Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - WTF is Going On in Children of the Sea?
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#Synaesthesia
Posts: 159 |
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this movie is, without hyperbole, the best animated film I've ever seen. I really can't communicate it but the film's message just strikes a chord in me that no other film ever has. The animation is absolutely stunning, the characters are so human and the music makes me weep. I'm so grateful to Igarashi and how well Watanabe was able to bring it to life.
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1465 |
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I don't know how Studio 4ºC keeps making these incredibly lavish, uncommercial movies without going bankrupt, but I'm sure glad they're still doing their thing. I'd say this one is up there with Mind Game as one of their best works.
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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Thank you, guys! I've been waiting for someone to write about this movie who actually paid attention to it. I got to see it in a top-class theater, and I'm so, so sorry to most of the rest of the universe. Because you are connected to me by the unknowableness of Everything, I can only do my best to think my indescribable experience right into your brains.
Yes, this movie is simply perfect. There has never been a better statement of the truth that we can't "understand" the universe because we're part of it, so it's impossible to achieve an overview of everything. (Not that we shouldn't try, of course, since the striving is the reward.) Of course it's also one of the most impressive technical accomplishments ever put to the screen.
Unfortunately they do it mostly by abusing their staff... but no more egregiously than nearly every other animation studio in Japan (see second and third paragraph on), and their product is so much better, so I guess it really is a cosmic mystery. |
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Zeparu
Posts: 11 |
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Hell yes, thanks or writing this! I was fortunate enough to catch the movie twice in cinema screenings before that virus thing hit, once in Italy and once in Germany, and yes, it is an absolute blast on a big screen. Everything from sound to image immerses you in a way I have rarely experienced in a movie.
I read so much reviews on Children of the Sea from people who didn't connect with the film and it is so refreshing to hear from people who didn't get turned away by not having everything explained to them from beginning to end. When did mystery as a genre stop being about mysterious things? It's a big aspect in the manga that the cosmic happening in the third act is something that cannot be explained in words. The manga spends a lot of time preparing this and even more executing it. I think in the final volume there's a sequence of around 70 pages where not a single word is uttered. It all comes together a little more balanced in the manga as it has more time to spread out the story, but the adaptation catches to core of the story pretty well and is also visually very faithful. Anyway, if you are intrigued by the anime, I really encourage you to read the manga. It's not too long (5 volumes). It's not like it explains things more clearly than the anime. More story and content here means even more mysterious things to wonder about. There's a lot more mythology around the sea children (Umi and Sora aren't the only ones) and all the politics around the researchers and their different approches is a lot more fleshed out. My poor boy Anglade's backstory is something I really missed in the anime, but then again at least he doesn't suffer the same cruel fate as in the manga. Sometimes it's good to leave things out I guess. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1858 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I wonder when this will be available on Netflix in Australia.
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