Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Kaina of the Great Snow Sea
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MFrontier
Posts: 14182 |
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A top tier cast, good world building, solid CG, a cute boy-meets girl, and being already a fan of the authors work on Sidonia...I'm really looking forward to watching more!
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1480 |
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I’m intrigued by the world, and have no trouble with the animation. I’m looking forward to what happens next.
When that neighboring tree fell, I wonder what happened to the canopy — did it rip a giant hole? Did the canopy tug on the neighboring trees? The “snow” appears to be foam-like, floating on a transparent medium (presumably water, but maybe something else. The scene with the rainbow was amusing, if a bit juvenile. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2687 |
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This show has got my Inner Physicist jumping! First, this can't be Earth because even if the flora and fauna weren't so different, trees that high (10km?) could not function. Gravity would have to be a fraction of Earth's to enable but the atmosphere would have to be much deeper to be breathable unless the "canopy" traps the air to keep it from escaping and also keep the surface from freezing solid. The snow sea is a curiosity though as it shouldn't be only water.
Also, the canopy seems thin, possibly "stretchy" and the trees are solidly anchored to it at intervals, so a tree falling would likely rip a hole only because of the local stress, the whole structure dissipating the stress over the other anchor points... Also, also, why didn't the canopy dwellers have parachutes?? Would have made the trip down a lot easier and lower gravity would have made that almost completely safe....Can't see how this planet is completely plausible but still a fun show! |
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 253 Location: Philippines |
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It's times like this that I am glad I'm not completely allergic to CG and cookie cutter animation in general, or I would have passed up an otherwise interesting premise. This actually got in my radar initially because I'm a fan of the artist of the OP (Yorushika), but the Nausicaa-ish atmosphere and the breathtaking landscapes, which work very well with CG, have me sold. Glad to see 3 eps in and it still has my attention, unlike a few of the other premieres.
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thecritter
Posts: 69 Location: Northwest GA |
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I really like the music. The opening theme is definitely not cookie-cutter pop, and the music throughout the episode is almost epic. But then there IS the cookie-cutter pop ending theme . . .
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RenimLS
Posts: 136 Location: North America |
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While it is true that trees like redwoods and sequoias reach the physical limit that our trees can grow, I'm more inclined to suspect these trees are not natural and something artificially developed for whatever purpose they're designed to carry out so them functioning like a normal tree most likely is merely a surface level similarity and the mechanisms they operate (like drawing water) likely occur through a different setup. Well with the large predatory bugs flying around, would probably make using a parachute a one-way ticket to becoming an easy bug snack. Additionally, as the elder villagers all firmly believed that no one could live on the Snow Sea level, that is probably another reason why they don't have parachutes. For all they know descending to that level is death, and those who survived a descent were unlikely ever able to return, so there wouldn't be anyway to inform the canopy dwellers that being down there wasn't indeed an automatic death. Given that, they'd unlikely see a point in a parachute, since all it means is choosing a slower death over a quicker death. We mostly seem to know that the trees need water to function and at least seem to draw up water. As humans both in the canopy and above the Snow Sea both have to depend on tapping the trees for water, we at least know that whatever the Snow Sea is composed of it's not potable water. The "snow" itself is probably not water based either. The bark cutter is totally going to be this series' GBE, isn't it? |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1480 |
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So, humans have survived several tens of thousands of years of post-Nausicaa spoiler[(synthetic-)]evolution. We don't have Ohmu any more, instead we have a frothy, undrinkable broth (that's not snow covering the sea, it is suds). Maybe the Ohmu have metamorphosed into canopy trees --- maybe giant trees was the end-stage of Ohmu development even in Nausicaa?
The Forest of Decay has turned into a Slough of Despond filled with chemical pollution, still being refined and cleaned after all these millennia. The OP looks like it has a God Soldier in the background of one scene, after all. Alternatively: What if those aren't giant insects, but more-or-less normal sized insects, and it is the people who have gotten tiny? |
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MFrontier
Posts: 14182 |
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The world under the Snow Sea looks so beautiful.
