Animation allows for us to go to some interesting places that we otherwise couldn’t…
In Children of the Sea we meet Ruka; when she was younger she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Ruka’s dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans’ fish.
The honest to goodness magic that comes out of movies from GKIDS is the unequivocal sense of wonder that we get while watching stories that are actually trying to make a statement rather than just be a fun story. That’s what Children of the Sea is in spades.
Director Ayumu Watanabe’s stunning adaptation of the prize-winning manga by Daisuke Igarashi is one of those films that needs to be seen on as big of a screen as humanly possible. With some sweeping vistas and stellar underwater sequences we get the feel of something from another world that still maintains a very grounded and real world message about the state of our oceans.
Sure the kids in it look a little weird, but it also makes them all exceptionally relatable as we learn why these kids are getting these calls from the ocean that only they know about.
Children of the Sea is the kind of film that is indicative of Japanese anime. It’s strong and beautiful storytelling with an honest message that audiences of all age can really grasp on to.
- Release Date: 2/16/2020
