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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 10 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2787#1552] |
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Nagi no Asakura is focused around a group of four middle schoolers who live in a village under the sea and go to the surface for schooling, even with some hostilities between humans and sea dwellers for the former's abandoning of the seas to live on land. The series starts off focused on exploring the tensions between the sea dwellers and humans, with the four children learning to adjust to life on land and accept being among both races. This is mainly shown with Hikari who at first hates humans until his increased understanding of the close connections between his kind and humanity lead him to accept bonds with humans, even trying to prevent them from being affected by an old prophecy from his village's god that would lead to humanity's extinction. The show does start off a bit slow as it's mostly focused on the everyday activity of Hikari and his friends interacting with humans at their school, while hints are dropped of lingering hostilities between both races. It does have some developments with characters like Manaka becoming less dependent on others and Hikari showing less prejudice towards humans, though nothing too significant occurs. The plot does pick up in the second quarter of the series when the prophecy concerning the sea god begins to manifest itself onto the humans and affect the sea dwellers. This leads to events building up as Hikari and his friends try to help the human residents of the seaside village in trying to halt the oncoming calamity, which they do at a great cost to one among the group. A timeskip occurs which focuses on the four children learning to come of age as they come to terms with their feelings for one another and any lingering doubts they had from the events that came from the sea god. The character developments that take place throughout Nagi no Asakura's felt natural for me and I could connect with the issues faced by the characters as they try accepting any changes they experience and overcoming any doubts they are facing. However, these developments do come at the cost of the title's plot quality. The events of the timeskip lead the focus on the tensions between humans and sea-dwellers to get shafted and later developments involving the sea god up to the show's finale were not as engaging as the events in the second half due to the lack of huge risk affecting both parties compared to the first half's events and it seemed a bit too convenient in its resolution with the fates of humans and sea-dwellers. As to be expected from a PA Works title, the visual presentation of Nagi no Asakura is high quality with plenty of vivid color and detail shown off in the title's gorgeous scenery shots with character designs getting similar treatment. While not the prominent element of the series, the show's animation is still quite fluid in showing off the movements of characters as they walk or swim, with animated highlights coming off both the events that involve the sea god spurring up disastrous events like whirlpools and huge waves to those within the sea. Issues aside with its plotting and slow start, Nagi no Asakura is still a solid series that offers up a nice amount of character drama faced by its young cast coming to grips with growing up and the first half events with the sea god offer up some genuine suspense over what would happen with both humans and sea-dwellers. It's not perfect, but it is still worth looking into if you are a fan of PA Works' titles. Last updated Thursday, April 03 2014. Created Thursday, April 03 2014. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Devil Doll
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[series:2787#752] | ||||||
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Again, two elements combined that I don't see fitting together: The light-hearted romantic school comedy and the threat of discrimination (and perhaps even punishment) for leaving the water. Too simplistic for a drama, too much forced issues for a comedy.
Last updated Sunday, October 13 2013. Created Sunday, October 13 2013. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2787#628] | ||||||
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(Half of one episode watched): "Long ago, humanity lived in the sea". No, mankind living in the sea is just a gimmick for a mediocre show which has little else to offer to the viewer. And since water has somehow become as light and as thin as air, life under the sea is hardly any different than life on land anyway. This was a show which took a matter of seconds to show how unimaginative and unentertaining it would actually be. I struggled through to the station break just to be certain that my initial impression was correct, but nothing got any better; vapid cardboard characters who I can't care about stand up against prejudice against sea people which I don't care about either. Other than the one-time curiosity of fish seemingly floating in the air, there is nothing worth my time here. If there were any jokes, I did not laugh or even smile. When a show strikes you right from the start as little more than a waste of valuable time, you are probably correct. Last updated Sunday, October 06 2013. Created Sunday, October 06 2013. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Official Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.nagiasu.jp/ |
