Review of A Lull in the Sea

This is one of the rare anime out there which exudes poetic brilliance. It is very disheartening to see when people talk about anime, they think mostly action/shounen. I think the slice of life genre is much more bountiful and enjoyable than those popular shounen anime that people watch. And this anime reiterated that view. While I rate an anime the order of rating is Animation, Music, Story, Characters, Enjoyment. There is a reason behind that order. It is in this order that an anime catches my attention. And it is in the reverse order that an anime "continues" to catch my attention. Nagi no Asakuracaught my attention due to its out of the world visuals. They are nothing like I had seen before in any "completed" anime. I realized it had huge similarities to Glasslip, a currently airing show and I was right. They are from the same studio. However contrary to Glasslip, this anime is not slow and the fantasy elements are interwoven with the story beautifully. The opening music is beautiful, the in-anime music captivating, both of them caught my attention while watching the first episode. But by the end of the 1st episode the animation and music took a back seat in my mind, it was the story and lovely characters that stole the show, as it should be. This is a story where "fantasy meets reality" was portrayed at its best. Clannad after story was a better as a story but the fantasy part was not portrayed very clearly and that led to many complaints. However this story does not pretend to an ordinary slice of life. It starts off underwater with clear indications it is more of a fantasy story. However there are subtle elements of real life that make it rise above a children's fairy tale. Hints of class divide, the changing environment of earth due to human activities, the fundamental difference between childhood and adulthood and coping with the everchanging surroundings are magnificently and subtly included in the fantastic plot. The plot features a time leap as well and the social difficulties arising from it is shown in a very beautiful way. All said and done, its the characters that stole the show. They may be slightly stereotyped but that does not make them less lovable. The complexities of adolescence of kids are included in the character traits of each character and you feel you have seen them before somewhere in real life. However the greatest feature of this anime is the climax which occurs at the very last episode. You go through all the emotions of joy, sorrow,hopelessness, optimistic, despair and end up with happiness. When bad things happen you seem to be always hoping against hope that in the end it will be alright. However at the very end of the 2nd last episode I had honestly almost given up, but then the ending tied everything so beautifully that I was amazed. It was the most heartwarming ending I have seen in any anime, ever. People complain that status quo was reverted but for me the ending showed how people moved on with their lives in spite of all the difficulties.
Verdict- My longest review should tell you by now how influenced I was with this one. It is the best Slice of Life I have seen in the last few months after Usagi drop. Everybody will thoroughly enjoy this one, thats a gurantee.
Rating? Well lets see, I am a bit overwhelmed but still.. Animation-11/10, Music-9, Story-9, Characters-9, Enjoyment-10 (47/50) which puts it in my top 20.