A VERY Late BUT Bittersweet Anime Review: Nagi no Asukara

Finally, I can review this anime!!! Yes...I'm supposed to do it a LONG while ago and DID mention it a LONG TIME AGO. I just finished watching it in early February 2017. The anime, Nagi no Asukara, the anime that I watched halfway but continue later and start watching it from the second arc onwards. I'm NOT supposed to do that...really. I'm NOT gonna do this again. By this, I mean watching the anime in a non-continuous manner. After all, it was tough to start watching this anime again after doing this crap, which is watching anime in a non-continuous manner.

Nagi no Asukara...this anime...

OK, let's move on from my grandmother background story. Anyway, this is gonna be quite a ride. There is drama in EVERY episode. BELIEVE ME, because I'm no..t...never mind, let's move on, shall we? Oh yeah, BTW, I had mentioned it before. Sorry, let's get started.



WARNING:-
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't watched it and plan to watch it without anyone being the spoiler, please DON'T CONTINUE READING!!!



P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You have been warned.

Nagi no Asukara's Promo Poster

Nagi no Asukara (凪のあすから, lit. From The Calm Tomorrow), or in English (which I don't use and I DON'T like to use), Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea is an original animation by P.A Works. Apparently, the manga starts before the anime does. Well, the manga started months earlier, possibly to promote the anime series. Never mind about the details. Let's move on.

Manaka...

Anyway, the story centres on FOUR middle school students (who are also childhood friends and were born under the sea): Manaka Mukaido, Hikari Sakishima, Chisaki Hiradaira and Kaname Isaki. You will see that Manaka is the character that always been looked after by all of her friends. This story is also soon centred around a guy named Tsumugu Kihara (another middle school student), their new friend from the surface, who happened to caught Manaka in the net TWICE. Yeah, TWICE. Imagine that...OK, let us move on, shall we?

The four friends...

When you start watching this anime, you will realise that this story has an element of supernatural power and has a background story on why there are humans living on the ocean floor and on dry land. Well, the background story goes like this:-

"Since long ago, human civilization had lived on the ocean floor. However, there were many humans who wanted to live on the surface and moved to land, creating a fundamental separation between the two. The Ofunehiki Festival is done as to please the Sea God after the human civilization on land had suffered when they first established and had prayed to the Sea God for help."

Well, actually there is a little more backstory to this anime BUT I will leave for you to explore. OK, this story actually starts off with the FOUR childhood friends (Manaka Mukaido, Hikari Sakishima, Chisaki Hiradaira and Kaname Isaki) attending Mihama Middle School, which is a school on the surface due to the fact that the middle school in sea village Shioshishio (which is on the ocean floor and where the FOUR friends lives) closes down and merges with Mihama Middle School. Well, initially, there is a lot of difficulties to befriend the people on the land and adjust to a new environment. Plus, the whole lot of drama involving Tsumugu and Manaka after Manaka was caught by Tsumugu in the net and Tsumugu saving Manaka's life, complicates the matter and drives the drama.

Look who is in Tsumugu's net?

Well, as a drama story, there will A LOT of crying and times of emotional roller coaster ride. SO MUCH crying. Really, a lot of crying. Hard not to cry at a certain point of time in the anime. Really so hard...very INTENSE DRAMA portrayed in this anime. It feels like the author is saying: "You are crying! You also are crying! Everybody is crying!!!!". Just joking.

Miuna crying in Hikari's arms...

Probably the weirdest one...Akari crying in Miuna's arms

Manaka crying...

Chisaki confesses to Hikari in tears...before the time skip.

Hikari express his discomfort after the 5-year time skip

Sayu confessing to Kaname in tears...

Kaname...crying

Miuna is gonna cry again...

Miuna left crying and heartbroken...

Hikari crying again...

The drama in the story is FURTHER compounded by the FIVE main characters (Manaka Mukaido, Hikari Sakishima, Chisaki Hiradaira, Kaname Isaki and Tsumugu Kihara) dealing with their own newfound feelings that have just started appearing with the end of their childhood. Love Triangle Time! Here is the list of pictures here.

The relationship as per episode 6

The relationship chart for the major characters after the 5 year time skip.

The same type of chart as the previous one,  WITH...a side character added in

There is EVEN a drama during BOTH of the Ofunehiki Festivals. One is before the time skip (that when Hikari, Manaka and Kaname ALL disappeared in the sea and were hibernating) and after the time skip (5 years after the prior incident).

The Ofunehiki 5 years ago...

Witnessing the 2nd Ofunehiki ended in disaster again...after 5 years

During the first Ofunehiki, Hikari, Kaname and Manaka are lost in the sea and are hibernating BUT not Chisaki. After 5 years, the stopped time for the four friends (Manaka, Hikari, Kaname and Chisaki), PLUS Tsumugu, Miuna and Sayu started again and resurface the hidden feeling for each other once again, as Hikari and Kaname woke up from their hibernation. This intensifies the love drama in this anime, which is already quite intense before the 5-year time skip. BUT, the love drama further intensifies when Manaka is found to be NOT exactly her after Hikari and Kaname found her, drag her out of the sea and after a week dragging her out of the sea, successfully woke her in an awkward fashion.

Revelation on Manaka...by Uroko

Manaka's eyes...What happened to you?!

Well, of course, in the end, EVERY character's feelings are being sorted out nicely. BUT, they are two characters' feelings that are NOT exactly sorted out nicely, raising the debate whether that they have EVEN resolved theirs. I say, "NO, it is RESOLVED but NOT confirmed to us with their words. They knew their feeling for each other after ALL of the drama, even though one of them never actually confessed. Well, we are just NOT being confirmed of their future relationship with each other. That's all." Well, this anime...is quite overwhelming, right?

Manaka and Tsumugu on good terms...

Hikari calling Manaka to go...NOW. Well, Kaname...waiting for Manaka

Sayu...blushing...trying to impress someone?

Looks like someone hasn't given up...

Miuna looking towards the future...

Tsumugu and Chisaki...

OK, let's stop here. So much drama. It is a little bit too much even for me. To be honest, it is a REALLY good anime BUT the only thing that it has A HUGE LOAD of drama. It could be hard for you to handle. EVEN for me, it was really tough. If you want to take it face on, I would say, "GO!" BTW, let's move on to some of the anime screenshots and the promo video of this anime.

Their unknown future awaits...

Screenshots

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Manaka with the fish of curse

Manaka helping Hikari...

Tomoebi...

Miuna when she is much younger. Cute, right?

The grown-up, Sayu and Miuna after the 5-year time skip

Miuna!!! NO!!!!

Akari...that little brat

Promo Video (PV)

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Well, I would like to say sorry for the lack of post this month (February 2017), just needed a little rest after stress myself out on my juggling between internship and blog posting. So, here is a really long post on Nagi no Asukara. BTW, I would like to give a rating for this anime but THAT is for next time. OK, that is all I can write in this post. May God bless you and I hope that you'll come to visit this blog again. Bye.