We bid the sea kiddos bon voyage.
What They Say:
Final Episode: “The Color of the Sea. The Color of the Earth. The Color of the Wind. The Color of Your Heart. Your Color.”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Manaka gets her turn to narrate events, as rapid fire clips of past episodes file past. We’ve reached the final episode of Nagi no Asukara. It’s time to finally close out this fairy tale of jilted sea gods and young lovers.
As they say, love conquers all. Even though in the case of this series it was more often the cause of massive amounts of angst rather than warm fuzzy thoughts.
Miuna and Manaka were both exposed to the whole truth of the sea god’s past with the ofunehiki. The girl who was tossed into the sea but who never forgot her original love was sad, but she also loved her life underwater. The sea god thought he was protecting her broken heart when he took away his love’s ability to love. In a way, Miuna and Manaka were just caught up in the memories of a god with a broken heart. The sea god didn’t realize that the girl he loved did love him as well, and didn’t want to let go of those feelings. Be trying to save her her ended up hurting her.
Miuna realizes how foolish the whole situation was, and Manaka seems to understand as well. Hikari finally realizes how Miuna thought of him, manages to rip away the covering holding Miuna in, and all of their emotions flooding together finally cause the lull in the sea to snap. It seems the broken sea god finally realized his mistake. The sleeping residents of the undersea town, or at least a good number of them, finally awaken.
Hikari’s dad is the first to arrive on scene, and we learn that Hikari’s words reached him while he was asleep. He tells his son that the choice to awaken was a conscious decision, but I kind of doubt that. It’s probably just dad trying to assert some authority over the situation. What is clear is that with the discovery of descendants of sea dwellers being able to gain ena, the threat to the dwindling population seems to have ended. There’s no real reason for the rift between sea and land to exist anymore.
The people of the surface are understandably concerned until the undersea residents arrive and a reunion occurs. I have to admit I teared up when Chisaki saw her mom and dad for the first time in over five years. Akari as well. The rest of the reunions were also cute, but watching Miuna and Manaka blubbering as they embraced was the most amusing.
The final lesson learned? It’s okay to change and it’s okay to not change. Fate is not predetermined, so basically go with the flow and do your best. A simple lesson, but a hard learned one for this cast.
Closure is something that many shows fail spectacularly at. The early rolling for the credits of NagiAsu meant that they could linger on the daily lives of the cast, post crisis, free from the constraints of the normal closing length. There are a few surprises in those final moments, including one with everyone’s favorite littlest sea kiddo. We get to say goodbye to everyone and watch them go about a normal school day morning. The last lines from Uroku hint at a bright future for their world, and the last lines spoken by Hikari and Manaka show that the sea kiddos should have a bright future ahead of them as well.
In Conclusion:
Nagi no Asukara made a mixed first impression. It was a beautiful but often frustrating show during it’s first half. Hikari was not a likable protagonist when we first met him, and Manaka was cute and not much else. However, by the time the more serious second half of the series rolled around all of the characters had found their footing, growing substantially. They became more interesting and well rounded, and when tensions started mounting I started to care about them and their uncertain future.
While the characters became interesting over time, the setting was fascinating from the get go. Magic and science mixed together, with even the smallest background detail meticulously visualized to create some of the best world building I’ve seen. It’s doubly impressive when you consider it’s for a series which spent most of it’s time focusing on teenage romance. We never do find discover all of the inner workings of the magic of their world, which is for the best. In the end it doesn’t matter what makes magic flame burn underwater, no amount of mumbo-jumbo was going to suffice. Just embrace the magic and move on because…
This is simply one of the loveliest looking anime from the last several years. From every establishing shot to wide eyed close up, the screen glowed with color and life. Even the normally regrettable CGI cars that occasionally popped up could be forgiven against the backdrop of the sleepy seaside (and undersea!) towns. Even if the kids themselves were ridiculously cherubic for the ages they were supposed to be, they were animated with lively expressive faces to go along with the big watery eyes. By the end of the last episode I was sad to say goodbye to the world of this show.
I found the ending very satisfying after all of the broken hearts, tears, and turmoil. There’s a little heartbreak still to be found, but everyone has grown up a little, and the sun shines on the sea once again. I can’t wait until the show is released on video, hopefully blu-ray, so I can revisit the sea in all it’s glory.
Episode Grade: A
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.1, via Safari 7.0.1, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
