored Chisaki and Kaname's relationship and in the second half, they explored Chisaki and Tsumugu's relationship. Since the show had 26 episodes and a slow pacing, the show had abundance amount of time to do all the exploring they need.
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[Enjoyment]: (8.5/10)
In the end, I still enjoyed this series even though some of the elements in the first half pissed me off that almost caused me to drop this show. The visuals are really amazing, the story is great and I ended up liking most of the main characters in the second half.
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[VERDICT]
Nagi no Asukara is a visually appealing series that does a good job at both romance and drama even if both aspects have something in it that I disliked. It also does a great job at building and exploring the characters and the relationships between them. The show might not be as sad as AnoHana or Your Lie in April or it might not be as romantically engaging as other romantic shows out there but nonetheless, it's still an anime worth watching if you're interested in a romantic drama series.

[OVERALL]: (8.5/10)

Pros:
+One of P.A Works' best anime that they have ever made
+Does a great job handling subjects like racism
+The show isn't afraid to make huge changes to advance the plot and develop the characters
+One of the best visuals and animation I have ever seen
+Great OP theme songs
+Character development for every single main characters in the series

Cons:
-Too much love triangles
-Some melodramatic scenes
-Hikky is a dislikable main character in the first half