Overview
“Children of the Sea” is a 2019 Japanese anime film based on Daisuke Igarashi’s manga of the same name (serialized in “Monthly Ikki” in 2006-2011).
It is a fantasy adventure based on a hypothesis that life comes from the universe (Panspermia hypothesis).
Directed by Ayumu Watanabe. Animation produced by Studio 4°C. 111 minutes.
Plot Outline
During her summer vacation, a fourteen-year-old girl living in a seaport town, Ruka Azumi meets strange brothers named Umi and Sora (meaning “Sea” and “Sky” in Japanese), who were raised by dugongs. Umi and Sora hold the key to a “ritual” that will rebirth the primordial life at the bottom of the ocean.
One night after comets fell into the sea near Japan, Ruka is chosen as one of to the participants in the “ritual”, and she witnesses a magnificent miracle together with numerous sea creatures.
Commentary
“Children of the Sea” deals with awe of nature and mystery of beginning of life as themes.
Though its settings and story are mystical and hard to understand, its images, which were made by combining elaborate 3DCGs with delicate hand-drawn animation close to the style of the original manga, are innovative and worth seeing. The expression of water, such as rain and wave, is especially wonderful.
The scene of the story is modeled on Enoshima, Kanagawa Prefecture.
