Children of the Sea (film review)

 


I'm not normally a big fan of anime films, I find they tend to be overlong for the story they're telling and lacking substance. However, Children of the Sea (which screened last night as part of Scotland Loves Anime) appealed to me because of its story about ocean ecology.

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her father works. As a teenager escaping from problems at school, she feels drawn back to the aquarium and Umi and Sora, brothers who were raised by dugongs.

The three teenagers feel a connection to strange phenomena that have been affecting the world's marine life, including a comet falling into the sea and ocean animals gathering in Japan. They meet marine biologists and get caught up in some sort of sea festival. There isn't any real storyline about saving the oceans, though there is a fair bit of talk about how the oceans are connected to outer space in a sort of Gaia type awareness.

So in some senses I would say that this film for me, is overlong for the story it's telling and lacking in real substance. On the other hand it is an incredibly beautiful film, the latter 20 minutes or so particularly which take us on a voyage through oceans and galaxies. Just sit back and enjoy the most beautiful animated images ever seen.

Children of the Sea screened as part of the Scotland Loves Anime festival at Edinburgh Filmhouse.