Honestly was not expecting to see Ririha straight up stab a guy in the chest. Man, Amelothee is something else. I don't know if anything can defeat her. Poor Ririha. She and Kaina tried so hard but she still got caught up in the classic "imprisoned princess" trope. And her father is too pragmatic to try and save her. Lucky her little bro cares enough to do it himself. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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What's a GBE? Though I've generally liked the story and world so far, the one odd thing is how Kaina himself feels a lot like a video game protagonist. He has a very flat personality with minimal emotion, and almost always gets led around by other people's shenanigans rather than taking action on his own. Even the decision to go save Ririha wasn't his idea, he only suggested going snow-diving to get there instead of stealing a steed, which was sort of predetermined by her making him carry her pressure suit. It almost feels like he's going to turn out to be a clone or robot with fake memories about being an orphan, or something weird like that. But it's most likely just the old zero-characteristics self-insert principle. Which is fine in, y'know, a video game, or a silly fanservice isekai or whatever, but kind of a strange choice for high-concept fantasy.
I'd assume due to some combination of: they didn't think there was anything interesting down there (and certainly not humans), they didn't have a way to get back up (prior to Ririha inventing the float-bug elevator), and they just don't have that technology (or lost it along with the knowledge of what "billboards" are for). Neither the sky-people nor the sea-people seem to know much about their world's history or physics. Why that is remains unclear. |
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Thesarum
Subscriber Posts: 540 |
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So far my experience with this is in line with the review - the world is fascinating and beautiful, but the story is somewhat rote and while the setting provides hints at all sorts of promise the writing doesn't yet take advantage of that. Our leads are a little wooden (though the CG, while pretty decent, doesn't help on that front. It looks fine... but it moves inorganically somehow), and lack the necessary chemistry to sell the "journey into mordor" story line we've got set up.
The setting alone is carrying this for me so far - enough that I'm prepared to stick with it. I don't hold out much hope of Kaina and Ririha getting much less wooden, but maybe the story can find it's groove and capitalise on the worldbuilding. And two out of three ain't bad. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1480 |
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This is pretty typical for a Nihei protagonist, really. I suppose Blame!'s Killy does stuff, but it really seems like he just drifts, and stuff come to him and forces him to deal with it. This show is different. That's its biggest draw for me. It gives us a puzzle of a world. It gives us things to see in it. It holds out just enough promise (either more mysteries, more vistas, or maybe some actual stuff happening). I guess the show gets a lot of mileage out of having human beings at peril, and one feels empathy for them, and hopes that they'll come out okay, but how much longer will they be able to persist? Well, there's the little glowy thing. Obviously something is up with that. The most interesting character by far is the Black Princess played by Maaya Sakamoto, and I think that is 90% her talent as an actress bringing life to the character, more than the writing or directing. |
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Thesarum
Subscriber Posts: 540 |
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More cool fish things! Interesting old ruins! Tapestries Kaina can almost read! Really rather cliche villain...
The world of Kaina of the Great Snow Sea continues to outshine the... everything else... of Kaina of the Great Snow Sea. It's a fascinating place. I wonder how many of our questions about it will really get answered? The physics of the sea is definitely odd, but there probably isn't a solid answer as to how it can support the weight of iron ships but boys in puffer jackets can walk along submerged tree roots with no issue. Does Kaina have super-human eyes, or is Yaona just short sighted and should really go see an optometrist ? If there's a spy in Atland, my money is on the advisor. And not just because she seems to irrationally hate Kaina's guts. "Light" is the great sage, isn't it? Certainly seems to be looking out for Kaina and Ririha for some reason. Though beyond drawing their attention (so Kaina sees Ririha's balloon, or they avoid the giant tree fly), it doesn't seem to be able to act directly. It's not clear what it wanted Kaina to see in the ruins though. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 14182 |
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I gotta say, was not expecting Nobuyuki Hiyama to be playing one of the main bad guys. But he seems cool.
Kaina got out while the getting was good considering they seemed to be genuinely considering using him as a bargaining chip. Ririha's dad is...not winning me over. I mean, beyond basically writing off his daughter to die, basically sending those messengers to get killed? Jeez. Ririha talks a big game, which I can respect in her situation, yet I feel like she's screwing over Kaina by putting it into the Valghians' head how important/special he is...meaning they're now as likely to come after him now, especially after he rescues Ririha. |
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NeedMoreCats
Subscriber Posts: 333 Location: Westchester, NY |
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When I was much younger (i.e., still had really good eyesight), I went on a safari trip to Africa. I was shocked at how much farther all the locals could see compared to us tourists. I’d see a dot in the sky, and they could tell me which variety of hawk the dot was. I think it’s the same thing here. Kaina grew up in the canopy—a relatively flat plane where he was always distance-scouting for prey—while Yaona lives in a city, a setting which tends to weaken one’s farsightedness. So when I watched those scenes, they totally made sense to me 
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Thesarum
Subscriber Posts: 540 |
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That's an interesting perspective. Thanks! |
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