Review of A Lull in the Sea

I came into NagiAsu expecting an emotional story mostly focusing on the bad relations the sea-people and the land-people had, how the main four experienced prejudice going to a school on the surface, and probably a forbidden love or two. However, to my surprise, the show dropped the racism angle almost entirely around halfway through the first cour, and the line between the sea-people and land-people gets very blurred once the timeskip happens. Instead, most of the story is focused on... love triangles. You could call NagiAsu a harem anime by technicality since Hikari has three girls in love with him, though rest assured it'snot one in spirit. But even though NagiAsu is basically a romance anime, it chickens out at the end, only implying that certain couples maybe got together. There's not a kiss to be seen, unless you count CPR. Other than the love stuff, the rest is mainly humanity trying to overcome the sea-god's bull, as the faceless jerk changes the weather, kidnaps young girls, and threatens to start a new ice age.
While I found the overarching story disappointing, NagiAsu really nails the finer details. Obviously being a P.A. Works original the animation is quite good, though for the studio it's nothing exceptional. That said the aesthetics of the town in the sea are beautiful. The OST is fantastic. Where it really shines, though, is in its writing, as nearly every one of the main characters is written to feel like a real person, striking a perfect balance between having a consistent personality and changing over the course of the story. Everyone is quite likeable as well; even Hikari, who starts out as quite frankly a dick, quickly develops in a satisfying way (He remains kind of a stubborn idiot though, just not in a bad way). My favorites were Miuna and Chisaki. The setting only consists of a small number of locations, meaning you get very familiar with the world, which combined with the well-written characters makes for a uniquely immersive story.
One thing I really liked about the show was how it explored how some of the sea-people had to adjust to waking up after what was essentially a five-year cryo-sleep, and how that plays into the relationship dynamics. Miuna and Sayu, who were little girls in the first cour, become the same age as the teenagers who went into hibernation, and fall in love with Hikari and Kaname respectively. Meanwhile Chisaki, who was in love with Hikari and was loved by Kaname, becomes an (absolutely adorable) adult ahead of them, living with Tsumugu the whole 5 years since her house become inaccessible. I also want to mention that while the show was still on the racism thing, it did a great job with Akari as she debated leaving the sea permanently to marry Itaru, the widowed father to Miuna, all well before the timeskip.
Ultimately, NagiAsu is a fundamentally flawed but overall very well-made and enjoyable anime, serving as a great example of the strengths of anime as a medium.